Shopping carts left on city streets, sidewalks, and other areas around town have been declared a public nuisance in the community that poses a safety risk. In an effort to improve that situation, the Fallon City Council amended the Fallon Municipal Code by unanimously adopting a new Shopping Carts ordinance as part of Chapter 5.56, Business Licenses and Regulations.
Deputy City Attorney Sean Rowe presented the new ordinance to the City Council during their meeting of August 2. He summarized the bill by saying, “The ordinance as proposed provides for and addresses the issues the city has been facing with shopping carts accumulating on public and private property throughout the city. It does this through a number of mechanisms. First, it creates clear definitions for the regulation of these items in the community. Section 020 declares the presence of shopping carts on public and private property a nuisance, which means they cause certain life, health, and safety issues for the population of the city. Section 030 requires shopping cart owners to implement a management plan for their shopping carts, and a retrieval plan that they also must present to the city. Section B of that defines the measures to retrieve shopping carts from public and private property that will be required of shopping cart owners. Section 040 provides for the retrieval and impoundment of shopping carts found off premises by the city. Section 050 provides for the disposal of abandoned shopping carts, permitting the city to dispose of the shopping carts that have been abandoned and collected by the city and not retrieved by their owners.”
Mayor Ken Tedford said, “Several cities were more stringent, several were less stringent. We used Clark County, Las Vegas, City of Reno, Sparks, and Watsonville?” Rowe replied, “Watsonville, California, also Mr. Mayor we referred to some Texas municipalities just looking for the variety of ways that municipalities have attempted to regulate and deal with the problem of shopping carts being taken off premises and then accumulating in these public places and becoming nuisances. They're being left in streets, and cars are being damaged as a result of these. We went through a very lengthy review process of other nearby municipalities and well as those farther afield just to see what type of regulatory actions have been taken.”
Rowe went on to say, “This is an attempt to address this issue in a multi-faceted way for carts taken off promises and create something that is fair so that businesses know what to expect and we can assist them in maintaining their property.” The Mayor added, “We've been going through this for quite a while, trying to get cooperation from some of the businesses to police themselves. Not every business that has shopping carts doesn't oblige in picking up their shopping carts on their own. It just a few, but the few are creating quite a problem for us with their shopping carts leaving their premises. It's been several months.”
Councilwoman Karla Kent stated, “It's amazing how many carts that leave the premises of those businesses, and I do believe that the city has done all that they can to try to be cooperative and be a business-friendly environment. I see there's no other way than this ordinance.”
Chief of Staff Bob Erickson provided current cart counts in the city's possession. “The volume of the carts basically come from two businesses, Walmart and Safeway.” When the Mayor asked how many were in storage now, Erickson replied, “As of a couple days ago, we have 252 Walmart carts in storage. Safeway has two types of carts and made a significant investment to upgrade from the old brown carts to the newer black carts. We retrieved 68 of those and accumulated 34 more. In addition, we have 22 of the old brown carts. Walgreens has three, the Dollar Tree has 15, and CVS has one in storage.”
To date, no retrieval plans have been received from local businesses even though the ordinance has been published for public comment, and meetings with the major retailers have taken place. No business representatives appeared at the council meeting to speak on their own behalf concerning the new ordinance. The city may now dispose of the carts after 30 days and impound costs will be imposed on the shopping cart owners.
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