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Bad News for Small Business
Ice Cream Man Gets Run Off Tybee
Running out into the street to buy ice cream off the
ice cream truck may be a cherished childhood memory for many. But it
isn't likely to be a recent memory on Tybee Island. Gregory Tarana was
asked to cease and desist from selling ice cream out of his truck by
Tybee Police recently. The city of Tybee Island has an ordinance prohibiting
street vendors except those who get a special short-term license to
sell during special events, like Saint Patrick's Day.
Tarana did some research into Tybee's ordinances and found that they
did, indeed, prohibit him from operating an ice cream truck on the island.
Tarana came to a recent Tybee Island city council meeting to apologize
to council for unwittingly being in violation of the law. Tarana also
asked if he might be permitted to purchase a permit to operate his truck.
It would be profitable for him to sell ice cream on Tybee, he indicated.
Tybee councilman Jack Youmans was in favor of losing the ordinance.
Youmans said that he remembers when a hot dog vendor was run off Tybee.
That same day, he went to five restaurants and couldn't find a hot dog
anywhere on Tybee.
"Something needs to be done about this vending thing," declared
Youmans.
"We have an ordinance against it," said Mayor Walter Parker.
Councilman Whitley Reynolds spoke against rushing into change. "If
we change it, we ought to think about it," said Reynolds who also
called for input from current business owners on Tybee who "tough
it out twelve months of the year."
Editor's note: The Tybee News is not one of the Tybee businesses that
enjoys the protection of Tybee's city council from legitimate competition.
Doctor's attempt to raise money for charity through
surf board rentals falls on deaf ears
Dr. Darrel Owens has gone several rounds with Tybee's
city council, trying to get a permit to sell surf boards on Tybee's
beach.
Council has repeatedly said that allowing surf boards where people swim
presents a safety hazard.
Owens has repeatedly noted that swimmers and surfers already mix, to
the danger of swimmers, in the island's only legal surf zone off 17th
Street.
On what he believed was the encouragement of council, Owens asked Tybee's
elected officials to consider establishing a second surf zone off 12th
Street. By distributing the surfers over two surf zones council would
actually be "decreasing the probability of someone getting injured,"
Owens said.
Councilman Jason Buelterman, a surfer himself, agreed with Owens about
that. Right now, Tybee has "all the swimmers and all the surfers
in the same place," Buelterman said. He added that, in the ongoing
discussion on Owens' request, he had hesitated to mention this earlier
because "Seventeenth Street has the best waves."
Furthermore, Owens said, his boards are designed for the novice or beginning
surfer. They are made of foam with snub noses and much less likely to
hurt a swimmer than a regular surf board, given the event of a collision.
Police Chief Jimmy Price declined to express an opinion as to the safety
of a second surf zone or surf board rentals, an elected official said.
If council didn't want a second surf zone, Owens asked for a permit
to sell surf boards on 12th Street and let people walk them down to
17th. But council was unwilling to entertain that proposal.
Even Owens' last-minute declaration that he planned to give some of
his profits from the enterprise to charity fell on deaf ears. Council
denied Owens' request for a new surf zone and his request for a permit
to sell surf boards with Buelterman dissenting and Councilman Jimmy
Burke, who holds a permit for beach rentals, abstaining.
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