Ice cream has divided the residents of Northfield Center Township.
Things got heated Monday night as neighbors were screaming over the summertime snack and a trustee who has grown cold toward an ice cream man.
"The whole issue boils down to public safety," Paul Buescher said. "There is so much misinformation by these people."
One ice cream man, Mark Negrelli, and others says Buescher typed up something hateful about ice cream truck drivers and posted it online.
"I don't use drugs, I'm not a pedophile, I don't scam the elderly," Negrelli said. "I'm just a small business man trying to make a living."
To make that living, solicitors need a permit. Negrelli says Buescher froze people out by making it tough to get those necessary permits.
According to Negrelli, the commotion can be traced back a couple of months when a driver got into it with an official.
"That one driver was told by the deputy that he couldn't be here," Buescher said. "And one hour later he was over in another section of our township."
Things haven't been right since and neighbors are stuck in the middle of the mess.
"If you don't leave with a smile, we're going to do everything we can to get that smile," Negrelli said.
Everything within reason.
For now, no more ice cream trucks on the streets in Northfield Center Township. So far there is no word on when permits could be made available to solicitors.
