LOCAL
Wednesday, november 20, 2019
HermIsTonHeraLd.Com • A3
Summer food truck pod serves a success
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edITor
A pilot program testing
Hermiston’s appetite for
food trucks is coming to an
end.
City planner Clint Spen-
cer said there were some
limitations on the opening
season, particularly with
electrical and wastewater
accommodations, but over-
all it seemed like it was a
success.
“From what I heard,
from a business standpoint
all trucks there did great in
terms of sales — better than
they were anticipating,” he
said.
This summer’s “pod” at
the corner of Orchard Ave-
nue and Third Street was a
test performed by the city
after several residents asked
the city council to con-
sider revising their restric-
tive rules on food trucks,
which at the time only allot-
ted three mobile vendor
licenses in the city.
Spencer said he will
debrief the city council
in January, and they can
decide from there if they
want to continue hosting the
food pod on Orchard Ave-
nue, move it somewhere
else, or close it for good.
“We’ll look at, ‘Is this an
appropriate location? Are
there other investments to
be made?’” Spencer said.
For now, however, the
city plans to close the pod at
the end of November.
“Once we start get-
ting into freezing rain and
snow in the parking lot it’s
not really conducive to it,”
Spencer said.
Magui Verdugo, who
opened her bright green
truck Magui’s Antojitos y
Raspados selling shaved ice
in August, said she’ll close
her truck this week, but
plans to return in the spring
if that’s still an option.
“It’s been very good
business here,” she said.
Patrick Hunt of South-
ern Twain BBQ was having
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The food cart pod on the corner of Orchard Avenue and Third Street in Hermiston is made up of Magui’s Antojitos y Raspados,
Granny’s Tamales, Tacos Garcia and Southern Twain BBQ.
a particularly busy day on
Thursday, with a large spe-
cial order called in and sev-
eral customers lined up by
noon.
He was one of the orig-
inal people who appeared
before the city council last
year, explaining to them
that he lived in Hermiston
but had to drive his BBQ
truck to Pendleton every
day because there were
no more mobile vendor
licenses available.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said,
reflecting on his experience
this summer. “I’m glad to be
back home.”
He said there were some
ways the pod could be
improved next year, but that
was to be expected with a
pilot program. There were
fewer trucks than expected
because some interested
vendors said they couldn’t
operate without water and
sewer or better electricity
on site.
Hunt said he was disap-
pointed the city wanted to
stop food trucks from park-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Patrick Hunt scoops coleslaw on a pair of sausages at the Southern Twain BBQ food cart at the
food cart pod on the corner of Orchard Avenue and Third Street in Hermiston on Thursday.
ing in the lot over the win-
ter, even though he under-
stood the liability issue, but
he hoped to see the food
pod come back with either
an improved Orchard Ave-
nue location or to try out
somewhere new.
“I’ve talked to the soc-
cer people, and they think it
would be a great idea for us
to be at the Butte,” he said.
Rawli Rodriguez wasn’t
making food on site this
season, but on Thursday
was selling tamales from
a van labeled “Granny’s
Tamales.” He said previ-
ously people had to call and
order up the tamales.
“The best thing is that
people have a destination
now,” he said.
Tacos Garcia is not tech-
nically part of the food pod
— the truck predates the
pod and is parked on pri-
vate property abutting the
city parking lot. But it pro-
vides another choice for cus-
tomers visiting the pod, and
owner Rigoberto Garcia said
it hasn’t hurt his business
to have some more trucks
parked nearby.
Monica
Todd
was
selected by the city to run the
pilot program. Like Hunt,
she said there would have
been more vendors on-site if
they had been able to offer
sewer hookups, but over-
all she felt it was a success
that warranted the return of
a food truck pod somewhere
in Hermiston next year.
She said she had given
Spencer some other feed-
back as well, including that
the city’s rule the trucks
must move once a week was
unpopular.
“Breaking down every-
thing and moving it once a
week is hard on the trailers,
and it’s a lot of extra work,”
she said.
Still, she said, the food
truck pod provided a valu-
able service to the commu-
nity and she would be inter-
ested in continuing to be
involved in some capacity
next year.
Before deciding to imple-
ment the food truck pod
and increase the available
licenses for trucks, the city
put out a community sur-
vey on the subject. Todd said
everyone who participated in
the survey and voiced sup-
port on social media helped
make the food pod happen.
“People’s voices were
heard,” she said.
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