If one of the 25,579 residents of Collinsville gets a taste for a sno cone on a Tuesday evening, they either have to cozy up to the lone stand on the western end of Camelot Bowl, or leave town in search of flavored flaked ice. That will soon change.

The Collinsville City Council approved modifications Monday to a city ordinance that, among other things, allowed only one “shaved ice facility” in the city limits, specifically calling out the stand at Camelot Bowl. Community Development Director Mitch Bair called the old ordinance pure market manipulation.

Highland business man Matt Wagner will be the first to take advantage of the new open market. If all goes as planned, Wagner will open a Tropical Sno stand in the northwest corner of the VFW parking lot on Wednesday, June 18.

The Tropical Sno stand will serve shave ice with 40 individual flavors, multiple topping options and “limitless” flavor combinations, Wagner said. A six-page menu will be at the stand to guide customers.

Although the terms shave (or shaved) ice and sno cones are used interchangeable, the new stand will not serve sno cones.

“Shave ice and sno cones are like hotdogs and bratwurst, they are not the same,” Wagner said. “Sno cones, like you get at carnivals, are granular and gritty. We sever a flaky product that absorbs the flavor thought the cone.”

The moniker of shave ice – not shaved ice – is in keeping true to the Hawaiian roots of the product, Wagner said. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, shave became shaved, but Tropical Sno rights that wrong.

The Collinsville location at the VFW, at 1234 Vandalia Street, will be the second for Wagner’s Tropical Enterprises LLC, which also owns a hut in Troy. The construction along Illinois Route 159 is a short-term concern, but the location is good in the long-term, Wagner said.

The Collinsville Tropical Sno stand will open from 2 – 8:30 p.m. daily in June and July, with shorter hours after the new school year begins. Tropical Enterprises also serves shave ice at events and birthday parties.

Changes to the ordinance also opened competition for seasonal produce stands in Collinsville. Until Monday, the produce sold at a seasonal stand had to be grown on the property.

There are no current plans for a new produce stand to open, Bair said, but at least one person has expressed interest in opening a fresh peach stand in town.