No place for push-carts in county

Art Nadler

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

If you're considering buying one of those cute little push food carts and becoming the next Donald Trump of the food industry, you might want to rethink your business plan.

In Clark County, it's illegal to sell food from a push cart unless you have a business license and license from the Clark County Health District. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen because neither the Clark County Business Licensing Department nor the health district issues licenses to push-cart peddlers.

Several push-cart owners in North Las Vegas found this out the hard way last week. Around 900 pounds of food and drinks was confiscated from carts and two vans in the 28th Street and Bonanza Road areas and between Twain Avenue and Flamingo Road off of Swenson Street.

The haul, which ran from May 15-23, netted 500 pounds of ice cream, four 50-gallon drums of corn on the cob, 150 pounds of mangos, 12 cases of strawberries and around 100 pounds of condiments.

Everything was tossed into the trash and the peddlers were either warned, if they were first-time offenders, or cited by the police for operating without a business license.

"The food is subject to contamination," Clare Schmutz, director of environmental health for the district, said. "We have no way to check whether the food came from an approved source."

Lonnie Empey, environmental health supervisor for the district, warned people that vehicles dispensing illegal food and push carts can be impounded.

Schmutz said the raid was a joint operation between the North Las Vegas Police, the North Las Vegas Business Licensing Department and the health district.

Frequent sweeps, he said, are conducted routinely throughout the county.