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Council OK’s Food Truck Ordinance, Permits
In other business: City signs two-year animal control contract
By Tom Leturgey
The Tube City Almanac
March 06, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(File photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel photo via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Saying the city welcomes food trucks, but wants to set some guidance on their operation, McKeesport Council this week approved an ordinance setting options for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly permits.
The ordinance also prohibits food trucks from setting up operations adjacent to existing restaurants.
Permits will range from $10 per day to $1,200 for a year. “These fees are in line with nearby communities,” Mayor Michael Cherepko said.
The fees are designed to regulate trucks that stop in one place and serve food prepared ready-to-eat, and are distinct from the existing “peddler’s licenses.”
Until now, McKeesport had no ordinance regulating operations of food trucks, which have grown in popularity since the 2010s. Many Pittsburgh-area food trucks have fans who follow them from location to location.
The city’s new ordinance also has zaswêdfv an option for vendors who want to operate a “food truck park” or collective on behalf of two or more trucks. Those fees range from $50 per day to $2,500 per year.
In Other Business:
Council approved an animal control contract with Sable Kennel, retroactive to Feb. 25 and continuing for two years.
According to their website, Sable Kennel provides animal control for 27 municipalities in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Cherepko announced that McKeesport native and former Major League pitcher and Rick Krivda will be returning to the city on June 28 for a baseball clinic. Krivda pitched professionally for 12 years, including seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds, and won a gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics with the U.S. baseball team.
Cherepko said more information will be coming about the baseball clinic, which will most likely include other former major leaguers.
Council Member Amber Webb said that the Carnegie Library in McKeesport is back open after maintenance issues. She also said there is a full-service UPMC Women’s Clinic that will provide some basic services to women in the area.
Clean-up initiatives are continuing in the city, Webb said. Volunteers want to continue clean-up efforts with Earth Day around the corner, April 22.
Resident Jasmine Brown read a poem to council about the city’s past and future. And a resident of Centennial Street asked about parking concerns on her street. Cherepko said that city public works crews will go out to paint lines to help alleviate issues of blocking driveways.
Tom Leturgey is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh and the editor of KSWA Digest, the online news and features home of the Keystone State Wrestling Alliance. His work also appears in The Valley Mirror and other publications.
Originally published March 06, 2025.
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