By Brian Rubin Though the dogs she sells may be hot, Carol Shamro is feeling left out in the cold by the town of Wawarsing's latest addition to the peddler's laws.

Carol and her son Rich attended the last town board meeting on January 17 to complain about Local Law No. 7, the Peddling and Soliciting law, passed by the town board on December 6 of last year during the final month of James Dolaway's tenure as town supervisor.

Carol claimed that the law, which sought to update the town's peddler laws that hadn't been officially altered since 1958, specifically targeted her hot dog vending business. Rich presented his mother's case to the board, pointing out specific portions of the law which seem designed to prevent Carol from conducting business, including a rule stipulating that a peddler cannot "stand in one (1) place in any public place or street for more than thirty (30) minutes, nor…resume operations during the same business day from a new location within one quarter (1/4) mile of said former site of operation."

"If you have a hot dog stand, that would be impossible," says Rich of the rule. "She couldn't tear down and move every thirty minutes because the cart is full of water and she has to have everything heated up. She would violate the board of health because the temperature would change inside the cart every time she moved. And she'd have to throw out the food she had in there, so it would be impossible. And you can't do business if people expect you to be in one spot, and you're moving every thirty minutes, they're never going to know where you're at."

Other sections of the law pointed out by Rich include a section defining a public place as "includ[ing] but not limited to parking lots and entranceways of established places of businesses," and the several exemptions allowed for other kinds of peddlers.

"When you look at it, there's exemptions for almost every organization, anybody who already has an established business, they don't even fall under this law. It appears as if it was written to put her out of business."

Rich also says he was shocked by the board's reaction to his complaints, which was one of surprise.

"They acted like they didn't know what I was talking about, but the majority of the people on the board, except for Theresa [Hyatt] voted for it," says Rich. "Did they read it? It was a shock to them."

Councilman Terry Houck, who led the meeting in newly-elected Supervisor Ed Jennings's absence, invited the Shamros to submit their arguments to the board so they could take a look at possibly revising the law at the next board meeting, scheduled for February 7. Shamro says that he and his mother will be consulting with a lawyer before submitting anything to the board.

As to why Rich Shamro feels as though his mother's stand has been targeted, his explanation is simple: "It just became an issue because she set up a hot dog stand near the former supervisor's store. That's when it became an issue."

When the Ellenville Journal last reported on Carol Shamro's conflict with the town's peddler laws in its August 2, 2007 edition, then-Supervisor James Dolaway had suggested that she move to Lippman Park, a suggestion she declined to take. Soon afterward, she was approached by Councilman Tom Geelan, who told her that she had to get a peddler's license.

The Shamros have been researching, and they found that the neighboring town of Rochester has no peddler's laws like Wawarsing. Rochester Town Clerk Veronica I. Sommer confirmed this, saying that the town decided several years ago to do away with its peddler's laws.

"When people have a cart and sell hot dogs, they have to get necessary health department permits, and they have to get permission from whoever owns the property that they're on, so the town stays out of it."

Town attorney William Collier dismisses the accusations of restrictions targeted at Shamro.

"This was a law that was passed ten years ago, and the only thing I did to it was update it and revise it. It was the same one that had been approved by the board but for whatever reason never got to Albany." The law was passed by the board, but was never officially approved by the state.

"It certainly wasn't crafted to deny anybody a job," he says.

After speaking with Collier, the Journal got a copy of the law from 1992 from town clerk Jane Eck, and many of the sections the Shamros allege as targeting her stand are in both versions. One difference lies in the aforementioned addition to the section that defines a public place as including established business's parking lots and entranceways.

In addition, Collier noted that section 85-9.D allows a prospective vendor to remain in a place for longer than 30 minutes provided that their permit includes the request to do so.

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