‘A balancing act’

As Creston City Council prepares to hold a public hearing April 4 on the proposed updates to the peddlers ordinance, a local business wonders if they’re focused on the wrong piece.

The updates would lower the weekly license cost to $20, monthly to $60 and six months to $200. While most of last week’s discussion revolved around whether or not food trucks should be able to get a six-month or one-year license, Little Green Trailer co-owner Waylon Clayton said he’s rarely even done consecutive days in another community.

“I did it a couple times in Greenfield when I was first starting to get a customer base,” he said. “But no successful food truck would just park in one place for that long.”

A big concern for councilman Steve Wintermute was the impact the trucks would have to local businesses. “If they’re local, then they can purchase a building and pay taxes,” Wintermute said. “You have several restaurants uptown here. Ask them how many taxes they pay. It’s just not fair.”

Last year’s inaugural Fiesta on Maple featured multiple authentic food vendors including Tacos Oaxaquenos, a food truck from Clive.

In order to make the event more attractive to the food vendors, event-planner Ashley Downing said they waived the vendor fee. “It cut some of their overhead cost,” she explained. “A couple of them have asked when we’re going to send out our vendor registration form. It must have been pretty successful for them if they want to come back.”

Clayton said it’s common for event planners to offer to pay their vendor or licensing fees in order to get his truck at their event or in their community.

“I don’t really care about the fee,” Clayton said. “It’s about whether the event is profitable. Did they overload it with food trucks stacked on top of each other serving the same food?”

While Fiesta on Maple featured all foods Hispanic or Mexican in origin, Downing said they tried to space the vendors out based on where their clientele could most likely be found at the event. “There was still a good variety,” she said. “Maybe they all had tacos, but it was different kinds of tacos. If one was busy, they would go to another and still go back to the other to try a different type.”

In order to minimize competition with local businesses, Downing said many of the food items were those not found in Creston’s brick and mortar restaurants. While pupusas, a thick cornmeal griddle cake, was a fan favorite, patrons also had the option to try a burger topped with crickets. The popularity of the different food options inspired Una Mas in Creston to begin offering tamales.

Event planners used the VIP packages as a way to promote local businesses with discounts.

UCDA Executive Director Mindy Stalker said the last thing they want is to host an event and have a local restaurant be open and have no customers.

“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “But I’m a firm believer that the more people that can see our community, the more we can create a positive opinion of our community.”

After Merry Marketplace was held in December, event organizers sent a survey to vendors, businesses and community members for feedback.

“The feedback we often get is there’s not enough food available,” Stalker said. “That’s a need that we continue to try to meet is finding that balance. Particularly the events we plan in uptown Creston, we do have several restaurants we love. We want them to get business as well, but it’s always nice to have variety.”

She recognizes some food trucks want to stay mobile, but others have different aspirations.

“Whether its food truck or vendor, we hope they will come to our community and consider a second or permanent location,” Stalker said.

Little Green Trailer demonstrates how a food truck business can convert to a brick and mortar after years of community support. “It’s been seven years by trial and error,” Clayton said.

Clayton said he sees no issue with the city council lowering the licensing cost, but he doesn’t think it will do much to attract more food trucks. “It’s about the events, not the ordinance,” he said.