By Fawn Porter/Staff Writer

Having frequent garage sales isn’t a business to James Cook, it’s his life. And, he said, he means it really is about life.

Cook uses the money he makes from his garage sales to supplement the cost of expensive medications he must regularly take.

So, Cook said, if the city of Mustang passes a proposed ordinance that would limit the number of garage sales he has to one sale per quarter, he’ll have to find another way to fund the in-excess-of $350 each month he spends on his medication.

Recently, the Mustang City Council considered an ordinance draft limiting the number of garage sales to two per year, per home, as well as a $10 permit fee. Council members retooled the proposition to one garage sale per quarter, keeping the permit fee and providing two city-issued signs for those holding garage sales. No formal action has been taken yet.

But what Cook said he wants is this: a chance. A chance to make enough money to cover his medical expenses. A chance to have his neighbors talk to him if he’s causing them any inconvenience.

He said, in fact, that many neighbors have already pledged their garages to him if the city passes the ordinance.

To date, Cook said he’s held about 12 garage sales at his Whippoorwhill Way home, albeit weekly ones, selling items he purchases from storage unit auctions.

“I guess they (the city) call 12 excessive,” he said, adding it’s only been this year that he has had such frequent garage sales.

Cook said if the city passes an ordinance, he will be forced to have larger sales – “super sales” – in not only his garage, but front and back yards as well.

“That will work only so long,” he said. “Until they pass another one saying (the sale) can’t go outside of a garage … that’s what they’ll do next.”

Cook said he doesn’t have an issue with the permit process. He even goes so far as to say he’d pay three times the possible $10 fee, as well as sales tax on items sold – if he had to to continue his sales.

“I’d pay $30 or $40 for a permit, just so long as I could still have sales,” he said.

Cook said he is concerned about the potential city-issued signs, calling them too small to be effective if they are anything like Yukon’s signs.

“They’re tiny signs … put them on a curb and who’s going to see them,” he said. Cook added the signs he places around town are “nice,” with hand-painted lettering and fixed in a permanent frame.

“It’s not just some cardboard box that someone writes garage sale on and sticks a rock inside to hold it down,” he said.

Cook said, also, whatever is left over from his sale is taken to an area homeless shelter, not donated to an organization that will resale it for double what he sells it for.

“I turn around and help someone else,” he said. “Nothing goes to waste.”