NY STATE PUTS THE SQUEEZE ON

LOCAL LEMONADE STAND

Peter C. Lumley learned an important civics lesson. The 9-year-old was selling lemonade in plastic cups on a folding table outside his Watertown home when a state Department of Health employee told him he had to stop because he was operating without a permit. “We were using powder and water,” Peter’s father, Douglas C. Lumley, said. “It says it right on the report.” Peter was selling the lemonade for 25 cents a glass. Mr. Lumley said he was told the boy could not operate the lemonade stand anymore without a permit.  When Mr. Lumley told the inspector that he wanted his son to continue selling lemonade, she left, only to return later in the day with an inspection report. The inspector who noticed the “bootleg” business told Mr. Lumley that follow-up communications would come in the mail, but she told him a fine was unlikely. Thomas E. Boxberger, District Director for the state Health Department in Jefferson and Lewis Counties, could not be reached for   comment. v