A local businessman is voicing concerns about food sales alongside Columbia roads, particularly seafood on South High School Avenue.
Wayne Ledet, one of the owners of Rajun Cajun’s, addressed the Board of Aldermen at a recent meeting. He said he wants to open a seafood market at the restaurant’s former location on Lumberton Road.
“I can’t open another business because you — this isn’t anything against anybody — but you’re letting them sell seafood off of trucks. I was going to open a seafood market there to benefit Marion County. You would get taxes from me. But I can’t – I can’t compete with people alongside the road that aren’t paying taxes to the city,” he said.
Ledet said roadside seller can accept EBT cards but he wasn’t allowed to when he had his restaurant there.
He said the building sitting there costs him money for taxes and will probably never sell.
“I could have hired a contractor to tear the building down and pay less taxes because it’s costing me a fortune,” he said. “They’re selling oysters in a gallon, which I can’t sell in my own restaurant, shrimp, live crawfish, boiled crawfish, fish out of these trucks alongside the road. Is that fair to the city?”
Mayor Justin McKenzie said state law regulates what is a fresh-market product.
“If a man wants to sell raw shrimp down there, it ties our hands on it,” he said.
The C-P checked with several state agencies for clarification on the rules for roadside seafood sales.
The Mississippi Department of Revenue said there is a sales tax exemption for fishermen or farmers if they catch or grow something and sell it in an unprepared form.
But if a wholesaler buys it from a fisherman, then the wholesaler is required to register with the Department of Revenue and pay sales tax. The sales tax goes to the city where the sale to the consumer takes place, Katie Lawson of the Department of Revenue said. So shrimp purchased from a boat in Gulfport and sold in Columbia would require a sales tax, and 18.5 percent of that tax collected would come back to the city of Columbia.
Also, both the state Department of Marine Resources and Department of Health require permits for roadside seafood sales.
Liz Sharlot, a spokesperson for the Health Department, said sellers of shrimp, for example, must hold a Level 1 permit, which is the lowest level of risk.
They are also given a one-page checklist of food safety requirements. Those include keeping records of where shrimp and ice are purchased, having hand sanitizer and a trash can on site, disposing of waste water in a sanitary manner and keeping fresh shrimp at 41 degrees and frozen shrimp solidly frozen.
“If the public is concerned, they can always ask, ‘Hey I can see your permit?’” Sharlot said.
Ledet said he appreciated everyone’s support of the restaurant, but then went on to say that if that was the case, he could look at options that wouldn’t involve paying the city and county taxes on the building.
“I could tear the building down, fence it off, and I’ll sell out of an ice chest, fish, shrimp crawfish,” he said. “If I sold it out of an ice chest, you get no tax money. That’s all there is to it. That’s what’s happening now.”
Ward 4 Alderman Mike Smith asked City Attorney Lawrence Hahn about regulations for current roadside vendors.
“We will review that,” he said. “There is a state law regarding the transactions. We’re going to reach out to the state and see.”
McKenzie said that if there were ordinances that the city had overlooked or regulations, he would inform Ledet.
“We enjoy our business here,” Ledet concluded. “I want to open that building back up and bring some money into Columbia. I appreciate all of you.”
Pictured Above: One of the owners of this building on Lumberton Road, which formerly housed Rajun Cajun’s, said he’d like to convert it to a seafood market but can’t because of roadside vendors. | Photo by Mark Rogers
