Posted on 08/05/2010 9:35:45 AM PDT by rawhide
Julie had become enamored of the idea of having a stand after watching an episode of cartoon pig Olivia running one, said her mother, Maria Fife. The two live in Oregon City, but Fife knew her daughter would get few customers if she set up her stand at home.
The girl worked on a sign, coloring in the letters and decorating it with a drawing of a person saying "Yummy." She made a list of supplies.
Then, with gallons of bottled water and packets of Kool-Aid, they drove up last Thursday with a friend and her daughter. They loaded a wheelbarrow that Julie steered to the corner of Northeast 26th and Alberta and settled into a space between a painter and a couple who sold handmade bags and kids' clothing.
Even before her daughter had finished making the first batch of lemonade, a man walked up to buy a 50-cent cup.
"They wanted to support a little 7-year-old to earn a little extra summer loot," she said. "People know what's going on."
Even so, Julie was careful about making the lemonade, cleaning her hands with hand sanitizer, using a scoop for the bagged ice and keeping everything covered when it wasn't in use, Fife said.
After 20 minutes, a "lady with a clipboard" came over and asked for their license. When Fife explained they didn't have one, the woman told them they would need to leave or possibly face a $500 fine.
That's when business really picked up -- and two inspectors came back, Fife said. Julie started crying, while her mother packed up and others confronted the inspectors. "It was a very big scene," Fife said.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Don’t have all that much sympathy since this wasn’t in front of her house, but at a public art fair. Once you set up at a public event, you should expect to have all the proper licensing.
“...That’s when business really picked up — and two inspectors came back...”
C’mon, AFSCME needs to at least try to look busy. Oh, and it helps to let the kid learn early who is in charge....
this is no longer America.
Ah, the face only a bureaucrat could regulate.
how can the County regulate free lemonade?
BS.
An over-intrusive nanny-state government is commonplace in Oregon ... but that a so-called conservative would lack sympathy for a child being ordered by that government to close a lemonade stand is flabbergasting.
SnakeDoc
>>Don’t have all that much sympathy since this wasn’t in front of her house, but at a public art fair. Once you set up at a public event, you should expect to have all the proper licensing.<<
My sentiments exactly. Cute doesn’t cut it in this case.
Don’t confuse them with the facts.
Oregon has not been part of the union for a long time
I pray that this event does not stigmatize the entrepreneurial spirit of this little girl. Our public screw-alls aren’t teaching our children anything positive about capitalism, yet this little girl wanted to do what capitalists do: start a business.
The health agents should be ashamed of themselves. Reading this article, I don’t get the impression that they were very nice about it all. Explain it calmly to the parent, explain it calmly and in words she can understand to the little girl, and tell them that they need to pack it up. Lesson learned. Don’t make a damn spectacle of it!
Cute! But these inspectors are empowered to regulate far too much of our lives.
It was a great ride while it lasted!
So this was a reasonable application of governmental authority? Good grief.
SnakeDoc
Very cute kid but she must pay the $120 license, hire a lawyer, accountant, have liability insurance and of course provide health care to all her employees.
/s
I hate to take side with the anarchist, but the inspectors are flat out wrong and need to show JUDGMENT and COMMON SENSE.
It is rapidly getting to the point where one has to resist by arms the expanding role of government in this society. That is the principal reason there is such a push for gun control...when the government has all the legal guns, everyone else is a servant to it.
Then fairs charge a percentage of the daily take, some as high as 35% and then hold onto your money for months. Its a racket I tell yah..
Oh jeez...give us all a break, Mr. Grinch
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