It's Girl Scout cookie selling season and for the last few weekends, girls have set up their tables on locations around Montclair, including Valley Road, Watchung Avenue, Church Street, and in front of various retail stores. But (cue sinister music now) is it legal?
Earlier this month, Troop 239 ran into some trouble some two hours after they began selling cookies in front of a closed jewelry store outside the Hinck Building on Church Street, a building owned by Montclair developer Dick Grabowsky (full disclosure -- my daughter was one of the girl scouts selling that day).
Grabowsky approached parents who had accompanied the girls and said the scouts were not allowed to sell cookies on the sidewalk in front of his building because their cookie sale would violate a non-compete clause in the lease of his tenant, gourmet cookie store Gimme Jimmy's, and they didn't have a permit. Then he asked the girls to move. The group dismantled their tables and set up shop in front of Gallery 51. But did they really have to move?
Baristanet called the township clerk's office to find out if Grabowsky was right. The clerk's assistant didn't know if a permit was required to sell Girl Scout cookies on the streets of Montclair, since she couldn't recall the question ever coming up.
Township attorney, Alan Trembulak was surprised by the question. Trembulak checked the books and found Ordinance 238, which says that technically, a non-profit like the Girl Scouts had to obtain a peddlers permit ($10) to set up in a public right of way. To his knowledge, this has never been done before. He commented that the town has been tolerant of this practice in the past, and practically speaking, in this situation, it's unlikely the town would enforce this ordinance, issue a citation or prosecute kids who were engaged in a fundraising activity. And if the scouts did apply for a sidewalk permit, the town would not have to get approval from any merchant or landlord.
"I am the town, just as you are, and I feel it's my obligation to look after my tenants," says Grabowsky, when asked why he took it upon himself to enforce the ordinance. "It's [the sidewalk] not public property - I paid $175,000 to have the sidewalks in front of my building fixed - the town isn't paying for it."
Gimme Jimmy's owner Michael Rappaport told Baristanet that scouts have been selling cookies on Church Street for the past three years, and there's never been an incident. "I never objected to it. Nobody asked me, but I have no problem with their selling cookies. If Dick had been able to reach me, I would've said OK - no problem, but it's his sidewalk, his private property, and he had no choice."
The moral of the story? Get a permit if you want to sell cookies, lemonade, celery sticks or anything else for fundraising in front of the Hinck Building. Or, just go in front of the Supercuts on Valley Road or outside the shopping plaza on Claremont Ave., where owners might be more, err, Girl Scout friendly. And girls, just file it under learning life skills.
Youre a dick, Dick.