Gloversville ice cream truck to lose permit over charges

PHOTOGRAPHER: Edward Munger Jr.

A Gloversville vendor’s license held by the ice cream man charged with harassing a competitor won’t be renewed after it expires Saturday, the city’s mayor said Thursday.

Joshua V. Malatino, 34, and Amanda C. Scott, 21, who operate Sno Kone Joe ice cream trucks, are facing harassment and stalking charges amid accusations they tailgated Phillip N. Hollister, operator of a Mr. Ding-A-Ling ice cream truck, on several occasions.

In order to sell ice cream, hot dogs or anything else in the city, vendors must hold a license, and Malatino’s expires Saturday, according to Mayor Dayton King.

Along with filing criminal charges, the city has the authority to reject license renewal, and King said he will follow the guidance of Police Chief Donald W. Vandeusen and reject any new license for Malatino’s franchise.

Licenses for vendors and solicitors are sold either weekly for $25, monthly for $75, or as much as $650 for a year. King said Malatino is operating on a one-month license.

King said he believes the issue involving the Sno Kone Joe ice cream truck is isolated and doesn’t reflect on the city. He said there’s clearly enough room for more than one ice cream vendor in the city.

“With 15,000 people, the city’s certainly big enough for a couple ice cream trucks,” the mayor said.

According to documents filed in City Court, police contend Malatino, in an apparent effort to corner the city’s mobile ice cream market, followed Hollister and yelled “You don’t have a chance, this is my town.”

Malatino allegedly then shouted out “I have free ice cream” to customers bound for Hollister’s truck.

At one point, Hollister told police another Sno Kone Joe truck, driven by Scott, pulled up in front of his house “and began video recording me and my kids outside. I went in the house just to avoid her,” Hollister said in an affidavit.

“It’s my income that he is messing with, and it’s got to stop. It’s my means of supporting my family,” he said in the statement.

Former Gloversville resident Melanie Ryder, who operated a Mr. Ding-A-Ling truck for five years until 2011, said Thursday she’s not surprised at Malatino’s arrest.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all because he did that to me for the last three years that I was driving,” said Ryder, who now lives in the state of Florida. “They followed me in their ice cream truck. I’d be driving around in my ice cream truck, just minding my own business.”

She said the treatment she received made her nervous.

“If somebody in another ice cream truck is yelling and cursing, that does definitely make you very nervous,” Ryder said.

She said the fracas over ice cream puts a feel-good enterprise in a bad light.

“There are little kids that, you know, are thinking they have an ideal thought about an ice cream truck and they come running. He’s taking that away. I think it’s kind of sad,” said Ryder, 32.

Calls to a phone number listed for Malatino and Scott went unanswered Thursday.

Each is charged with fourth-degree stalking, a misdemeanor, and second-degree harassment, a violation. They are due back in Gloversville City Court later this month.