By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Aug. 14, 2025) The Berlin Council adopted an ordinance this week that restricts peddling in town outside the hours of Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and prohibits the practice on holidays. A new fee structure for solicitors was also implemented.

At its meeting on Monday, Aug. 11, the Berlin Town Council unanimously passed an ordinance outlining peddling guidelines within the municipality’s boundaries. Town of Berlin Attorney David Gaskill drafted the updated code earlier this summer. Town officials then reviewed the document, and upon the closure of a public hearing this week, approved it.

The enhanced ordinance was necessary for the benefit of Berlin residents, who are the target of solicitors, Gaskill said at the document’s first reading last month. According to town staff, the previous regulations were inadequate.

“Our [current] peddlers’ ordinance, in my opinion, was just poorly drafted,” the town attorney said at that time. “So, we’re going to get rid of all of it and start over.”

Per the newly adopted law, peddlers, defined as those “selling or offering for sale of any goods, wares or merchandise for immediate delivery which the person selling or offering for sale carries with him or her in traveling, or has in his or her possession or control, upon any of the streets or sidewalks or from house to house within the town,” are required to obtain a peddlers license. Manufacturers or producers for the sale of bread or bakery products, meat products, milk products, produce, eggs, or other agricultural products are exempt from this rule.

The updated standards also note that soliciting is strictly prohibited on town-sanctioned holidays.

Furthermore, a new fee structure was approved this week for peddlers in Berlin, increasing the soliciting rate from $25 per year per person. In an email from Town Administrator Mary Bohlen, absent from Monday night’s meeting, she suggested that “each company that wishes to obtain a permit pays $150 and then $50 for each individual that would be doing the leg work.”

The town council agreed to increase the charges. However, Councilwoman Shaneka Nichols proposed raising the per-person price to $75, which the governing group ultimately approved. Now, if a business wishes to sell products in the Town of Berlin, it must pay an initial fee of $150 annually, in addition to $75 for each registered representative. At a previous meeting, complaints were raised over an employee with Anderson Windows being too aggressive with at least one Berlin resident.

The increased rates are to cover administrative costs incurred by the town when distributing soliciting permits. Berlin staff must complete background checks and due diligence, and provide the necessary materials, all of which come with a price tag.

Berlin resident Sara Hambury, who owns The West-O Bottle Shop in West Ocean City with her husband, addressed the council regarding the fees, expressing her dissatisfaction with the allowance of peddling in Berlin.

“This is the bargain of a century,” she said. “These people aren’t even paying overhead, but they’re allowed to knock on everybody’s door and peddle their stuff? I own a business, and I have to pay the rent, the roof, the electricity, and the insurance just to open the door. I have to pay for the insurance on the parking lot. So really, if I gave you $150 and then $75 for each of my employees, even though my business is in West Ocean City, I can just come up to people’s doors?”

Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall empathized with the resident, maintaining the fees are reviewed annually.

“This is new,” he said. “This has to be a recovery cost. This is a good step forward. Is it perfect? Probably not. It is likely it will go up, but we need to have something … We are not setting this price or this ordinance to keep people out of Berlin. We are establishing a fee that is designed to cover costs, and we will continue to evaluate that annually.”

The new peddling ordinance and the rate change were both approved unanimously by the Berlin Town Council with an effective date of Sept. 1.