SALT LAKE CITY — Dawn Cox was on the verge of quitting when she got the call she'd been waiting for: Inspectors were ready to approve her food truck.

That was in February, four months after she first applied for a permit and shortly after several aspiring food truck vendors raised complaints about the Salt Lake County Health Department's waitlist for new mobile food businesses that at one point stretched to six months or more.

Now, health department officials say they've virtually eliminated wait times for food truck hopefuls by adding staff and changing how they handle applications.

For that, they deserve credit, Cox said.

"They did great once we got called," she said. "They were easy to work with. They tried to kick it into high gear."

The changes come shortly after a report about how long wait times for permits resulted in at least one family being forced to close their business while they waited for someone to inspect their food cart.

Jeffrey Oaks, the food protection bureau manager at the Salt Lake County Health Department, said inspectors were held up by vendors who weren't ready for their inspections or uncertain if they wanted to go through with the business at all.

"Some were saying, 'Oh, just give me another couple weeks. Give me another couple weeks,'" Oaks said. "We said, 'Now we're not being fair to the ones that are ready that maybe didn't come in first but are more prepared.'"

The bottleneck created long waits for those who applied later, even if their food cart, truck or trailer was turnkey-ready, he said.

That's what happened to Cameron Burr, who applied for a permit last December to expand Genki Asian Street Food into Salt Lake County.

In Utah County, where Burr has been operating his food truck for a year, the wait for an inspection was about a week. With Salt Lake County, Burr said he waited three months for an inspector to be available.

"In my case, I already have a truck. I'm operating in Utah County. I've been operating a year. I own my own kitchen," Burr said.

"I have to wait for the other 170 people in front of me that don't have trucks yet, that don't even have a menu or an idea or a kitchen or anything," he added. "So I'm pooled in with all those people."

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Oaks said the department recognized a long time ago that it had to do a better job of expediting applicants who are ready for their inspections.

"Instead of worrying about first-come, first-served, at some point we said, 'Let's turn that corner and go to first-ready, first-served,'" he said.

The department decided to invite all applicants on the waitlist to submit their paperwork if they were ready to begin the approval process. Less than half did, according to Oaks.

The department also recently added three inspectors to the mobile food unit, bringing the total number of inspectors to eight.

The changes have virtually eliminated the wait time for an inspection, according to Oaks.

"As soon as you bring in your unit for inspection, then we'll move forward," Oaks said. "It's not as much of a paperwork backup as it was before. Now the ball's in their court."

Alissa Largin, who helps low- to moderate-income English- and Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs start their own businesses at the Suazo Center, said she's noticed that the approval process has been moving faster.

"Everyone that I had on the waiting list has been moved through, so that's big," Largin said. That includes the couple who shut down their food cart in January because their city business license expired while they were waiting on the county health department to renew their permit.

The health department often sees a surge of applications for food carts, trucks and trailers in May. If that happens this year, Oaks said they will be prepared.

"Things are moving," he said.

For Cox, it's hard to explain how it feels to see her dream come to fruition.

Speaking Wednesday, shortly after a corporate event in Salt Lake City where she debuted a vegetarian lemon-basil pizza cone option to big crowds, Cox described the experience as "like going to a fair or carnival all the time."

"I've never worked harder in my life, but it is absolutely a blast," Cox said.

When it comes to the Salt Lake County Health Department, Cox says it's a case of credit where credit is due.

"For what it's worth in passing it on, the system works great," she said.

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