HARRISBURG (WSIL) � There’s a growing trend in Harrisburg: food trucks have started offering dishes, usually on Commercial Street.
Harrisburg Mayor John McPeek said a few trucks started setting up shop a few months ago.
"I’ve had the taco truck. It’s actually pretty good," McPeek said.
But the city doesn’t have an ordinance regulating them, and McPeek said that leads to safety and health concerns.
"There’s more and more coming in, and all the towns around us have ordinances for food trucks, and we just felt like Harrisburg needs to protect ourselves," McPeek said.
The city council started discussing possible guidelines for food trucks at Thursday night’s meeting. McPeek said talks are still early though.
"We haven’t set a fee yet, but it could be $25, $50 or $100, and they could have a license, and they could post that in their window saying that the city is allowing them to sell their food," McPeek said.
The council plans to move quickly on the issue.
"I believe at the next meeting, we’ll discuss it more," McPeek said. "Everybody’s supposed to come back with some ideas for it, and then we’ll get an ordinance together and see if it passes and we’ll go from there."
McPeek said he wants food trucks to thrive, the city just wants to make sure they abide by health regulations and have proper insurance.
"I’m all for food trucks and the city is for food trucks, also, for anybody to make money," McPeek said. "It’s just that we want to make sure the city is protected and nothing bad happens."
He expects the city council to have an ordinance drafted sometime in the early fall.
