The Guilford ordinance governing peddling and soliciting is as antiquated as the name suggests, so officials have decided it is time for an update. The Board of Selectmen (BOS) has called a public hearing for Monday, Aug. 5 to consider amending the Code of the Town of Guilford Chapter 218, Peddling and Soliciting.

Town In-House Counsel Pam Millman said the original ordinance was written in 1965 and hasn’t been touched since. She said the language, peddling and soliciting, is statutory and can’t be changed, but said it would be good for the town to update the actual language within the ordinance to meet some more modern needs.

“What we would be doing is bringing it all up to date and pulling in all of the relevant statutes and what we call the mobile food establishments will now fit into this ordinance because at the time this was written, those didn’t even exist,” she said.

Millman said the ordinance also allows for the adoption of rules and regulations to further elaborate on what is allowed within the ordinance. She said this allows for the flexibility to make changes without having to go through the ordinance process to make changes.

Millman worked with Guilford Chief of Police Jeff Hutchinson and staff from Town Hall South departments (Building and Engineering, Health, and Planning & Zoning) to update the ordinance. She said the update should help make everything more clear for law enforcement, town officials, members of the public, and vendors.

“The police chief would very much like to get this updated law on the books because this simplifies and elaborates on the license process and due process if for some reason a license was revoked,” she said.

A draft of the ordinance and rules and regulations will be available at the public hearing and will be placed on the town website www.ci.guilford.ct.us. The public hearing is Monday, Aug 5 at 8:30 a.m. at Town Hall.