City introduces new temporary sales ordinance
The City of Hartselle has introduced a new ordinance regulating temporary sales that officials hope will prevent sales from taking place on dangerous rights of way.
At a work session Monday, council members reviewed the new regulations.
At a previous meeting, council members said they had received numerous complaints about a temporary sale that occurred near Tankersley’s Service Center at the intersection of Alabama 36 and U.S. 31.
Council President Bill Smelser and the rest of the council asked city attorney Larry Madison to look at revising the ordinance to make the ordinance tougher.
The update ordinance would require any person wanting to do a temporary sale to pay all license fees and a $5 issuance fee before to the city clerk. The issuance fee ranges from $50 to $1,000 based on the average sale price of the primary type of goods sold.
Whenever the primary type of goods is furniture, major appliances or motor vehicles, the fee will always be $1,000.
In addition to the fee, a bond will be required to cover the projected sales tax for the event. The applicant can then receive any refunds for over payment after a sales tax report is filed for the event.
The license application could also be disqualified if the location of the sale is “in a congested location where the event might impede or inconvenience the public use of streets, sidewalks, right of way and other public ways or might cause such a distraction as to create the risk of accident, congestion, inconvenience or other inordinate risk to harm of the public.