Fayette County residents will soon be able to drive ATV's on county roadways, after commissioners approved an ordinance Tuesday allowing such traffic. (Contributed photo)
Come September, Fayette County residents will be able to legally operate ATV's on county roadways.
In one of three meeting Tuesday, county commissioners voted unanimously to approve an ATV ordinance which will allow county residents to operate ATV's legally on county-controlled roadways.
Similar ordinances have been passed in neighboring Rush and Franklin counties, along with other counties statewide.
It was something Commissioner Zane Badore had been working on for the past two years, he said, after being approached by residents who were seeking such an ordinance.
The ordinance does offer stipulations to residents wanting to operate ATV's on county roads, however, according to Commissioner Frank Jackson, such as abiding by state and local laws such as speed limits, having liability insurance, residents registering their ATV's with the county in order to receive a sticker to operate on roadways, being at least the age of 18, having a valid operator's license and a working muffler, among other items.
The fee for residents to register their ATV's with the county will be $25 per vehicle, with three informational sessions for the public — held by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department — to register their vehicles and learn more about the ordinance to take place, at yet-to-be-determined dates, in Glenwood, Bentonville and Everton. Those registration fees will most likely, according to commissioners, go to the sheriff's department for use as funding for training and other expenses.
Golf carts are prohibited, according to the ordinance, due to their not being able to attain the posted speed limits on county roads, Badore said, and ATV's will be prohibited from traveling on state roads that go through the county.
Any resident who violates the ordinance will face a fine of $100 for a first offense, a $250 fine and 60-day suspension from operating the ATV on county roads for a second offense, and a $5000 fine and lifetime suspension for third and subsequent offenses.
Any criminal trespassing which occurs by residents on ATV's will be met with criminal prosecution and have their ATV impounded, the ordinance goes on to state.
Despite the many requirements of the ordinance, it was met with some questions by a few residents in attendance, such as Brian Moffett.
"If it were about production of food products for sale, or just agriculture, I'd be 100 percent for it," he told the commissioners of the ordinance. "But I think recreational use of ATV's on the county's roads is in the absence of good judgment. I don't think we should be doing it. My main concern is increased trespass possibility, crop (destruction) and that type of thing. I don't see an economic upside to it at all. I just see potential expense."
Moffett anticipates seeing more trouble from ATV's due to the ordinance, along with additional work for the sheriff's department in enforcing the ordinance. It also shows a disregard for the warnings of ATV manufacturers, which advise not using such vehicles on roadways.
While commissioners could see Moffett's point that some would likely take advantage of the ordinance, there are just as many who will adhere to it responsibly.
"That's just not something you're going to prevent wholesale," Jackson said. "This is something new. This is something different. But this is something that has worked in the counties surrounding us ... this ordinance, there is no intent by us passing this ordinance, if that's what we do, to open it up to the Wild West.
"It gives freedom for those who are responsible," he continued.
If anything, Badore added, the ordinance allows for actual enforcement of ATV's in situations such as trespassing or property damage, whereas there was really no standard for law enforcement to uphold previously. It will also give residents something to fall back on.
"The avenue is enforcement," he said. "They have the tools and they have the ability. Yes, the sheriff's department is limited on manpower, but they will absolutely now have the ability (to enforce the ordinance)."
Another resident, Kent Debruler, questioned whether residents in the county could have certain roadways exempted from the ordinance, in order to prevent ATV traffic on those roadways. He also presented petitions for residents in his neighborhood near Everton that requested their roadways be exempted.
Commissioners acknowledged Debruler's petitions, and his concerns about residents taking advantage of the ordinance, but took no action on the petitions. No language was included in the ordinance to allow for roadways to be exempt from the ordinance, if a majority of the residents on the road petitioned to have it so.
In the end, commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the ordinance, which is set to become effective in the county Sept. 15.
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