Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 1, 2017
VENDORS: Ordinance establishes the Riverfront
Plaza on Southwest Court Avenue as a ‘food plaza’
Continued from 1A
faced property, provided
they don’t block pedestrian
or vehicle traffic or cause
a parking lot to dip below
the minimum threshold of
parking spots.
Vendors also won’t be
able to park “within 100 feet
of an existing business whose
primary purpose is sale of
similar prepared food items.”
Kerns clarified that this rule
only applies to brick-and-
mortar businesses and not
other food vendors.
For instance, a taco truck
could park next to another
taco truck but neither could
park next to a Mexican restau-
rant. Kerns said the rule was
included to protect the busi-
nesses and building owners
who pay property taxes.
If a vendor doesn’t want to
find a private parking lot for
their cuisine, the ordinance
establishes the Riverfront
Plaza on Southwest Court
Avenue as a “food plaza”
where multiple vendors can
locate. The city manager has
the authority to impose addi-
tional rules, like compiling a
list or map with specific loca-
tions food vendors can park or
a lottery for vendor locations.
The ordinance would
apply to the handful of mobile
vendors Pendleton has today,
two of them located on the
300 block of Southwest
Emigrant Avenue.
On
Thursday,
the
two-person staff at Rico’s
Tacos warmed tortillas and
chopped meat in their tiny red
trailer on a gravel lot next to
40 Taps. A single customer
sat at one of the nearby picnic
tables, occasionally returning
to the order window to rein-
force her salsa supply.
Business has been good
enough at Rico’s to keep it
open for three years. After
opening in fits and starts over
the winter, Giovanni’s, a food
truck in the lot next to Rico’s,
has done well enough to stay
open for three weeks.
Management at both
businesses said the proposed
rules shouldn’t affect them
too much, although there was
some dismay about having
to pay the city for business
license fees.
Angela Walter is managing
Giovanni’s while her sister,
owner Krista Dorman, is
pregnant. Walter said Giovan-
ni’s already paid $500 for a
state license and wasn’t eager
to pay more money to the city.
“It just sucks that we have
to pay more,” she said.
Rico’s manager Rudy
Flores felt the same, adding
that it was just a way for the
city to charge them again for
similar requirements.
Pendleton charges $100
per year in license fees to
businesses the size of Rico’s
and Giovanni’s, although it
tacks on an additional $20
for each full-time position if a
business hires more than five
full-time employees.
Neither business felt
threatened by the other regu-
lations, since both vendors do
not affect off-street parking
and they were not directly
competing with the nearby bar
and pawn shop.
Flores anticipated that
those rules might be difficult
to follow for some vendors,
but he understood the city’s
incentive to protect brick-and-
mortar establishments.
“You have to be fair to
both,” he said.
Kerns said staff helped
craft Pendleton’s mobile
food vendors ordinance after
researching rules on the books
in similar-sized cities. One of
those cities was Hermiston,
which could look at changing
their own rules four years after
creating them.
Hermiston
passed
a
controversial mobile food
vending ordinance in 2013
after months of discussion.
At the time the ordinance
was passed, there were nine
mobile food vendors in town
(one of them, Gabriella Rodri-
guez of Tacos Xavi, owned
two different trucks). But
Assistant City Manager Mark
Morgan said that around the
time the city was getting one or
two calls a month from people
wondering what the rules
would be for them to start up a
mobile food vending business.
“It was insane there for a
while,” he said.
Being a “mobile” food
vendor meant that food trucks
were able to dodge a number
of regulations about setbacks,
parking and safety that brick
and mortar restaurants were
being held to. Morgan said
proponents of the ordinance
felt this was a loophole that
was being unfairly exploited
by “mobile” vendors who
had stayed in the same place
for months on end and in
some cases didn’t even have
a working vehicle. Staying
in one place also encouraged
some vendors to start putting
up plastic tarps and other
features that drew aesthetic
complaints.
Critics of the ordinance,
however, testified in front
of the mobile food vending
committee and city council
that it was unfair to require a
$500 annual license when no
other business in town was
required to have any sort of
city business license at all.
They also thought the nine-
page ordinance had too many
rules that no other businesses
in town were held to.
The ordinance capped the
number of licenses available
for mobile food vendors at
the number that had applied
by April 2014. But instead
of maxing out, most vendors
instead decided to close down
their business or move into
a permanent building and
Hermiston ended up issuing
just three licenses.
The ordinance have gave
city council the power to
approve increasing the cap on
food trucks, however, and at
their July 12 meeting Herm-
iston resident Cindy Traner
brought up the subject. Traner,
who owns C&R Mercantile,
has plans to feature an open-air
market as part of her business,
and said she had people who
would be interested in partici-
pating with mobile food trucks
if they could get permission
from the city.
The ordinance makes an
exception for special events,
but City Manager Byron Smith
said Traner’s plan to open
the market Tuesday through
Saturday eight months out of
the year would not count as an
“event” and therefore the city
council would have to vote to
increase the number of mobile
food vendor licenses allowed.
Mayor David Drotzmann
asked Traner to submit a
detailed request to the city
in writing so that they could
consider whether to look at
granting more licenses.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Benjamin Drake, 6, of Pendleton eats a blueberry while walking between rows at
K&K Blueberries on Friday in Hermiston.
BLUEBERRIES: Bushes originally
planted by the HHS football team
Continued from 1A
the plants are dormant, and
putting up flash tape to
scare away birds that eat the
berries. They also prepare
by making sure they have
the adequate supplies and
maintaining the grounds.
“We really enjoy the
family atmosphere,” said
Dopps. “It does my heart
good when families come
out and take pictures in
the field — it’s a tradition
around July 4. A lot of our
goal is to create a place
that’s welcoming.”
Dopps enjoys putting
up little statues of animals
around the farm for chil-
dren to find, and planting
flowers to brighten the
place.
Though the Dopps
family runs the farm, they
hire a few local students to
help out each summer.
“The bushes were
originally planted by the
football team,” she said.
“We have strong ties to
Hermiston High School
and the sports program.
When we can, we hire FFA
kids who need summertime
employment.”
Umatilla County has one
other self-serve blueberry
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Owner Kathy Dopps weighs a bucket of blueberries
for Bryan Wilson of Hermiston after Wilson and his
family picked the berries at K&K Blueberries outside
of Hermiston.
farm, Lampson Blueber-
ries in Milton-Freewater.
But the relatively small
number of those farms
in Eastern Oregon draw
people from outside the
county, too.
Jamie
Kile,
from
Pendleton, was at the farm
with some of her family
members who made the
drive from Baker City.
“We dream of doing
this in Baker,” said one of
the women. “There’s no
U-Pick there.”
Kile, who is the pastry
chef at Pendleton’s Prod-
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igal Son Brewery and Pub,
said she plans to use the
fresh fruit in desserts at the
restaurant, and some will
probably make their way
into sauces and drinks, too.
“I think all said and
done, we pick close to 100
pounds — for home and
the restaurant,” she said.
K&K blueberries is
located at 29555 Minne-
haha Road, Hermiston.
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com.
MAROON 5
CONCERT TICKET
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CALL NOW TO ENTER: 800-522-0255 ext. 1 or stop by
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next to Pendleton Convention Center
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Pendleton, OR 97801
541-276-5053
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Deadline for entry: Monday, July 10 at 12 noon.
Winners will be drawn July 10 at 1 p.m. and contacted that day.
Winners will be announced on July 11 in the
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No purchase required. One entry per person.
Sweepstakes open to residents of Oregon and
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