Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — Wimberley City Council permitted a snow cone food trailer, approved a paleta cart in the City Center Overlay and made an appointment to the Hays County Public Health Advisory Board at its July 3 meeting.
An application to permit a temporary structure for a snow cone food trailer at 261 FM 2325, where Wimberley Donuts is located, was unanimously approved by council. The trailer, operated by property owner Maggie Carpenter, will be located in the northeast corner of the lot in one of the parking spaces.
“The businesses that they operate — the donut shop in the morning and then, as it gets hot in the evening, [they will] close the donut shop and move over to the trailer,” explained Director of Development Services Nathan Glaiser.
The max duration of the permit will be for one year.
Council also discussed a mobile food vendor permit for a paleta cart — pre-packaged ice cream — in the Wimberley City Center Overlay, where Oldham Street is the boundary on Ranch Road 12, and then, the other side of Willow Lake is the boundary going down Old Kyle Road.
“Hays County said that since it’s all manufactured pre-packaged ice cream from a wholesaler, that they are exempt from food permitting,” Glaiser said.
Council member Rebecca Minnick said that she is concerned about what would keep this cart from sitting in front of other businesses, questioning if this cart would have a particular area that it would stay near.
“I like the enterprising initiative of this, but our Square is pretty small,” Minnick said.
This would permit the cart for the entire City Center Overlay, Glaiser clarified, but there are rules, including that they can not be within 100 feet of a primary entrance of an open and operating eating establishment.
Minnick later asked what would happen if the city starts to receive multiple complaints from downtown merchants regarding the cart.
“I would think that we would absolutely be able to rescind or revoke a permit based on complaints and if there were issues,” Glaiser said. “You can also not do the full year and just maybe at the end of the summer, do two or three months just to see how it works out, but that’s up to you.”
Another council member, Bob Clark, asked if the cart would be allowed on the street or on the sidewalk, as he would see complaints come if that were the case. Glaiser said he believes they would be allowed on any public property.
“Conceivably, there are going to be some establishments that wouldn’t mind that they locate there and so, that will sort of happen as the vendor is there longer,” said council member Chris Sheffield.
Council unanimously approved the permit for the duration of three months — less than the typical max duration of this type of permit, which is one year.
“I know merchants in town and it could be a thing, so my inclination would be to maybe do 90 days … I’d be more inclined to do that, just so that it wouldn’t have to be some kind of dust up if we would have to rescind it,” Minnick said. “I’ve seen them in New Braunfels; I’ve seen them in Fredericksburg before. They seem to be able to coexist. Like I said, I like seeing the entrepreneurial spirit.”
Lastly, council unanimously approved the appointment of council member David Cohen to the Hays County Public Health Advisory Board, which was created in order to have better communication between the county and local municipalities on public health initiatives.
Minnick, who serves on the county’s Mental Health Coordinating Committee, shared that she believes that it’s very valuable, especially to serve as a voice for a more rural community.
“We have different healthcare needs and we have different health department needs than they do in Kyle and San Marcos. Our perspective — a more rural kind of perspective — is not on those committees,” Minnick said. “All of those people can drive over to the hospital and all of that, and we can’t … One of the things that we talked about and I think they talked about it … was something like a community paramedic. Something like that works for us very well, it’s not that big of a deal in the more eastern parts and the more populous, denser parts of the county.”
Only Wimberley can provide the perspective of a more rural community when it comes to talking about how to get services that the town needs, Minnick said.
Wimberley City Council will hold a budget workshop at 4 p.m. and then, its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 17. For more information, visit www.cityofwimberley.com/292/Public-Meetings.
