GOOD HOPE – As a way of protecting its citizens from scams and con artists, the Good Hope City Council will be considering ordinances for door-to-door sales. The discussion was put on the table after a quick and efficient series of council member reports at this week’s meeting. Councilman John Harris had nothing to report since the financials were deferred until the next meeting for all statements to be reconciled, and Greg Brown also reported nothing. Mayor Jerry Bartlett filled Maxie Jones in on the road situation: several roads have been chip-sealed, and they are waiting for the company they contracted to work on microsurfacing the roads. The work is estimated to last about three weeks when it begins.
Councilwoman Susan Eller brought in Grady Parsons to help give an update on the sewage plant, which was mostly positive. However, he explained that some work would need to be done in order to fix the high water flow coming from County Road 222 during rain. Taft Dillashaw reported that everything in the parks is the same as usual, and they're still doing very well with the tournaments.
When it came time to discuss ordinances, Town Clerk Christie Chamblee shared a recent experience of hers. She says she was contacted by a man asking for a business license to sell religious texts, but he was vague about where he was from and provided an unreliable email address. She said something similar happened to her last year, so she contacted other municipalities to see if they had had any similar experiences. She got several responses that other people had received the exact same message, and several of the municipalities ended up passing ordinances against door-to-door sales after a series of scams were discovered.
In light of these scams, she looked up some of the other towns' ordinances about door-to-door sales and asked the council if they would think about taking precautionary measures. The council agreed that it would be good to protect the citizens of Good Hope from false products, robbers posing as salesmen, or even possible human trafficking, but they were also worried about imposing unfair punishments on legitimate businesses in the community. The most common idea suggested was to have legitimate businesses carry business licenses or letters of authenticity with them and present them to customers when they go out on sales calls. The matter will likely be resolved by the next council meeting on Monday, May 22.
The Good Hope City Council meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Good Hope City Hall. The public is welcome to attend.
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