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Bethel City Council Ups Casual Sales Limit, Commits Police Officer To Drug And Alcohol Enforcement

In February, the City of Bethel initiated the process of removing buildings that it has condemned.
Christine Trudeau
/
KYUK

Casual vendors now have more opportunities to sell goods in Bethel before they have to get a business license and begin paying city sales tax. On Tuesday, the Bethel City Council unanimously voted to double the number of casual annual sales allowed per vendor from five to 10.

Council member Mitchell Forbes sponsoredthe ordinance.

“It’s really intended to allow folks who might be attending Saturday Market, holiday bazaars, things like that, to be able to sell items without going as far as registering as a business,” Forbes explained.

These casual sales also include yard and moving sales. The ordinance amends a change city council made to Bethel’s sales tax code in 2017 that restricted these sales to only five per year before requiring sales tax payments. Saturday Market vendors protested the change. Council member Carole Jung Jordan echoed some of that protest at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I just think that five is too low of a number, and we have a lot of Elders that use Saturday Market to sell their crafts,” Jung Jordan said.

The ordinance does not outline a tracking system for these sales, but doubles the number allowed from five to 10.

Also on Tuesday, the city council unanimously voted to commit a city police officerto investigate and enforce drug and alcohol laws in the Bethel area alongside Alaska State Troopers. Bethel Police Chief Burke Waldron says that a police officer has already attended training at the troopers’ expense to prepare for the position.

“So he’s ready to roll once that MOU is signed. And then I’ll have to backfill his position with a new hire,” Waldron told the council.

The council blocked a measure to pay for overtime hours for city workers at Tuesday's meeting, including those working late to haul water and sewer and to maintain roads. Vice Mayor Raymond “Thor” Williams and council member Carole Jung Jordan voted against the measure. Williams said that he did not think the numbers in the ordinance were correct, and Jung feared workers could manipulate the overtime system and suggested that the city could better structure hours.

City Manager Pete Williams said that the overtime is partly due to problems with the city water and sewer trucks and a massive amount of rain disrupting roads. Williams says that the money for overtime is not immediately needed and had been requested to prevent the city from going over budget.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.