[statbass]

Source: The Telegram
Date: Jan 18, 2013
Author: Daniel MacEachern

Food vendor Steve Smith says he’s considering legal action after his trailer was towed by the City of St. John’s.
Smith, the owner of Long Dick’s Sausage Emporium, has been battling with Newfoundland Power and St. John’s city council since setting up last spring over his temporary location and over power regulations.
September saw council approve a permanent spot for Long Dick’s on New Gower Street, but trouble arose, said Smith, when he was asked to move a few spaces away to make it easier for an old building to be torn down, just before last week’s snowstorm hit.
Snowplows clearing the roads boxed in his trailer with a high ridge of snow, which then hardened into ice, said Smith.
“I’d gone back to them and said, ‘Look, I’d love to comply with you and move this temporarily. I’m trying to work with you. I don’t want to rock the boat,’” he told The Telegram. “But I said, ‘I can’t get out of here. The snow’s got me buried.’”
Smith said he had to use an axe and a steel shovel just to clear enough snow to open the trailer door, but says his requests for more time or assistance from the city were not heard.
A representative from public works told him the city had to treat his trailer as it would a vehicle — which it isn’t, said Smith.
“I lease the spot from the city. Sure, I’m operating there, but the city has deliberately blocked me in, the plows. I said, you’re going to have to come clear around me, it’s as simple as that. I can’t get out of there.”
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http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Loca...food-trailer/1