Tribune/Debra Reid - Beer sales continued on Friday at a booth operated by David Gonzales, owner of the nearby Victoria's Beauty Salon. Gonzales moved the concession after his first booth was flanked by Waste Management dumpsters.
The big event that everybody knows about, and can smell across downtown Sparks, is the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off. That event has a permit issued Aug. 18 from the Sparks Parks and Recreation Department to occupy Victorian Avenue from Pyramid Highway to 15th Street.
The second special event is on the corner of 14th Street and Victorian Avenue, hidden behind the bigger event’s west stage and dwarfed by a couple of big green trash dumpsters. That event, called the Inca Summer Event, is the result of two local business owners, David Gonzales and Alda Rodrigues, getting a permit from the Sparks Police Department. Their permit was issued on April 30.
The permits both have their requisite approvals to occupy the same portion of Victorian Avenue on the same dates and, according to Sparks city attorney Chet Adams, both appear to have the right to be there.
“I don’t see anything (in the Spark Municipal Code) about exclusivity,” Adams said on Friday. “Just because the Nugget has a special event permit, there is nothing that gives them exclusive right to the whole space.”
Adams said both event applicants seemed to have the correct paperwork and that he knew of nothing in the city code or the permit that would have one event permit preclude the other.
“There’s a problem somewhere in the ordinance that needs to be looked at,” he said.
Gonzales’s trouble with his event, which will boast entertainment, art food and alcohol according to his permit application, started on Monday. That day, he was told by Sparks police that there was trouble with his event and alcohol permit. On Wednesday, Gonzales received a visit from Adams at his booth, where Gonzales was blending and selling margaritas, something believed he was allowed to do under his special events permit.
However, Adams told Gonzales selling the blended margaritas was a violation because he was operating with an alcoholic beverage “package license.” The package license is intended for stores that are selling prepackaged alcohol to be consumed elsewhere.
Gonzales was issued a citation by the Sparks Police Department for selling the margaritas.
Gonzales stopped selling the blended drinks, but was further angered when, on Wednesday night, two large green dumpsters were moved to either side of his tent on the sidewalk outside his main business, Victoria’s Salon across from the Centennial Plaza bus station on Victorian Avenue.
Mike Traum, spokesman for John Ascuaga’s Nugget, said the block between 14th and 15th streets was designated for event staging. The dumpsters were supposed to be on the sidewalk and were moved there to free up parking spaces.
Gonzales, however, said the Nugget moved the dumpsters to block his tent. As a result, Gonzales moved his beer sales tent to a location that is outside the special event area as marked on his permit application.
“We have a license to sell and they have no way to move our business from here,” Gonzales said. “They’re trying to use their power to scare us.”
Traum said the Nugget wants local businesses to be part of its event as long as they pay the $750 vendor fee and “play by the same rules.” Allowing others to set up booths around the Rib Cook-Off’s perimeter sets a precedent that could be used by countless unofficial vendors if it goes unchecked, Traum added.
Gonzales said he applied three years ago to be a Rib Cook-Off vendor but was turned down. Since then, he said, he has held his own event and put up his own booth.
Adams said that once permits are issued, conflicts between event hosts are not the city’s business.
“The city is not under obligation to kick people off the streets once they are given a permit,” he said.
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