MONTICELLO – Any given weekend, private hawkers can be seen intheir front yards or in parking lots offering discount pricesduring garage sales.

That may soon change if aldermen approve a city ordinanceproposed by the mayor during the town’s regular meeting Tuesdaynight.

Mayor David Nichols proposed the board implement a fee of $15for garage sales and limit each person to two sales a year.

“There are too many people holding garage sales every weekend,and certain parking lots in town are a constant eyesore because ofpeople having garage sales on them all the time,” Nichols said.

Although he recognizes the need for garage sales, Nichols said,they have become excessive. He added that some of the traders, manyof whom in the county or in neighboring counties, are onlyquestionably holding garage sales.

Current town policy is that small vendors who sell from booths,trailers or from a pickup truck bed must purchase a permit to selltheir wares in their town. No such policy exists for garagesales.

“I want to address that,” he said. “Some people are passing offtheir small businesses as garage sales to avoid the fee.”

The proposed ordinance, which will be compared to those passedin other towns Monticello’s size during the drafting, would includepenalties for violation, Nichols said. He recommended a warning fora first violation and a $50 fine for a second violation.

In other matters, the board is entering negotiations on twoseparate land deals.

The city and county are negotiating on a land swap that wouldgive the county the old police department on Broad Street for anundisclosed piece of county property within the city limits.

County supervisors have been negotiating with aldermen forseveral weeks to obtain the building. The county plans to use thebuilding as the Emergency Operations Center, which would merge theoffices of the fire coordinator, civil defense and homelandsecurity under one roof.

“It’s a rare win-win situation for everyone,” Nichols said.

District One Supervisor Steve Garrett attended the meeting. Thecounty land proposed in the swap is in his district.

“There’s nothing etched in stone,” he said. “We’re still at thevery preliminary stages.”

Aldermen also approved the mayor to begin negotiating for apiece of property in the path of the proposed boulevard connectingthe downtown area to the new Highway 84 Bypass.

The mayor said he was approached by the owner of a game room onHighway 84 who wanted to give the town first option on theirproperty after they close their business.

“If we’re serious about the boulevard, this is the next step ingetting ready for the project. We need to decide now whether topursue this, and the boulevard, or to throw away all the moneywe’ve already spent on the studies and surveys,” Nichols said.

The board approved the mayor to handle the negotiations andpresent them with their options.