Regulating the Melrose Avenue vendors who hawk their wares on Hawkeye game days won't be cheap, the Iowa City Council heard last night: Employees likely would need to be posted in the area to enforce the regulations, and their overtime pay for working Saturdays could rack up a sizable bill for the city.
"As with everything when you have new rules, there's a training process where people are learning what they can and can't do," said Doug Boothroy, the city's director of housing and inspection services, "and as time goes on and people get a level of comfort, it becomes more self-enforcing."
Boothroy is pushing the council to ban the couple of dozen commercial vendors who sell food and apparel on Melrose, immediately south of Kinnick Stadium, during Iowa home football games. He said the outlets bother area residents and can be dangerous; last year, for example, a tent stake hit an underground gas line.
But at last night's work session, council members said they don't want to ban the vendors outright. Instead, they want to draft a permit system so the city can impose regulations.
Similar temporary commercial permits cost $75. Boothroy said he isn't sure how much Kinnick neighborhood permits would cost, but he hoped the council would approve a fee that would cover enforcement costs.
However, at least one council member was wary of making the permits too expensive.
"We're talking about vendors who maybe are making big bucks, but a lot of them are probably not making huge money, so what kind of permit price is that going to be?" Susan Mims asked.
The proposal to ban or quell the street sales has caused a stir in the community. Some residents on and around Melrose Avenue say the vendors contribute to the ravaging of their neighborhood by tailgaters. Entrepreneurs and football fans, though, say the food stops are integral to the gameday atmosphere.
"We are a Big Ten university town, and athletics - whether you like them or not - are very important to this community financially," Mims said. "Just as we want the university to be a good neighbor to us, we need to be a good neighbor to the university."
She and fellow council member Connie Champion were outspoken against being too harsh on the vendors.
"This is a neighborhood that's been across from Kinnick Stadium for 80 years," Champion said. "Nobody's lived there for 80 years, I don't think. So they knew when they bought their property that it was across the street from the stadium."
Other officials, though, want to take a harsher stand against the vendors, pointing out that running a business in a residential zone is illegal.
"This has been ratcheting up over the last few years. I think we've seen plenty of evidence of that," council member Mike Wright said. "I don't favor an outright ban, but I think we do need to step in and do something to tighten some controls on the vendors."