Ban on Ice Cream Trucks Melts; Avalon Tables Proposal

AVALON – In August, Avalon Borough Council heard a presentation from officials concerning the potential termination of licenses for ice cream truck vendors in favor of a more direct sale of the iced treats directly on the beaches.
As the discussions continued and the changes to borough ordinances took shape, there was little opposition expressed at council meetings.
Officials cited problems with safety issues, lack of compliance with regulations and quality-of-life complaints from residents unhappy with the noise emanating from the trucks as reasons for a change to “quiet” selling on beaches where vendors would use push carts but would not be permitted to hawk their products.
Officials had met with the local property owners’ association and gained support for the move.
Since the borough does not allow food trucks on its streets except for those licensed to sell ice cream, the change seemed minor, well supported and able to be implemented by the start of the 2018 season.
Then suddenly things changed. Almost overnight opposition emerged and was captured by the TV and print media. The borough’s move was labeled “un-American” by one resident who spoke against it.
The action appeared, in that person’s mind, to be an unreasonable and heavy-handed exercise of power by a community banning the ice cream trucks America had grown up with.
One of the only vendors with a current license for an ice cream truck in the borough pleaded, in halting English, for his right to earn a living.
Borough officials had suddenly become the bad guys destroying livelihoods and depriving children of traditional joys to protect some disgruntled residents from the bells of an ice cream truck as it meandered through streets.
Suddenly, TV cameras and daily newspaper reporters who never cover the happenings of Avalon’s Borough Council were there in force to memorialize the vote on the ordinance.
Council member Charles Covington reminded the media that the borough was merely looking for a better way to offer the same service to beachgoers who would no longer have to let their kids run out to the street adjacent to the beach for ice cream.
“I don’t think people understand what we are trying to do,” he said.
Business Administrator Scott Wahl blamed “erroneous and irresponsible reporting of the story.”
Wahl detailed all the steps taken by the borough, documenting what he felt was an open process that carefully considered a possible response to existing safety concerns and nuisance complaints.
In the end, Council member Nancy Hudanich recommended tabling the ordinance in favor of “a deeper look” at the issues.
She addressed vendors present at the meeting when she said that the borough had attempted to work with them on non-compliance concerns.
Council President John McCorristin quickly supported Hudanich’s motion to table the ordinance saying that he had been lectured about the ice cream trucks by a grandchild before coming to the meeting.
In the end, it was unclear if the trucks will be plying their trade on local streets in 2018.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.