BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Editor
LAKE BUTLER — At its June 21 meeting, the Lake Butler City Commission took care of some annual routine business and discussed the possibility of regulating food truck as a means to protect local brick-and-mortar businesses.
County Attorney John Maines swore in one new commissioner and two longtime commissioners for their new terms. New Commissioner Melissa Hendrix and returning Commissioners Annette Redman and Fred Sirmones faced no competitors for their seats so an election was unnecessary.
During board reorganization, Mayor Jack Schenck retained the position, with no other nominations for the position. The board appointed Redman as vice mayor.
Once the reorganizational requirements had been met, the commission discussed a topic introduced by Schenck concerning the recent surge in the number of food trucks operating in the city.
Schenck said he had been contacted by several brick-and-mortar food service establishments in the city who were concerned about the trucks and who mentioned that the truck were having a negative effect on their business. Schenck said the trucks were an asset to the city only in that they offered residents a little more variety in the meal choices, but that there were issues concerning their operation as well.
Schenck told the board that besides having an effect on the restaurants in town here were other factors that have convinced him that some form of regulation needs to be enacted.
He said that the trucks collect sales tax on their sales to consumers, but that the portion of the taxes that went to the counties was given to the county in which the food truck was licensed – in many cases not Union. He also noted that the trucks paid no property taxes for the land on which they were parked. He did note that the proprietors of the trucks were required to purchase an occupational fee of $40 to be allowed to do business in the city. He asked the commissioners and Maines whether there was any way to collect funds from the mobile businesses and, if so, whether or not the funds could be used to help pay for improvement of the appearance of the brick-and-mortar businesses and thereby the city. He said he had tried to speak with someone at the state Department of Revenue for ideas on the topic but had not received an answer as yet.
Maines said an ordinance could help to curtail some of the issues by regulating hours of operation and restricting the locations in which the trucks could park but questioned as to whether and ordinance was necessary as it would address many non-issues. He noted that such an ordinance might curtail come of the food truck activity and thereby have the effect of redirecting business to the brick-and-mortar establishments. He said that the possession of a city occupational license was checked by the code enforcement officer routinely so that was a non-issue.
Redman said she believed that at least some of the trucks were owned and operated by Union County residents and asked about how any ordinance would effect non-profits using foot trucks to raise funds.
Nothing was decided on the issue, although commissioners agreed to revisit the issue when Schenck and Maines had looked into the possibility of an ordinance and exactly how it would work and control the issues.
The city anager gave a brief report, telling commissioners that more grant money, approx. $1 million, was coming in to city coffers for various needs and projects and that the city had received a donation of $5,000 from a local man to assist in the renewal and upgrade in appearance of the city’s downtown area.
