Warsaw City Council approved an itinerant merchants and peddlers ordinance Monday night.
An itinerant merchant is someone who sells goods not out of a permanent building, but on a property to which they have no ownership.
A peddler is a merchant selling goods on foot or door to door.
A mobile merchant sells goods out of a vehicle from multiple locations per day.
The ordinance vote was six to one with council members Jeff Grose, Charlie Smith, Diane Quance, Jerry Frush, Mike Klondaris and Cindy Dobbins voting in favor of the ordinance.
Council President Elaine Call voted against the ordinance because she did not feel the itinerant merchant fees were appropriate.
The itinerant merchant fee is $5 per day per person for Warsaw residents or $100 per year.
There previously was not a fee for Warsaw residents in the ordinance.
The fee for Kosciusko County residents is $5 per day or $300 for a one-year fee.
The fee is $50 for a resident of Indiana per day and $1,000 for a one year fee and $100 per day, per person for residents outside Indiana and $3,000 for a one-year fee.
The building and planning office will issue to the applicant a license authorizing the applicant to do business.
“I think residents should have to pay something, not paying anything to me is not acceptable,” said Klondaris.
Frush said he had concerns with a barbecue stand on Center Street that does not have a permit that operates on the weekends.
Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw city planner, said the city will issue a permit so when police stop by the stand the vendor will be required to show their permit.
Skinner said there is a problem with enforcing it when there are one-day merchants coming into the city without a permit on weekends.
Skinner said the ordinance could be given to the police and they can educate their officers to make sure the vendors have permits.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said the city is trying to come up with language to enforce the itinerant merchant ordinance.
The council also approved reductions of $72,000 to the redevelopment allocation budget, and a $72,000 reduction to the redevelopment general fund.
The money within the allocation fund was originally budgeted for any land purchases that would be necessary in 2012 for the Indiana American Water property which has been pushed back until 2013.
While the money in the general fund was budgeted for demolition of the Gatke building, it would need substantial more money than was available within the 2012 budget, Jeremy Skinner, city planner said.
The council also approved a Disabilities Act Transition Plan Monday night.
The resolution is required by the ADA that municipalities develop and adopt a transition plan that documents physical barriers to accessibility, proposed structural modifications to remove those barriers and a schedule to complete those modifications.
Also during the meeting, the council approved non-profit budgets including City-County Athletic Complex at $25,000; Housing Opportunities of Warsaw at $25,000; Kosciusko Area Bus Services at $18,500 and Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County at $17,500.
