GARDENDALE, Ala. — While President Donald J. Trump is taking steps to save jobs at the federal level by leaving the Paris Climate Accords, one Alabama City is limiting job opportunities for teens by requiring a business license to cut lawns. According to news reports from ABC 33/40, teens in Gardendale, Alabama have been threatened by local officials to produce the proper documentation before trying to earn some of their own cash by engaging in the classic American summer occupation.
In Gardendale, a business license costs $110, and the going rate for mowing a lawn in the city is only between $20 and $30. To pay for the upstart costs alone, a teen would have to mow somewhere between four and five lawns before he or she even could make a profit.
Elton Campbell, whose granddaughter just wanted to cut lawns to earn some extra money on her own, told ABC 33/40 why he thinks this has suddenly become an issue. “One of the men that cuts several yards made a remark to one of our neighbors, ‘that if he saw her cutting grass again that he was going to call Gardendale because she didn’t have a business license,'” he said.
Stan Hogeland, Mayor of Gardendale, said that such an interpretation of the city’s business licensing law is correct. However, he said that targeting teenagers in violation of it is not a priority.
To encourage kids to go out and work for their own summer funds, Hogeland is open to a change in policy. “I would love to have something on our books that gave a more favorable response to that student out there cutting grass. And see if there’s maybe a temporary license during the summer months that targets teenagers,” Hogeland told 33/40.
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.