Police apologize for lemonade shutdown

APPLETON - Appleton police shut down a lemonade stand over the weekend, but it turns out there was no reason to do so.

Two young sisters planned to sell beverages to people heading to a nearby car show at Pierce Park Sunday, but an officer told Lydia and Vivian Coenen no, it was against the law.

“At first I was pretty upset,” said Lydia Coenen.

The girls were forced to come up with another business plan.

“My mom said that we could give it away for free, and then it ended up being a really good day,” Coenen explained.

But it turns out the girls needlessly lost out on sales.

“The last thing they wanted to do was make some kids shut down their lemonade stand,” said Sgt. Pat DeWall of the Appleton Police Department.

DeWall says an officer was just trying to enforce a new city ordinance that does not allow licensed vendors to sell food and drinks within a two block radius of special events.

“There was just a misunderstanding of what exactly the ordinance applied to and what it did not apply to, so sometimes there's some gray areas when ordinances are enacted, laws are enacted or that changes are made,” said DeWall.

Lemonade stands run by children are exempt from the ordinance, and police have since apologized to the family.

“He told us that everybody is human and people make mistakes,” Coenen said.

Meanwhile, the young entrepreneurs and their mother, Margi Mann, are taking it all in stride.

“I’m absolutely positive and have always been positive that there was no malice or ill intent here with it,” said Mann.

Not only did an Appleton police officer apologize to the family, but the city's police chief also apologized in an email to the common council.

In it, the chief called it "not our finest hour" and said the department “went a step too far.” He went on to say he'll make sure “it does not repeat itself.”

“I'm glad that once this mistake happened, everyone realized this was a mistake, and it was rectified, and explained immediately,” said Ald. Peter Stueck.

Still, Stueck said it's possible some changes to the ordinance are needed.

“I'm comfortable so far, but I do want to look into this a little more just to make sure something like this doesn't happen again,” Stueck said.

Appleton's police chief says his officers will be trained in enforcing the new ordinance properly to try to make sure a similar incident doesn't happen again.