Town to Choose Vendors
A second round of bids by mobile food purveyors for the exclusive right to set up at prime East Hampton Town-owned sites, including the ocean beaches, was due today, after the first round was thrown out due to irregularities and omissions in a number of submissions.
Food trucks with required town peddling and Suffolk County Health Department permits may circulate to various places, with the length of stay at any one site limited. But those who wish to sell exclusively at such popular spots as Ditch Plain or Indian Wells Beach, must bid on and be selected to lease the particular site.
One aspiring food truck chef appeared before the town board on April 14 to ask for a waiver from the town law that limits the length of food trucks to 22 feet. Shawn Christman of Montauk told the board he is trying to get a new business, Sea Bean Mobile Catering, off the ground. But, he said, his new truck is almost 23/4 feet longer than the maximum. Mr. Christman and his attorney, Carl Irace, asked the board not to hold him to that standard.
Although Mr. Christman spoke as if he had won the bid for a concession site at Ditch, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell corrected him, saying no contracts had yet been awarded.
“I’m personally not comfortable waiving a law to give preference to your client,” the supervisor told Mr. Irace. The issue, he said, aside from “the length of a parking space versus the length of a vehicle,” is that there “are other people competing for that same space who conform.”
“This is one of the few ways young chefs have to start a business,” Mr. Christman said, noting the overhead in establishing a restaurant and his status as a local who is starting a family.
“I’m not unsympathetic,” Mr. Cantwell said. But, he said, there had to be an “even playing field,” and others who submitted bids for the vending spots complied with the criteria. “Are you suggesting that we award a bid based on a law that your client falls outside of?” he asked Mr. Irace, “. . . arbitrarily deciding that doesn’t apply?”
Nevertheless, the board agreed to a field trip to see conditions at the Ditch parking lot after its meeting, which took place at the Montauk Firehouse. While parking there, Mr. Cantwell said Tuesday, is too tight to accommodate a longer vending truck, there may be other designated areas that could. But while a change to the 22-foot maximum truck length could be contemplated by the board, it would require a change to local law, he said, and would take some time. The current round of concession bidding will continue under the rules in place, he said.