Is the ice cream truck breaking the law in Barrington?

Is the summer ice-cream truck driver in Barrington breaking the law?

Village officials will soon be reviewing their policy regarding mobile vendors in response to one local company’s inquiry about what permits it would need to do business in Barrington.

At this week’s committee-of-the whole meeting, Village Attorney James Bateman said he believed there might be a prohibition against mobile vendors, noting that his children never saw an ice-cream truck until they moved to Lake Barrington when they were growing up.

But some members of the village board said ice-cream trucks have been regular visitors to their neighborhoods over the years.

Village President Karen Darch said she planned to ask other communities in the Northwest Municipal Conference how they regulate mobile vendors like ice-cream and food trucks.

“I’d also be interested to hear what our businesses think about this,” Trustee Jim Daluga said.

He specified that he wanted to hear from both businesses that would face competition from such vendors as well as those who might find them a convenience.

Bateman said that some municipalities have come up with some fairly complex regulatory schemes for mobile vendors. He added that villages like Barrington could seek to reinforce the counties’ roles in regulating mobile vendors from a public health perspective, but that their strongest position might be in seeking regulation from a traffic-impact perspective.

Some board members remembered an ice-cream vendor that stopped at Hough Street School being asked to change where he parked to avoid attracting children toward a busy intersection.