A license fee shall be required for the conduct of peddling and canvassing and for transient merchants at the license fee as provided in § 189-1. The license fee shall be for one year, unless otherwise indicated.
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Ottawa as § 12.06 of the 1987 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A person who goes from place to place within the Town soliciting orders for the future delivery of property or for services to be performed in the future, including any person who occupies any place within the Town for the purpose of exhibiting samples and taking orders for future delivery.
A person who goes from place to place within the Town offering for sale property which he carries with him, including vendors who distribute their products to regular customers on established routes.
A person who engages at a fixed location in the Town in the temporary business of selling property at such location, excluding a person who does not sell from stock but exhibits samples for the purpose of securing orders for future delivery only, and including a person who associates temporarily with any local business or conducts business in the name of a local merchant, dealer or auctioneer.
No license shall be required hereunder for the following:
A.
Persons selling personal property at wholesale to dealers in such articles.
B.
Newsboys.
C.
Children under 18 years of age who are residents of the Town.
D.
Merchants or their employees delivering goods in the regular course of business.
E.
Farmers or truck gardeners offering to sell the products of the farm or garden occupied and cultivated by them.
G.
Any person soliciting for charitable, religious, patriotic or philanthropic purposes, where the proceeds thereof are devoted solely to the purposes of the organization.
H.
Sales required by statute or order of a court.
I.
Bona fide auction sales conducted pursuant to law.
No person shall engage in the business of a transient merchant, peddler, canvasser or solicitor in the Town without first obtaining a license therefor as provided hereunder.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
At the time of filing his application, the applicant shall pay to the Town Clerk a fee of $25 to cover the cost of investigation of the facts stated in the application.
Upon approval of the application by the Town Board and payment of the required fee, but not less than 72 hours after the application was first submitted to the Clerk, the Town Clerk shall issue such applicant a license. No license shall be granted to a person under 18 years of age and no applicant to whom a license has been refused or whose license has been revoked shall make further application until at least six months has elapsed since last previous revocation or rejection, unless he can show that the reason for such revocation or rejection no longer exists.
If complaint is made to the Town Chair that any person doing business as a transient merchant claims to be a permanent merchant, he may be required as a condition of transacting business, without the payment of the investigation fee, to give a bond to the Town in the amount of $300 to secure the payment for the state and Town license, if such person fails to become a permanent merchant under the terms of the state law defining the same.
Any licensee using a vehicle may employ not more than two persons to assist in preparing and delivering the goods, wares and merchandise, but such persons shall so act only while accompanying the licensee.
No person licensed hereunder shall in hawking his wares create any noise annoying to a person of ordinary sensibilities.
No licensee shall use the public streets or sidewalks for purposes of sales in such a manner as to impede or inconvenience the public use of the streets or sidewalks.
Any person licensed hereunder shall carry his license with him while engaged in licensed activities and shall upon request display such license to any officer of the Town or any person with whom he seeks to do business.
Whenever charges are filed against any licensee or whenever his application for a license is pending, a temporary permit may be issued by the Town Clerk, which temporary permit shall be effective for not more than 30 days.
Any person who shall violate the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a forfeiture to the Town of not less than $50 nor more than $100, together with costs of prosecution.