Everyone has seen them, and almost everyone has stopped and bought something from them. But the dozens of roadside vendors selling everything from fish to fruit out of the beds of their pickups are probably breaking the law by setting
Everyone has seen them, and almost everyone has stopped and bought something from them.
But the dozens of roadside vendors selling everything from fish to fruit out of the beds of their pickups are probably breaking the law by setting up shop on the sides of Kuhio Highway and Kaumuali‘i Highway, state officials said.
There is a state law prohibiting vending from state property, in this case the right-of-way along state highways, said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesperson.
The law was enacted for safety purposes, Ishikawa said, to prevent vendors from getting too close to high-ways, and to prevent accidents from those stopping to buy goods from vendors, or from getting back on highways after buying goods.
A few fender-benders, and many close calls, have happened along Kaumuali‘i Highway in Puhi, the result of people stopping to get the fresh goodies, or trying to get back onto the highway after purchases.
Bill Gray, who had been selling his son’s sweet corn along Kaumuali‘i Highway near Puhi nearly every day, said that he has no where else to sell his product. Kaua‘i, he said, is known even on the Mainland as “the home of the super sweet corn.”
Recently, Gray said, an anonymous complaint led to Kaua‘i Police Department officers asking him to leave the site he’s frequented for years, which, he said, is off the highway and out of traffic. So, he’s looking for private property from which to sell his wares.
Gray’s not alone.
From Kekaha to Kilauea, on any day, Kaua‘i residents are selling agricultural products on the side of the road.
Some of those who are on private property, out of the state right-of-way, are less likely to be visited by police, as long as they have the landowner’s permission.
The question is, however, exactly which vendors are on state land and which aren’t?
State Department of Transportation leaders make the definition where the boundaries of the rights-of-way lie, but they can change from parcel to parcel. And any selling on state land is illegal.
Gray’s spot is on the borderline. The right-of-way apparently ends parallel from the Kilohana Plantation fence. But it’s unknown whether the property mauka of the right-of-way is owned by Kilohana or the University of Hawai‘i, county officials said.
Another question is enforcement.
State officials have neither the bodies nor the enforcement powers to enforce the state law, Ishikawa said. If a perceived public-safety issue is observed regarding roadside vendors, state officials will give vendors verbal warnings, he added. If that doesn’t help, state officials call on KPD officers to chase vendors off of state property.
KPD Chief K.C. Lum said that if police are called, officers will service the complaint.
None of this helps Gray, who said his family’s livelihood is at stake. He sells the goods for his son, who grows the corn year-round on property in Mana near Kekaha, and has a state excise-tax license for the product.
“Why issue an excise tax (license) if we can’t sell it?” he asked. “What are we do with our corn? It’s going to get rotten.”
Gray said his family members are is going to try to sell the corn from a far-more-dangerous place.
“Now we are forced to find private property to sell (from), in an area where cars are going by” at high rates of speed, Gray said.
