Food truck operators ask for board reconsideration of huge fee hikes

by Dan McClelland

The food truck vendors who use the Tupper Lake Municipal Park each summer urged village leaders last week to re-consider what they see as a huge increase in their permit fees, citing sound logic for their request. The board hasn’t moved from its large rate hike decision, however.

For years the village charged $25 per year to itinerant vendors who sold their wares on public streets and public places like the municipal park.

Several years ago the rate was hiked to $100 for the season. Earlier this year the rate was hiked to $75 per month and then a month or so ago the board hiked its vendors’ fee again to $75 per week or $300 per month, $375 in five-week months.

Appearing Wednesday before the board were Mike Vaillancourt, who operates his Porkbusters food truck which sells pulled park and barbecued food along the firemen’s strip a number of days each week and Ed Whitman and Brian Stearns, co-owners of Dos Loco Gringos, an authentic Mexican Food food truck that the partners operate only three days there, and excluding weekends. Mr. Vaillancourt also introduced a second but smaller mobile unit there this summer, which features shaved ice desserts and hot dogs and hamburgs.

Addressing the board in the public comment period of Wednesday’s monthly meeting, Mr. Vaillancourt, reading from a single-page note, said that when he first brought his mobile food unit to the park in 2021, the rate was $100 for the season. “The fee was more than reasonable, if anything too cheap.” It was his understanding from village leaders at the time the money was to be used to offset the cost of electricity used by any vendors there, he told the elected officials.

He said the mobile food concession he and Mr. Whitman and Mr. Stearns use operate for the most part with culinary equipment fueled by gas. Any electricity used is for lights and exhaust fans, and to power refrigerators, he told the five board members.

The part-time police officer said he was told by several board members in the past that the municipal park, in their opinion, is under-used and the food vendors that have frequented the place some summer days in recent years “have helped draw visitors to it,” and encouraged travelers to stop here as they drive through town.

“It was a service board members in the past have wanted, and so we were only too happy to provide that service,” he told the current board.

Mr. Vaillancourt said when he brought his unit to the park in April to begin the new season, he was informed the permit fee would be $75 per month, not $100 for the year. “That’s a 904% increase in two years. I didn’t have an issue with that as it still seemed fair to me. So I offered to pay the entire summer’s fee upfront.”

“Several weeks later I read in the Free Press that the rate had been increased to $300 per month. I thought it was a misprint so I called Code Officer Pete Edwards, who told me ‘the board had decided to up it again!’”

“So now the rate has been raised 3,614% in just a year.”

He said he and the Dos Loco Gringo partners have invested together “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in their operations to give Tupper Lake a few more food choices it didn’t have before. He said no restaurants here offer Mexican-style cuisine or the pulled pork and barbecue products served from the two food trucks now there.

“We don’t compete against with any one else here in what we sell. If you want a slice of pizza or sub, you are not coming to us!

“Our presence in the park just gives the average worker or contractor a few more food options for several months each year.

Mr. Vaillancourt said food trucks “are popping up all across the nation in food alleys and food truck campuses.”

“The restaurants across are nation are not hurting due to lack of customers, they are hurting for lack of employees”- a situation which often requires they close entirely or curtail hours dramatically.

He said food trucks typically require a staff of one or two people, whereas restaurants most times require many more people than that to operate.

“This is why many of our restaurants in Tupper Lake now have limited hours or are shutting down. It’s because of no staff. Just last week McDonald’s here announced they couldn’t open until after lunch due to staffing issues. I’ve never heard of that before. Also last week, Guido’s had to close the entire day, due to staffing shortages.”

He said several local restaurants are for sale “because the owners are tired of working every single day,” due to a chronic shortage of staff.

“I’m worried if things don’t change in the local work force, there will be very few options” for dining out here very soon.

“Look at how many people come here to visit Raquette River Brewery. These people eat and drink here, stay in our motels, buy gas, etc. Food trucks have the same appeal. They attract people to try different vendors and different food types. They get to enjoy our beautiful park during their stops here,” and maybe consider relocating here as a seasonal or permanent resident, “or bringing their boat with them the next trip to enjoy our lakes.”

Mr. Vaillancourt concluded his presentation by asking the board to lower the rate to $100 for the month, “which will more than cover the cost of any electricity they use. He said that in any new policy and fee structure enacted by the board, included could be perhaps a five percent cap per year on future increases so the food vendors could budget accordingly.

“That way, next year we could figure on paying $105 per month” to operate in the park.

He argued that the sudden increases this year caught them off guard and they are unable to adjust their product prices as their menus were already printed for the summer season.

He said the 3,614% price increase is very difficult for their respective operations to swallow and still turn a profit. “Dealing with 5% and ten percent increases is one thing. Increases of more than 3,000% is something completely different...a huge challenge for us!”

The vendor said these unexpected permit fee increases come at the same time food prices are skyrocketing with the inflation raging across this country.

Ed Whitman said their Mexican food truck only operates three days a week- Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He said that figures out to only 12 days a month most months. “So why am I being asked to pay fees for 30 or 31 days of operation? That doesn’t seem quite right! For over half the month, we’re not even set up there!”

He said it is by choice that they operate only those three days a week, but they shouldn’t be penalized for that.

He proposed their fee be pro-rated, based on the days they operate each month. “We don’t mind paying for the days we’re there!”

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want it for free. We just don’t want to pay when we are not there!”

Mr. Vaillancourt said he appreciates the board’s position at trying to set one rate for all users, acknowledging it’s difficult to do fairly.

“I don’t think we are taking away from any restaurants here,” Mr. Whitman asserted. “If people want Mexican food they are going to come to us. If they want barbecued food they go to Mike.” He said there are no Mexican or Barbecue restaurants in town. What we serve adds to the variety of food available to residents and visitors.”

His partner, Brian Stearns, said he believes food trucks add to the overall appeal of a community to visitors and increase the quality of community life for local residents.

Mr. Vaillancourt said people have asked him why he doesn’t open a “brick and mortar” restaurant. He said the last two places that opened here with those special foods lasted less than two years.

Tupper Lake’s current tourist season, without the winter economy we enjoyed when Big Tupper Ski Center was open, is now very limited, making it difficult for restaurants to survive, he reminded the board.

He said he and Mr. Whitman and Mr. Stearns have always limited their evening hours or not operated after 4p.m., as another way not to compete with local restaurants.

“We’re trying to keep our costs down. I haven’t raised my prices in three years. I just hope you guys will consider” returning to the rate you set earlier this year.

He said his operation is dramatically limited this year by people available to work for him.

“This year I had to close nine out of 22 possible days last month, because people didn’t show up for work!”

“Staffing is a huge issue for all of us!” Increasing the permit fees by more than 3000% just adds to the challenges of doing business here, he explained to the village leaders.

Mayor Paul Maroun assured the food purveyors his board “would certainly discuss it again.”

Trustee David “Haji” expressed his support for reconsidering the latest rate hikes. “I agree 100% with them,” he said of the positions of the food truck operators.

John Ellis offered his support for the presence of food trucks in the park. He said they play an important role here, particularly on a Monday or Tuesday, when most of the restaurants are closed here.

Trustee Eric Shaheen stated that he felt the current rates of $75 per week were fair. “At $300 per month, that’s $10 per day. So basically you are offering to pay for three days a week at $30, he said to Mr. Whitman and Mr. Stearns.

“Correct,” Ed Whitman told him. “We don’t mind paying $120 per month!”

The trustee and local businessman said he didn’t think that $300 per month was an unreasonable charge.

“I’m not here to argue with you, Ed. We argued a lot before we came up with these new rates,” he said of recent board discussions.

He said too he understood Mr. Vaillancourt’s point about the 3,600% increase. He said, however, it can’t be viewed in that way. The vendor fees are something that have been dramatically underpriced for decades. That’s just my opinion!”

Mr. Vaillancourt said that food trucks differ from regular restaurants as they are at the mercy of the elements. On cold and rainy days, business is always bad, he told the village leaders. Often times on those kinds of days- of which there have been many so far this season, the wages of his employees are two and three times his sales- and that hurts.

He also said food trucks can’t serve alcoholic beverages, which is often a big draw for conventional restaurants.

The Free Press asked Mayor Maroun at the close of the meeting, as the board was about to adjourn to executive session, when he thought the board might consider the food truck owners’ request and he said he would likely have to call a special meeting to discuss it publicly.

What happened, however, was the board reconvened very briefly in regular session after the private talks that same evening, and agreed to take no action on the request, leaving the current $75 per week rate in place. The press and the members of the public all left when the board adjourned to executive session, so there was no one present to witness the action or lack thereof, when the board convened briefly in regular session.