Town hall food fight

by Danielle Switalski
| May 5, 2010 10:13 AM

There was standing room only at the Plains town council meeting on Monday evening as locals gathered to discuss the Chinese food vendor that stops in Plains every Friday.

Enough members of the public spoke at the meeting in favor of the Chinese food vendor in order to reach an agreement to continue allowing the vendor to come to town.

Suzy VonHeeder, co-owner of The Circle, opened the discussion, voicing her concern about the vendors utilizing the town for pure profit saying a lot of the restaurants in town feel that The Golden Chopstick does not pay a fair amount to come to Plains and sell their food for three hours every Friday throughout the summer months.

“These people come in here every Friday and take money out of this town and we’re trying to make it here. Give the restaurants a chance, we’re trying Chinese now, if this is what the community wants this is what we’re here for,” said VonHeeder. “I’ve heard twice tonight times are tough, they are tough and we have someone coming from Missoula and do they donate to the town at all?”

VonHeeder said she employs 15 to 20 people in the town and donates an abundance of money to the community and the Chinese food vendor does not. The biggest concern was for the vendor to pay a fair fee to be here every week. The Golden Chopstick currently pays approximately $40 a month to come to town.

“At first I thought why not Chinese? The more I thought about it I realized what a detriment it is to our community, taking away clients from our businesses, she doesn’t contribute anything to the community, but only takes and I think it’s one of those businesses we can do without to support our local people,” said Kathy Logan President of the Plains Chamber of Commerce.

Opposition to get rid of the vendors or raise their fees quickly arose as the meeting progressed. Plains resident Susan Schroedel was the first to speak out in favor of the Chinese vendors.

Schroedel opened saying that since she has been in this town it has been scared to death of competition, of another restaurant, another grocery store, however, “loyalty to a business is earned and not deserved.”

“These people come in and have a right under the constitution of the United States to make a living and they come here for four hours a week. Those people have a right to come into the community, you are worried about the business they are taking from you,” said Schroedel adding that the vendor buys bread from the Butcher’s Nook and gas from the local pump contributing to the town in some way and sitting down to multiple people in the room applauding in agreement.

Erika Lawyer from McGowans Grocery spoke in order to clarify the frustrations businesses are feeling, saying that the businesses want equity and want the vendors to give more to the town to come and sell their food here.

“We want free market, but I think the frustration is that the city council needs to see what makes sense and factor in payroll multipliers and factor in the taxes and money she provides, but there’s more these businesses put in than just taxes. It’s a really nominal amount to come in and not pony up. No one’s saying not come, but we want some equity,” said Lawyer.

After hearing additional opposition from the public, Doran Vonheeder, co-owner of The Circle agreed with the comments in favor of the Chinese food vendor and said they are simply going to try and make a better product and get more people to eat Chinese food in their restaurant.

“Let’s just put this to rest,” said VonHeeder.

Plains resident Pamela Lynch asked the council to look at raising the vending fees, which have not been reviewed in years. At the conclusion of the meeting Plains mayor Michael Brinson said it is something they will look into and put on a future agenda.