Food truck ordinance will make ice cream trucks legal again in Bardstown

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, 9:30 p.m. — The Bardstown City Council held a special meeting Monday night to hold first reading on an ordinance governing food trucks — and make legal the operation of ice cream trucks in the city limits.

LARRY GREEN

The council will give final approval to the measure at its regular Tuesday night meeting, and none too soon — according to the City of Bardstown’s Facebook page, the White Castle Cravemobile will return to town this Thursday and Friday.

The ordinance spells out the conditions under which food trucks can operate within the city limits. Food truck operators must obtain a city business license and a special mobile food vendor permit from city hall. Food truck operators are also expected to pay the city’s occupational tax on wages paid while in the city limits.

Assistant City Administrator Larry Green noted the ordinance will allow ice cream trucks to operate lawfully within the city limits. The ordinance allows food truck operators who have a state permit for mobile retail sales — which includes ice cream and other products that are prepackaged and not prepared on-site — to sell their products in Bardstown. The ordinance restricts these types of sales to city streets which have both sides zoned residential.

All food vendors — including ice cream trucks — are prohibited from using “unreasonably loud” noise or music in the operation of their mobile food business.

The council will give final approval at the next meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, in the city council chambers on Xavier’s Drive.

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