Despite cheerful music emanating from its speakers, the food truck roaming Moundridge streets the evening of May 3 was operating illegally.
According to assistant city clerk Fances Sparks, the Mijom’s Ice Cream Xpress ice cream truck did not have a valid peddler’s license as required by the City of Moundridge’s codes and ordinances.
Chapter Five of the city’s code, titled “Business Regulations,” explains under Article 2 “Solicitors, Canvassers, Peddlers” that a peddler is “any person, whether a resident of the city or not, traveling by foot, automotive vehicle, or any other type of conveyance, from place to place, from house to house, or from street to street, carrying, conveying or transporting goods, wares, merchandise, meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, garden truck, farm products or provisions, offering and exposing the same for sale, or making sales and delivering articles to purchasers, or who, without traveling from place to place, shall sell or offer the same for sale from a wagon, automotive vehicle, railroad boxcar or other vehicle or conveyance, and further provided, that one who solicits orders and as a separate transaction makes deliveries to purchasers as a part of a scheme or design to evade the provisions of this article shall be deemed a peddler.”
The article stipulates that it “shall be unlawful for any person to engage in any of the activities defined in the preceding sections of this ordinance, within the corporate limits of the city without then having an unrevoked and unexpired license therefore in his or her possession and issued by the city clerk.”
Mijom’s Ice Cream Xpress is based out of Catharine, Kansas, which is a small town located northeast of Hays, Kansas, in Ellis County.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that Catharine had a population of 113 residents, based on 2020 data. According to 2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Catharine has 70 households.
Based on Facebook posts, Mijom’s Ice Cream Xpress operates throughout Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
