City of Sandwich offering no solicitor signs on website after recently enacting stricter rules

After banning solicitors from coming to people’s houses after dark, the city of Sandwich is now making no solicitor signs available on its website.

Residents can print the signs and post them in a visible location on the front of their houses. In June, the Sandwich City Council voted to make several changes to its solicitation ordinance, including when solicitors can knock on people’s doors.

As part of the new rules, solicitation will only be allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (or sundown, whichever is earlier) and that solicitation will not be allowed on Sundays.

Previously, the city didn’t allow solicitation between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

“We don’t want people banging on the doors when it’s dark,” City Administrator Geoff Penman has said in explaining the new rules. “It’s just to try to narrow it down a little bit so people have some peace at home.”

Penman also talked about why the city requires solicitors to have a permit.

“The importance of getting a permit is that they’re registered with us so we know who is out there,” he said.

As part of the city’s rules regarding solicitation, solicitors must first file an application with the city clerk and pay a fee to cover the cost of processing the application. The City Council voted to increase the fee to $50 per day for each solicitor or peddler, which previously was $25.

The issue about making changes to the solicitation ordinance was discussed at the Sandwich City Council Committee of the Whole meeting June 5. City Council members had discussed the possibility of the city implementing a no-knock registry.

As part of a no-knock registry, homeowners could register with the city if they didn’t want solicitors. That list would be shared with potential solicitors so they would know not to go to that home.

Fourth Ward Alderman Fred Kreinbrink said he was concerned that such an ordinance would create another data base.

“That’s another data base that you and your staff have to maintain,” Kreinbrink said in addressing Sandwich City Clerk Denise Ii. “I think you’re better off in doing a no solicitor sticker on the door and calling it quits. That’s my opinion.”

Ii expressed her doubts about how effective a no-knock registry would be.

“What has worked in some communities may not work here,” she said.