Hard Sell
My colleague Lanita Withers recently penned this item regarding city and county plans to crack down on unlicensed vendors at this year's N.C. A&T homecoming celebration on Oct. 9.
At Thursday's County Commissioners meeting, it was apparent that the move "to organize an off-campus gathering that has never had official oversight" has attracted some unfavorable attention from some heavy-hitting politicians.
As Lanita wrote, "For years, the celebration of N.C. A&T's homecoming has spilled out of Aggie Stadium and into jammed streets around campus, where folks hawking fish sandwiches, rib platters and homemade pound cake have cashed in."
This year, the county plans to require food vendors to have health permits and all vendors to have privilege licenses from the city. City officials also plan to put many of the over-flow vendors into the War Memorial Stadium parking lot on Yanceyville Street, about a five minute walk from the main festivities.
The changes, which had already caused a stir among vendors, now are stirring some county politicians to action.
State Rep. Earl Jones, a former Greensboro City Council member, showed up at Thursday's meeting to voice his frustration with the newly implemented rules. He said the permit requirements were rolled out too quickly for many vendors to respond.
"There should be adequate notice of nine months or a year," Jones told the commissioners. He asked them to roll-back the health permit requirement and said he would ask the city to do the same for privilege licenses.
"If something's not broke, you shouldn't fix it," Jones said, pointing out that the homecoming event had run fine for years without the rules.
Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston said that he agreed with Jones.
"It's one of those things that don't need to happen," Alston said.
Commissioner Trudy Wade said that a similar crack down had occurred for a festival in Jamestown and that she would be interested in learning more about why the county Health Department was imposing the regulations now when it had not in the past.
Commissioner Carolyn Coleman went further, saying that the commissioners should instruct the Health Department to roll back the health permit requirement for this year's celebration. Other commissioners balked at that idea but Commissioner Bruce Davis, who sits on the health board, promised to look into the matter during that board's meeting next week.
Although the issue wasn't resolved Thursday night, it looks like we may have more to report on this in coming weeks.
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