Another Contretemps in Hudson
It would appear that Register-Star reporter John Mason has started trolling social media for story ideas, and he found one in Brian Branigan's attempt to sell Truck Shop, the business he and Allison Culbertson started last summer. Truck Shop has been cause for concern at Common Council Legal Committee meetings, chaired by Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), since the shop on wheels first made its appearance on Warren Street last August. Questions were raised about which municipality was benefiting from the sales tax collected by the mobile retailer, and concern was expressed about unfair competition with shops paying high rent for their brick and mortar locations.
When Branigan announced the sale of Truck Shop--the truck itself, along with the business name, the logo, the brand, the website, and the Facebook page--last week on Facebook, his announcement drew comments from Friedman and Common Council president Don Moore. Branigan then sent an email to Mayor William Hallenbeck complaining that, in their comments on social media, Friedman and Moore "did their best to scuttle my sale effort," requesting the refund of his vendor's license fee, and inspiring yet another tiff between the mayor and the Council. Mason tells the whole story: "Truck shop wants license refund."
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If you give someone a City license to operate, City representatives should not give said licensee a hard time about operating in said City. They should definitely not question where or whether I pay taxes, and make mention that I don't live in Hudson. Many merchants of Hudson shops only pay sales tax, like us, and also do not live in Hudson. I suggest they figure it out before taking our money for a license. I never made mention that the purchaser of the truck could operate in Hudson, but as the law stands now - they can. I am only trying to sell our beautiful truck, website, truckshop.co, fb page, branding, et al for just $7500. The friendly city has some unfriendly council members. But, petty comments will not stop us.
ReplyDeleteThe city also disregards citizen purchases of fishing licenses, deer tags and duck stamps while refusing access to North Dock.
DeleteNDTBA Inc, a 100% member supported NFP, paid a franchise fee to the state for "any lawful purpose," which eventually will include fishing and fowling.
"The friendly city has some unfriendly council members. But, petty comments will not stop us."
ReplyDeleteWe now learn that the councilwoman from the 2nd ward is promoting a fishing derby...in Catskill, while 2nd ward citizens are being arrested for fishing along the same river.
Name calling by the cowardly snipers on Voy doesn't change the argument. A Truck Shop, fishing derby or Bass tournament would work on this side of the river as well as in Greene, if only City/County politicians would get out of the way and let citizen Navigators flow freely.
1 Riparian