As per tradition, local restaurateur Cameron Palmer lugged a fire pit out to Main Street to roast chestnuts and marshmallows for the party. Palmer has been handing out the free holiday treats at every Night of Lights since the city celebration started 10 years ago.
But this year, an official from the San Mateo County Division of Environmental Health told Palmer to pack up and warned him that he was forbidden from passing out anything. He hadn’t filled out the proper paperwork, he was told.
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Dean Peterson, director of the environmental health division, said his office holds all vendors to the same health standards, even those giving away free snacks.
“He didn’t have a permit, and that means we didn’t have an opportunity of review his process to make sure it was safe,” Peterson said.
Further down on Main Street, at least three festival celebrants got a less-than welcome Christmas surprise — their vehicles were gone.
Starting at about 7 p.m. that night, people who parked at an office-building parking lot at 790 Main St. had their vehicles towed. They had to shell out about $240 to get their cars back.
Curly & Red’s Body Shop owner Gary Butler said he felt badly about towing the cars, but noted there were signs posted at the parking lot warning drivers not to park there.
“I got put in a position I didn’t like,” Butler said. “We have to do our job when we’re told, but we don’t want people to have this problem.”
Property owner Scott Frazier said he called Curly & Red’s to have the cars towed because he couldn’t park in his own parking lot for the Night of Lights.
“I can’t understand why there were complaints,” Frazier said. “I fail to see that under certain circumstances that because this was Night of Lights that it’s OK that people can trespass.”
Butler posted one of his employees at the parking lot to warn drivers not to park there, but those drivers who already had their cars towed were furious. One driver reportedly complained to Butler that there were no signs warning drivers to park elsewhere, and he came to Curly & Red’s with digital photos to try and prove it.
The photos did indeed show no signs posted at the lot, but Butler suspects that an irate driver had actually cut and removed the corrugated-metal signs from the lot.
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