City OKs new food truck fees, regulations

Food trucks have been an ongoing topic for the Holton City Commission in recent months — specifically, whether food vendors visiting Holton should be required to pay license fees for selling their wares.

On Monday, commissioners voted to work a licensing fee schedule for food trucks into the city’s regulations for “transient merchants,” with provisions in the license application for making sure food truck operators do not disturb those in the area where they set up with “obnoxious noises, sounds or smells” from generators, as Codes Enforcement Officer Jeff Draper noted.

Food truck operators who visit Holton now have three options for being licensed to sell their culinary creations in town — pay  $10 per day for up to five consecutive days, $100 for a six-month period beginning either in January or July or $200 for a calendar year. Operators are also required to pay a $25 non-refundable fee for a background check that will be used to determine whether they are following Kansas Department of Agriculture regulations for mobile food establishments.

The amendment to Holton’s city codes on licensing fees passed on a 4-1 vote, with commissioner Marilyn Watkins — who had previously voiced opposition to having food trucks coming into Holton and taking business away from established “brick and mortar” restaurants — voting against it.

The matter had been a subject for commission discussion since June, when Interim City Manager Teresa Riley said that food trucks had been visiting Holton and setting up shop on a regular basis. At that time, she asked commissioners to consider regulating them so that city officials will know “that they’re collecting the sales tax and that they’re licensed by the state for food sales.”

At that time, Draper agreed to investigate food truck regulations on the books in other cities in the area and report his findings to commissioners. He and Riley eventually settled on “enforcing what we currently have on the books” for those classified as “transient merchants,” such as door-to-door salesmen, and setting licensing fees for food truck operators.

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