Only one food truck has applied for and received a permit in the city of Jamestown so far this year.

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, told The Post-Journal that Foodies is the only food truck to receive a permit, which has been operating since early June. She said the food truck usually is located at Bergman Park, but has also operated from Jones and Gifford Park as well.

“We have only received one (application) and only one permit has been granted,” she said. “We’ve reached out to a number of local food trucks (with not much interest). We haven’t invited outside food trucks because we were focused on the local ones.”

Surdyk said the food truck Studio D Catering is operating in the parking lot along Pine Street is more like a parklet because the owner has a brick and mortar location along East Second Street. Surdyk also said the food truck stationed in front of Jackson-Taylor Park didn’t need a permit from the city because they are operating on private property.

Not only has there been low interest in operating a food truck in the city, there’s also been little interest in participating in a Food Truck Pilot Citizen Advisory Committee. City officials in May invited anyone interested in being on the committee to apply. However, only two people submitted an application to be on the committee.

“We’ve had a hard time,” Surdyk said. “We are working on scheduling a meeting with out internal committee that started (the food truck pilot program), which includes council members. Bringing us all back together to determine the next steps.”

Surdyk said city officials are asking again for applicants to be on the Food Truck Pilot Citizen Advisory Committee. She said city officials are hoping to have five people who are qualified to be part of the committee, which will also include a couple of council members.

“Even if we had five to seven on the committee that would be a good target number,” she said. “We don’t want it to be too big. If we could get five (citizens), with a couple council members who would like to be involved, that would give us enough of a basis to be productive.”

Surdyk said city officials had planned on hosting three food truck rodeos where several operators would go to one location in the city for the day. However, there has been no interest in that as well.

“We’re finding food trucks are already booked or they don’t think it is worth it to pay the permit fee for one day,” she said. “We were hoping to do three rodeos this season, but the first two didn’t come together because we didn’t have the interest. We’re still hoping to do one in the fall.”

The city’s food truck pilot program continues through August 2022, which is a program that started in August of last year. Surdyk said city officials will have to continue to gauge the interest of food truck operators the rest of this summer and next to decide if the program should continue.

“What happens the rest of this year and next year will determine what the final food truck program will look like,” she said. “As things open up more, I anticipate there will be more interest as we come out of the pandemic and crisis mode. With things moving to where there is more consumer confidence and more people willing to come out, hopefully next year it will look more like what a normal summer might be.”