Featured Photograph: Floyd Dominick, presented the Opelousas Board of Aldermen with photos of his food truck. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
A mobile food vendor ordinance will be under consideration when the Opelousas Board of Aldermen convenes in January.
The Board voted to proceed with possible adoption of the ordinance which was introduced at the regular meeting held Dec. 9.
At a November meeting Floyd Dominick, who identified himself as a food vendor operator, was temporarily denied permission by the Board for his request to sell items from his food truck at locations inside the Opelousas Historic District.
No action on the request from Dominick, which was opposed by members of the Commission, was taken by the Board, since the city currently has no ordinance which regulates food vendor sales.
Mayor Jullius Alsandor told the Board at the November meeting that a food vendor ordinance is probably needed in Opelousas. Alsandor said food truck sales have become a growing business in other cities.
Dominick told Alsandor that he was appearing before the Board to appeal the decision by the Commission to deny sales from his food truck, which Dominick indicated is now parked and located on property he has leased inside the Historic District.
His food truck Dominick said, sits on a modified trailer which has been enclosed following extensive reconstruction.
During the Dec. 9 meeting the Board reviewed the three-page proposed ordinance and discussed sections.
Among the requirements in the ordinance that was introduced include provisions that mobile food vendors operating in Opelousas must have general liability insurance of $200,000, proof of registration with the Department of Motor Vehicles, operational permits granted by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and pay $300 before acquiring a city permit.
If food trucks are located inside the Historic District, the vendors must move the trucks daily, the ordinance indicates.
Mobile Food Establishments the ordinance said will be allowed to operate inside the city during a 12-hour period from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. The mobile food units must be closed during all other times, the ordinance indicated.
City Attorney Travis Broussard said that he reviewed mobile food vendor ordinances in six municipalities that include Abbeville, New Iberia, Carencro, Scott, Kinder and Denham Springs before drafting the version of the ordinance that was presented for introduction by the Board.
