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steel1man

Beach Fanatic
Jan 10, 2013
2,291
659
may be for the BETTER
Some ideas from SWCC

Clear Takeaway: A managed beach vendor program is desperately needed, especially on public beaches.
Potential Solutions:
1. Establish a small committee consisting of representatives of the public, vendors, and TDC to create a managed vendor program, which incorporates the items noted below.
2. Limit the number of beach vendor permits issued by the county.
3. Require business licenses and background checks on all beach vendors.
4. Allow beach vendors at Regional Accesses only, no Neighborhood Accesses with
beaches that are too narrow. Beachgoers can easily rent equipment from vendors and take it to and from the beach each day at any of these Neighborhood Accesses.
5. Implement service contracts with beach vendors to limit operations at Regional Beach Accesses to one vendor per access. Vendors would be selected via a bid process conducted by the county. The selected vendors would pay the county a flat fee and a percentage of revenue for the right to vend on the beach. This income could be used to cover the increased costs of hiring additional code enforcement officers and make other improvement to beach accesses if there are excess funds after paying for the increase in code enforcement staff.
6. As part of their contracts, the vendors must commit to have attendants on site, so they can set-up when customers arrive and take down when customers leave. Prime set-up locations on the beach should be based on the first-come, first-served concept.
7. Alternatively, the county could assume all responsibility for the beach chair setup operations on public beaches. This would ensure compliance with the vendor rules as well as be a source of revenue to pay for the increase in code enforcement staff and potentially fund other beach related needs.
8. Implement a set of operating regulations including but not limited to the following:
A. Identify specific vendor zones (% of beach and location on the beach);
B. Eliminate early morning beach chair setups;
C. Establish minimum setup distance from the water;
D. Require full time attendants at the beach, etc.
 

Bob Wells

Beach Fanatic
Jul 25, 2008
3,380
2,857
Not trying to create a stir, #3. You are going to selectively mandate Business Licenses and Background Checks on just Beach Vendors? Are you creating rules for one segment of business community but not all of them? What is the purpose of the background checks? Is the intent to do this for the owners of the service or the owners and employees?
 

James Bentwood

Beach Fanatic
Feb 24, 2005
1,495
606
4. Allow beach vendors at Regional Accesses only, no Neighborhood Accesses with
beaches that are too narrow. Beachgoers can easily rent equipment from vendors and take it to and from the beach each day at any of these Neighborhood Accesses.

How does that work to make it "easy"? Where is the equipment kept and how is it easy to rent heavy chairs and umbrellas to carry and set up by themselves?
 

gumby

Beach Lover
Apr 28, 2010
184
101
Up the Creek
It`s a start. There has to be some sort of control for the out of control venders. As with any changes, it`s a work in progress. This is a great starting point to hopefully put some solid rules in place for the beach venders to follow.
 

Bob Wells

Beach Fanatic
Jul 25, 2008
3,380
2,857
It`s a start. There has to be some sort of control for the out of control venders. As with any changes, it`s a work in progress. This is a great starting point to hopefully put some solid rules in place for the beach venders to follow.
Then why not have a countywide business license and background check for all employees? I appreciate that there are people interested in protecting the beach and vendors not taking advantage as is claimed, but I think you can't be selective here about who you regulate and do background checks on. This is just my 2 cents.
 

FactorFiction

Beach Fanatic
Feb 18, 2016
494
409
I don't believe most of these changes will be made for the 2019 season (due to timing), but a managed vendor program seems very likely for 2020. Hopefully, a few simple changes can be implemented for 2019 that will improve the situation and then a well thought out vendor management program can be developed for 2020. Contribute your ideas if you have some. You never know what might make it into a plan and we do have two new BCC members that may be more amenable to managing vendors.
 

Emerald Drifter

Beach Fanatic
Jun 8, 2018
617
274
Santa Rosa Beach
If these ideas can be part of a slow winding down of any vending, especially beach chairs, on all public beaches, then go for it.

When you stop and think about it, it is crazy that the county allows the public's beaches to be taken over by commercial vendors. If the county wants to continue this, please allow for hot dog stands, henna tatoos booths, cartoon portrait artists, you get the idea, at the South Walton courthouse complex.

If you want to be real about "CU" it has to start with what the people aready own.
 
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