Parks and rec debate food truck park permit

Though Creston City Council’s discussion on food trucks paused in April, Creston Parks and Recreation continue the issue at their meeting Tuesday. This was brought up after two separate food trucks parked at city parks without prior approval from the board.

“According to the chief, they’re supposed to come to the park board if they want to do something at the park,” parks and recreation board member John Kawa said. “They’re supposed to have a special events permit, they didn’t have that.”

Fellow board member Gary Borcherding disagreed, stating since the owners were from Union County, they didn’t need a permission from the park. However, Kawa insisted that wasn’t the case.

“They have to have everything,” he said. “We’re going to continue like we’ve always done and they come to our meetings and see if it’s ok with us.”

Parks and recreation’s city council representative Kiki Scarberry wanted more clarification on the process.

“I think we need to clarify and spell this out, because I think there’s some differing of opinions on exactly what needs to happen,” Scarberry said. “It is not clear.”

Borcherding agreed with Scarberry.

“Nobody knows what to do,” he said. “It’s as clear as mud.”

Scarberry said she would convene with city council members to get an outline on the proper procedure for food trucks moving forward. One thing about the process was clear, however.

“If somebody has a problem with [food trucks] and you guys get a call, you call the police and they take care of it,” Scarberry said.

Also discussed at the parks and recreation meeting was a $100,000 grant from Wellmark for the McKinley Park Aquatic Center (MPAC).

“We got turned down again by the city council, but Wellmark said they’d still do the $100,000 for the pool,” Kawa said. “We do something every year, but this will be on a bigger scale. We’ll keep plugging away and it will look better every year. I think that’s the goal, and it’s a good goal, and we can do that.”

No changes with this grant will be made to the MPAC until after this summer season is over.

Final discussions regarding Party in the Park were had, including a schedule for July 1.

“We’re going to open the food stand and the beer garden at 11 a.m. because of the bags tournament and just trying to encourage people to stop in and watch sound checks, whatever it might be,” Borcherding said.

The gates officially open at 5 p.m., with music starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 if bought in advance, while $20 at the gate. Tickets can be bought at the CNA, Fareway Meat & Grocery, Hy-Vee, Jane Brown PT/PC and Montgomery Street Pub.

All musicians for this years Party in the Park are local. There will not be a headliner.

“We have enough really good musicians in town here and we wanted to all come together,” parks and rec board member Todd Kinkade said. “The reason we said we weren’t going to have headliners is so that no one is better than anyone else type of thing. It doesn’t matter what order we go in, nobody is better than anyone else.”

Bands involved are Dustin Baird, Mike Walsh, Ridin’ Shotgun and Garrett & the Relics.