Warsaw City Council tabled amending its itinerant and mobile merchants and peddlers ordinance Monday night.
Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety will review the ordinance at its meeting Friday.
The city will review allowing the building and planning department to issue a permit, as opposed to the clerk-treasurer’s office.
Alisha Clayson appeared before the council Monday night asking the council to reduce the $25 permit fee.
Clayson is looking to open a shaved ice business at the corner of Indiana and Fort Wayne streets.
Clayson is not a Warsaw resident and lives less than a mile from the city limits.
Non-residents are required to pay $25-per-day per-employee fee as an itinerant merchant.
Diane Quance, city councilwoman, asked if the city had liability insurance for itinerant merchants.
Mike Valentine, city attorney, said the city took the liability insurance out.
“If you want to wrestle with insurance issues, have at it. I think it’s a terrible problem to figure out how these people will get licenses for one, two or 25 days and whether they are insurable,” Valentine said.
Quance said she had concerns of who would be liable if someone tripped on a city sidewalk when getting a hotdog or food poisoning.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said there was an issue with the existing itinerant merchants ordinance where outside vendors were coming in selling items such as couches in yards that upset local businesses.
“We are trying to give our business owners flexibility to create their businesses,” Skinner said. “It might be a hot dog cart today or hot dog restaurant tomorrow but we want to protect our existing businesses from outside vendors.”
Skinner said vendors must get a license to sell food and it must be inspected by the health department.
An itinerant merchant is defined as merchants selling goods not out of a permanent building, on a property to which they have no ownership.
A peddler is defined in the ordinance as a merchant selling goods on foot door to door.
Mobile merchants are those selling goods out of a vehicle from multiple locations per day.
It is unlawful for any peddler, itinerant merchant or mobile merchants to sell or deliver any goods, wares and merchandise directly to a costumer within the limits of the city without first obtaining a license.
The provisions of this section do not apply to the sale of food items grown in the county.
The applicant is required to complete an application showing the following to the city clerk before the license will be issued: a valid photo identification card, proof of a valid Indiana retail merchants certificate or a valid county health permit.
The fees for the permits have been set as free for Warsaw residents; $5 per day and $300 per year for Kosciusko County residents; $50 per day and $1,000 per year for Indiana residents; and $100 per day and $3,000 per year for people who live outside of Indiana.
A permit expires one year after the date of issuance unless revoked prior to the expiration.
A veteran who holds an honorable discharge from the armed forces is exempt from the payment of the license fee. Non-profit organizations temporarily operating as an itinerant merchant or peddlers are exempt from the license fee.
City council has the authority to waive the fee and license requirements if they deem it appropriate.
Warsaw reserves the right to revoke any issued license at any time for violations of any city ordinance.
The city also approved transferring funds from the fire department’s operating fund professional services to operating fund other capital outlays at $45,860. The transfer is for the replacement of the antenna tower at Station 1. The tower is rusting from the inside out and needs to be replaced.
The council also approved a resolution for funds not spent in 2011: cemetery, $8,253.37; park at $48,951.96; aviation at $18,944.99; general fund at $282,901.03; fire territory operating fund at $34,174.61; and fire territory equipment fund at $10,550.35.
The council approved a resolution authorizing a 48-month rental lease between the city and RR Donnelley & Sons for the City-County Athletic Complex.
