Summer safety concern high as golf carts, ATVs run rampant here

By Lois Mittino Gray

It’s summertime and members of the Mount Vernon Common Council are turning their thoughts to concerns about motorized side by side vehicles zooming around on city streets, especially when driven by underage children. Mount Vernon Mayor Steve Loehr brought the issue up under Old Business at the May 20 regular Council meeting at the City Hall.

“Let’s have a follow up on the discussion of side by sides from the last meeting. What are your thoughts and ideas? Should we create a new ordinance on them or add them to the golf cart ordinance?” he posed. City Attorney Beth Higgins informed him that it would need to be a new section and would require a new ordinance. It could then be integrated into the city code.

Loehr said Higgins could create an ordinance, present it to Council, and go from there. She agreed and added she would need some guidelines from councilors and would need to check state statute. She would then send it to Council for review. “If that is what you want to do.”

“As a general statement, I do not want to open up the side-by-side question. There are too many types of these vehicles to regulate and lots of numbers and I am not comfortable doing it. We still don’t have compliance on our golf cart ordinance. Let’s get a handle on that first,” Councilman Andy Hoehn opined. Councilman John Gerton stated he completely agrees and added side by sides are faster and bad accidents can happen with them. Hoehn agreed there have been several bad accidents in the Tri-state area.

Councilwoman Jillian Brothers asked when someone underage is driving a golf cart for instance, and they are involved in an accident in the city, are the parents responsible? Higgins replied, “If they are aware the child is driving it, yes, they are liable. If they know or have reason to believe that their underage child is driving the golf cart.” Hoehn asked, “Who pays the fine? I assume the parents.” He joked that would be a lot of Girl Scout cookies to sell for a child to make that kind of money.

Councilman David Dodd asked Loehr if he proposed this ordinance and the reason for it. Loehr replied in the affirmative and said people have talked to him about it so he thought he would present the issue and see if it would float or sink. Dodd asked, “What is your opinion then on it?”

Loehr replied he sees the pros and the cons. “Right now, kids shouldn’t be driving golf carts, but they are, and they will also drive the side by sides. My biggest fear is a bad accident will happen and that would be the worst thing imaginable. The parents need to keep their kids from driving. If they are, we need to pay attention to it and they should be fined.”

Dodd asked if there is a lot of side-by-side activity in the city? Loehr replied, “Yes, they go by my house every day and they are not going slow.” Dodd wondered if they are noticing more kids driving the golf carts because they are looking for it. Brothers stated, “We used to just see golf carts around the golf course, but they are now all over. It seems to be more of a thing in town now.”

Dodd asked what Police Captain Korben Sellers thoughts were on the subject. Sellers replied he sees the good and the bad, too. “Kids on golf carts already are not wearing the proper equipment of seat belts and helmets and probably wouldn’t on side by sides, either.”

Mount Vernon Fire Chief Robbie Wilson added, “Just for your information, if someone does not have their seat belt hooked up on new side-by-sides, they can’t go over 15 miles per hour.”

Hoehn stated the original intent of the golf cart ordinance was to address the issues of seeing kids on golf carts. “We would see six kids on a Saturday night in a cart blowing through a stop sign. The point was to regulate it, as it was out of control.”

Dodd asked if they thought that by regulating it, it has become worse? “Yes, until enforcement takes hold. It all boils down to enforcement,” Hoehn emphasized. He suggested information be sent to homeowners on postcards with the criteria on golf carts so all are aware. Brothers stated she thinks it is two-fold question: should Council allow/regulate, and if so, will they be able to regulate with the limited force that they have. She said that adding another ordinance seems not to be wise.

Loehr stated they probably need to table this for now and look into it more.

Higgins added, “Just so Council is aware, Indiana State Law has exceptions on side-by-side use by municipalities. According to Indiana Law, Fire Departments and Parks and Recreation, for example, may use them on public streets.”

Under the Legals portion of the agenda, councilors found CountryMark Refinery in compliance on form CF-1/PP. This is required for their tax abatements. Hoehn commented, “They are doing exactly what they said they would do and more. It looks like they have hired more than anticipated and salaries look to be an average of $75,000. They are decent jobs.” A roll call vote unanimously accepted the report of compliance 4-0 with Councilman Rusty Levings absent from the meeting to vote. They also found CountryMark to be compliant with the vacant building deduction.

There were no District Reports made at the meeting. In Mayor’s Announcements, Loehr stated, “There is still a lot of work going on around town, things are torn up, but we are slowly getting finished and have patience.”

At the Water Utility Board meeting held prior to the Council meeting, Water Superintendent Chuck Gray was delighted to announce, “Work on the Mulberry Tower is finished and the tower is back in service and fully operational.”

Bulldog Diving was hired to go down underwater to remove zebra mussels from the raw water intakes. They were 90 percent covered before being cleaned off. There have been five large main breaks in the city since the last meeting, and IDEM will be down tomorrow for an inspection.

He presented a Change Order, from Deig Brothers, created due to utilities not being marked, as well as for paving. He told the Board that paving from College to Main Streets was only $7,000 more, so they are going to repave the entire street. The utility work is a change in the amount of $25,571 and the paving is $37,950 for a total Change Order of $63,521. Higgins stated they will consider the Change Order at the next meeting once paperwork has been received.