Inyo Supervisors Take a Look at Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations
Inyo Supervisors Take a Look at Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations
At first glance, last week’s Inyo County Board of Supervisors’ agenda item on Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations looked like a no-brainer. MEHKOs sprang up during COVID-19, providing meals and/or meal elements to a population sequestered in their homes, supplementing the income of those operating a MEHKO, and providing food and/or whole meals for other shut-ins.
Once the country opened up again, the idea of earning money from one’s home kitchen was established with home cooks receptive to continuing their operations. Environmental Health Director Jerry Oser had developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with both regulations and limitations on MEHKOs. The limitations included a maximum of 30 meals a day, 90 a week, as well as a limit of $100,000 a year on gross income with no advanced preparation or catering. Basically, the food was prepared and sold on the same day.
As Oser explained to the Board, MEKHOs represented a flexible, low barrier for small business start-ups. But there were concerns. Would MEKHOs represent unfair competition to existing restaurants? With only one code enforcement officer in the County could the rules and regulations be enforced? Could there be impacts on neighborhoods? Oser recommended that cottage food permits required a food manager license, a higher bar than a simple food handler license.
The impact that wrapped the Board around an axle was the issue of fats, oils, and grease clogging leach fields. This requires an explanation for city-folks. Rural residents and communities plumbing is different. First there’s a septic tank that breaks down solids, etc. in the waste water. The tank then sends the waste water away in an underground system that consists of a network of perforated pipes and gravel trenches. The water percolates into the surrounding soil for natural filtration, removing harmful contaminants and bacteria from the wastewater before it reaches the ground water.
As Dave Tanksley with the Big Pine Community Service District explained, the average age of a leach field is 30 years and Big Pine’s system is close or at that mark. Re-doing a leach field would carry a $30,000 to $40,000 price tag.
Then came Board discussion. District 1 Supervisor Trina Orrill and District 4’s Jennifer Roeser were against further exploration. District 2’s Jeff Griffiths, District 3’s Scott Marcellin, and District 4’s Will Wadelton were supportive. Wadelton envisioned a MEKHO in both Tecopa and Olancha. The agenda item was for discussion only. Griffiths asked for a vote to “gauge interest” and provide direction to Inyo’s legal staff. Neither Roeser nor Orrill wanted to see the issue pursued.
Stay tuned!
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I am completely against the home kitchen thing because they allow the meals to be served at the premises. I don’t live downtown for a reason, don’t want the noise and disturbance and traffic coming around. Be like having a drug dealer next door. Not to mention the smells. Something that smells good in a small quantity can become gross and overwhelming when you are forced to smell it all the time.