City Approves Special Vehicle Ordinance

 

 

By Greg Wells

CCN—Editor

 

At Thursday evenings regular city council meeting an ordinance approving use in the city of “special purpose vehicles” was approved along the general lines of that approved by the state and county.

The only exception to that being a limit on when such vehicles may be used. Near the end of the ordinance, it restricts the use of such vehicles after 11pm and before 5am.

These “special purpose vehicles” are listed in state law as mini-trucks, ATVs, UTVs, or rubber-tired military vehicles on public roads. They must meet safety requirements, including lighting and seatbelt requirements, pass an inspection, and be both registered and insured to be legally operated on highways within the jurisdictions that permit them.

There are rules in the state law which precludes use of such vehicles on any federally funded roadways, which means interstates or parkways. The funds to create those roads came with federal requirements for what vehicles are allowed on them.

Not every jurisdiction in the state has approved the vehicles, and those approving have not all done so with the same wording.

Anyone wanting to get their vehicle approved for use on city or county roads should stop at the County Clerk’s office to begin the licensing procedure with an inspection appointment.

Also, on the agenda was the city’s regulation of parking around the square.

Councilman Shawn Riddle made the motion to table such discussion as owners of businesses around the square and the mayor, who put the item on the agenda, were not at the meeting. His motion passed unanimously.

An item of more lengthy discussion was a property at 115 South High Street. After being brought up by the council, Marquetta Riley stated that a letter has been sent to the property owner requiring them to clean up the property and move vehicles from the street. She added that after a second notice, the city action includes “hiring someone to clean the property and placing a lien on it with the cost charged to landowners.”

She said that the second notice had been sent, and the seven days have passed with no response since then.

Emergency Management Director Greg Cary said the vehicles actually are a safety hazard, as they block the vision of drivers entering Hill Street from an adjacent alley.

But he added that in the past, the city has been advised by a federal agency that property owners cannot be compelled to remove anything from their property if it has value.

Cary explained that if something can be sold as scrap, rather than being trash, the position taken by the agency was that it was essentially a form of future income, essentially savings.

Riley said that sending out second notices, with warnings of action that the city never takes, accomplishes nothing other than, “it just causes us (city staff) blood pressure problems.”

It was suggested that anything parked on the roadway can be towed to the county’s impound lot, which prompted Sheriff Keaton Williams to point out that there is a storage fee assessed against anything placed in the impound lot.

In the end, it was decided that further review of the ordinance or possibly a new ordinance and concrete enforcement actions needed to be looked into.

As far as a new ordinance, the second reading of the rezoning of property on David L. Williams Street passed unanimously. This would allow the county to put a splash pad and other civic improvements on their property there.

In departmental reports, Mayor Pro Tem Glen Murphy, who was elected unanimously by the council to chair the meeting in Laurel Irby’s absence, read the police department’s activity report into the record.

There were 234 complaints answered – 80 traffic stops – 26 citations issued – 18 lockout calls responded to – 10 criminal arrests – 8 motorist assists – 7 traffic collisions and – 3 alcohol-involved calls for September.

For the fire department, there were 17 helicopter landings, 4 injury accidents, 3 special details, 2 fire alarm responses, 1 ambulance assist call, 1 vehicle fire and 1 brush or grass fire responded to in Sept.

The 911 system report listed 1,427 calls to the emergency line, including 190 spam calls. Call volumes, including spam calls, were lower this past month than the month before, according to the report.

That report also included the figures that it generally takes three seconds to answer a call, less than half the 7.88 seconds average nationally, and calls are dispatched on average within 40 seconds, compared to the 2.5-minute national average.

The street maintenance department reported that they will be straightening or replacing faded or leaning street signs this week.