After months of discussion and public hearings the Franklin county commission has decided that their existing peddler’s ordinance works well enough. The board has been considering banning peddlers from St. George Island at the request of a number of island business owners who feel that peddlers take their customers without facing the same expenses that permanent businesses do. Businesses are especially concerned by peddlers who show up on weekends during the summer without a peddler’s license and then disappear again once the tourists have thinned out. The dilemma the county faced was that the commission wanted to make sure the peddler ban did not extend beyond St. George Island and that the ban did not affect long-time local peddlers. In the end they found that too difficult to do. On Tuesday the board decided that there really is no need to change the existing law, instead they are going to try harder to enforce what is already on the books. Commissioner Bevin Putnal said with “potential bay closures coming we may all have to get out and peddle just to eat.” Commissioner Noah Lockley agreed saying that he feels stronger enforcement is the key – he said the commission can make all the laws it wants but without enforcement they are just writing in a book. It is possible that there will be some changes made to the peddlers’ ordinance in coming months. The county is interested in hiking the cost of a peddler’s license substantially; currently a license costs 150 dollars if you buy one before March and 300 dollars if you wait till later in the year. Those prices could jump to 500 to a thousand dollars. The commission said it will also meet with St. George Island business owners in the near future to discuss if there are any locations on the island that they would find acceptable for peddlers to operate from.
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