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Health Dept Hits Six Staten Island Food Carts With Violations

By Nicholas Rizzi | February 28, 2013 8:33am

STATEN ISLAND — Health inspectors issued six food vendors in Staten Island violations for failing to keep their trucks clean.

The tickets were issued for failing to clean their carts every day, as permits require.

Food trucks are required by law to go to a food commissary for cleaning daily. The only one in Staten Island — an ice cream truck depot — is closed for the winter season, meaning operators had to travel to Brooklyn for cleaning.

But residents complained that was not happening.

“It’s just not being done,” said Ken Tirado, owner of Killmeyer's Bavarian Inn and member of Community Board 1.

“If they’re supposed to go to some designated site it's not happening, because you see the same truck there every single day in some cases.”

The Health Department said for the carts to be allowed back onto the sidewalks, they would have to correct the violation, pay for permit decal replacements and then pass an inspection.

Food trucks on Staten Island have been a relatively new issue for residents. In 2011, the borough had only 14 licenses for mobile food vendors. It now  has 36, the Health Department said.

"They sprouted up all over Staten Island,” Tony Cosentino, a member of Community Board 1, told DNAinfo.com New York.

DNAinfo New York recently reported complaints that the influx of trucks was causing traffic problems on the island.