By MAURY THOMPSON
thompson@poststar.com Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
GLENS FALLS, NY - Glens Falls Police officers ordered a mobile hot dog vendor to stay off South Street last month after the owner of a bar and pizza shop complained the vendor was violating city law.
"And I don't think that we've dealt with him (the vendor) since, that I know of," city Police Chief Joseph Bethel said on Monday.
But the dispute over vendor William Sweet's attempt to sell hot dogs to late-night revelers in the South Street bar district continues to simmer.
Tony Poulos, owner of the Irish Pub and Irish Pizza on South Street, and his wife, Sandra Poulos, are scheduled to appear in City Court on May 13 for a hearing on charges they harassed Nancy L. McKeown, an associate of Sweet, at 11:24 p.m. on April 27.
Tony Poulos said Monday there was an emotional exchange of words that night, but he and his wife did not harass McKeown and Sweet.
Poulos said he simply was voicing concern about illegal competition, and the whole matter has been blown out of proportion.
Because mobile food vendors don't pay property taxes, they compete unfairly with restaurant owners, Poulos said.
"I don't know these people. They sold hot dogs illegally on South Street, and now I'm in trouble," he said.
City code requires mobile food vendors to be at least 200 feet away from any privately operated restaurant, tavern, coffee shop or similar business.
It also restricts the hours of operation for vendors to between dawn and dusk.
Poulos said the confrontation erupted when he and his wife noticed McKeown using a tape measure on the sidewalk in front of their business, apparently to measure the 200-feet distance.
In court records, McKeown claims Sandra Poulos "did push complainant and yelled at her to get off her property while ripping a tape measure" out of her hand.
McKeown claims Tony Poulos pushed her "and yelled at her to get off of his property."
Tony Poulos said he does not recall either him or his wife shoving McKeown or knocking the tape measure out of her hand on the night in question.
"The thing with the tape measure, if she dropped it, I don't know," he said.
Poulos said it was hard to know exactly what transpired because the whole neighborhood was chaotic, as a fight broke out across the street at Hot Shots sports bar around the same time.
"There was just mayhem and confusion all over the place," he said.
Neither Sweet nor McKeown could be reached to comment for this story.
Sweet is not listed in the local telephone directory, and a Post-Star reporter could not locate him on several attempts Monday and Tuesday at any of the locations where he is known to park his mobile food unit.
A voice mail message The Post-Star left at a telephone number listed for Nancy McKeown was not returned.
Bethel said that, based on complaints from Poulos, city police investigated and determined Sweet had obtained a permit from the city to operate a mobile food unit, and that he had been informed of regulations.
Police directed Sweet not to operate his mobile food unit late at night at the South Street location again, Bethel said.
Typically, he said, police issue a verbal warning rather than a formal arrest for a first violation of city vendor and peddler laws.
Second-degree harassment, the charge brought against the Pouloses, is a violation comparable in legal weight to a traffic ticket, Bethel said.
