February 23, 2011
Council votes against
chip truck lease
by Vance Gutzman
The chips are down for
the chip truck.
Deep River council voted down a resolution last week which would have
enabled the owners of Wazzy's Fries to enter into a lease agreement
with the town to keep operating their chip truck at its Champlain
Street location.
As was reported in last week's NRT, a site plan agreement was completed
last June for the truck's current location.
Electricity was also hard-wired to the site of the chip truck, at the
town's request, and its owners (Tim and Paula Wasmund) worked in
conjunction with the public works department to ensure the site was as
safe as possible.
A lease agreement between the town and the Wasmunds was drawn up last
year, but municipal elections in the fall precluded it from being
signed.
That was all done under auspices of the last town council, but members
of the current council don't feel the chip truck's location is an
appropriate complement to the downtown core.
"I have a great deal of sympathy for the Wasmunds," Councillor Terry
Myers said last week.
"They've done everything that's been asked of them."
That being said, Myers went on to state his opposition to the chip
truck's location.
"It's a less than ideal location for a chip truck, in my opinion,"
Myers said.
Like Councillor Chris Carroll the week before, Myers said the chip
truck doesn't mesh with the town downtown revitalization study that was
undertaken a few years back.
"The town spent a great deal of money improving the streetscape," Myers
said.
"I don't think a chip truck is a positive addition to the street."
Councillor Daniel Banks had a different point of view, noting the town
should approach the issue from a business point of view, rather than an
esthetic one.
"It seems to me it would be important to get that (lease) agreement in
place so we can start collecting that rent," said Banks, referencing
the fact the town stands to gain $300 per month from the land lease.
"If we delay this process too long, we perhaps send the wrong message
that we're not open for business. Many of us ran on platforms that said
we are open for business."
Banks went on to suggest that any concerns council members might have
with the chip truck's location could be addressed during lease
agreement negotiations with the Wasmunds.
Councillor Ron Desrochers, however, was also not a big supporter of the
chip truck's location.
"That current location is a bit of an eyesore," Desrochers said,
suggesting "some shrubbery or a little bit of fencing" might remedy the
situation.
Mayor David Thompson, meanwhile, noted that the resolution council was
to vote on didn't actually speak to specific location for the
chip truck.
But the town's chief administrative office, Michelle Larose, pointed
out that the site plan agreement drawn up last year does speak to that
specific site, and the town would have to go through the process of
drawing up another site plan agreement should council want the chip
truck located in a different spot.
That left council with no other option than to vote on the resolution
to approve the entering into of a lease agreement for Wazzy's Fries at
its current location.
In a recorded vote (minus Councillor Chris Carroll, who was in the
Dominican Republic, and Councillor Ruth Syme, who was ill) the
resolution was defeated, with only Banks and Deputy Mayor Mary
MacCafferty voting in favour of it.
"We want to find an agreement," Thompson said.
"We just don't have a consensus about the location."
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