Council introduces food-truck inspection ordinance and adopts additional NFPA references for safety

The Coldwater City Council introduced two related items on food-truck safety and fire code adoption at its Feb. 23 meeting.

Fire Chief David Schmaltz and the fire marshal described increased food-truck activity and recommended adopting additional National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) sections and a local ordinance that would require inspections. The city would join a regional consortium using a cloud-based inspection-tracking program; vendors would pay a third-party $25 fee and, if inspected and approved in one community, that approval would be recognized by participating communities.

Fire Marshal Trawl said the inspections focus on propane, fuel systems and venting and that there have been incidents nationally of vehicles catching fire. The city's proposal would provide a free city-conducted inspection but rely on the third-party platform for tracking and reciprocity. Council introduced ordinance 883 (food-truck regulation) and ordinance 884 (miscellaneous regulation changes including additional NFPA adoption) for consideration at the next meeting cycle.