Fruit, Ice Cream Truck Resolutions Tabled Again

WILDWOOD CREST – Borough Commissioners, for the second time, tabled a resolution Feb. 10 that would’ve approved peddling licenses for fruit trucks, the colorful, old-model pickup trucks that have beds fashioned as a farm stand and have been a staple of the Wildwoods’ summers for decades. 
Deputy Mayor Joyce Gould raised questions about the mechanical safety of the trucks and voted against an annual resolution to approve licenses that allow them to operate. Dave Mayer, of Island Produce, the company that operates the trucks, called those concerns “unfounded.”
The resolution returned to the agenda for a vote Feb. 10, separated from ice cream trucks, which were previously covered in the same resolution, but the clerk announced both would be tabled, again. 
Contacted by the Herald after the meeting, Gould, again, cast shade on the vehicles’ safety. 
“I got a call from somebody that drove for him (Mayer), and he told me all kinds of things,” she said, but did not offer the former driver’s name or disclose the nature of the information. 
“I don’t know where she’s getting information about the safety of the trucks, and I don’t know who the former driver could be,” Mayer said, adding he’s known Gould for 40 years and if she has questions, she can reach out to him directly. 
Mayor Don Cabrera said it was a procedural change that caused the ordinance to be tabled this time. In the past, commissioners voted on the resolution to approve the licenses, which were held in the clerk’s office until documentation from the operator, proving the insurance, inspection, and registration status of the vehicles, was submitted. Now, they will require that information before voting on the resolution. 
“I don’t see any problem,” Mayer said, adding he spoke to Cabrera and is confident when he submits proper documentation the licenses will be approved. “Small businesses are hurting right now, and this would make things significantly worse.”