Jamestown seeks yard sale regulations

The city of Jamestown is home to the Fentress County Chamber of Commerce, the official headquarters for the annual "World's Longest Yard Sale" on Highway 127.

But some city leaders fear local residents have extended the yard sale spirit of the August event into a year-round nuisance. Monday night the city council began discussions about implementing some restrictions and requirements of those who hold yard sales.

"We have some people in this city that are having way too many yard sales," said Bob Lane, Codes Enforcement Officer for the City of Jamestown. "We don't want to get rid of the yard sales, but there are some people having the sales almost every day."

Lane said some local business owners are concerned the non-stop yard sales cross the line into an unregulated business.

"It goes beyond a normal yard sale. When people are setting up at mini-storage sheds and having a sale every day it is not raining, it is basically a business that does not have to follow any of the rules. We don't want to hurt anybody financially. But we have people here who have businesses, buy business licenses, pay their sales tax, and I feel we need to treat them fair, too," said Lane.

Pam Coffman said she holds yard sales as frequently as her health allows. She said the people holding yard sales are not hurting the local businesses.

"A lot of the people that are out here, they're good people," said Coffman. "They are out here yard-selling trying to get by."

Coffman said she would agree to regulations on the amount of time someone can leave signage in place for yard sales. But she does not think the city should limit the number of yard sales someone can hold.

"Money is hard to come by. Don't tell these people that they can't have their yard sales to pay their bills and feed their families," said Coffman.

Lane said it would probably take another two or three months before the city council takes any action on new limits, if it does anything at all. Lane said he will likely recommend a limit of two yard sales per month along with requiring free permits that enable the city to track the location and frequency of yard sales.