Village Board: But not on Main Street
If you’re leaving one of downtown Farmingdale’s many nightspots late one evening and find yourself fancying a fast bite on the way to your car, you’ll now be able to do so; it just won’t be on Main Street, however.
Recently, the Farmingdale Village Board presented a proposal to allow expanded hours for mobile food vending trucks to operate within the village. Previously, local law dictated that street vendors cease activity at dusk. The proposed law would have allowed food vendors to park their vehicles on Main Street past dusk and into the evening and early morning hours. The board unanimously voted on May 2 to allow expanded hours for mobile food vending trucks to operate within the village.
However, due to several concerns expressed by local residents, Mayor Ralph Ekstrand noted that he and the trustees had amended the initial proposal in several significant ways.
“We are allowing the food trucks, but not on Main Street…many of the board members, including myself, just didn’t feel comfortable allowing them on Main Street. We thought it was an accident waiting to happen,” he said. “Having a food truck at night where people can eat and relax isn’t only for fun…we also have to think of public safety. We will allow the trucks right off of Main Street, just not on Main Street itself.”
An example of specific safety hazards posed by allowing food vendor trucks to park on Main Street was posed by new Trustee Walter Priestley; Hush American Bistro—a well-known Main Street eatery—possesses a food truck that is roughly the size of a UPS delivery truck, and due to its size would actually sit well past the white line when parked on Main Street.
“We felt that there is a chance that someone is going to walk out from behind or in front of the truck and get hit by a car,” Priestley said. “Or, if the truck is sticking out three feet into the street…Main Street is narrow, what happens if a motorist swerves to go around the food truck and goes over the yellow line and into the oncoming lane? They could hit another car.”
Instead, Ekstrand noted, individual vendors will be handled on a case-by-case basis, with each one assigned an area to park that will enable them to conduct business while not presenting a burden on the surrounding neighborhood.
“For example, Hush American Bistro will operate their truck in the back of their restaurant,” he said. “Caracara Mexican Grill, another Main Street restaurant, is also considering doing a food truck, and if they do, we would put them in Lot 2, since that’s where the back of their store is. We’d put it someplace where they would still have traffic, but not interfere with the residents who live behind Lot 2.”
Food vending trucks will be allowed to operate from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The majority of attendees at the meeting appeared to approve of the alterations made to the food truck law. The main complaint by many previously was their proposed presence on Main Street, and with this aspect removed, public opinion had shifted in a more positive direction.
In other news at the meeting, the board passed a resolution to approve funds for maintenance of the village’s water supply system. This was simply a matter of standard business, Ekstrand said, in order to keep things running in tip-top shape.
“We’ll be upgrading the system,” he said. “We have somewhere in the vicinity of 32 miles of water piping in the village, plus three well pumps and so on, and all of that needs to be maintained.”
The next meeting of the village board is scheduled for Monday, June 6, at 8 p.m. The public is also invited to the work sessions held the other Mondays at 7 p.m. Village business is discussed but no resolutions are voted on at the work sessions.
