(Arnolds Park)– A new ordinance adopted Wednesday evening by the Arnolds Park City Council requires owners of golf carts to purchase permits in order to operate them on city streets. Police Chief Al Kruger says permits will be available for purchase at City Hall beginning the first of the year…
“There will be a form to fill out, providing their information such as insurance and their address and who they are, and then at that point in time there will be a permit fee of $50 that’s good for two years and that will be, a sticker will be put on the golf cart, on the front, so we’re able to see that visibly when they’re operating that golf cart on city streets.”
For businesses operating fleets of golf carts, Kruger says they’ll be able to operate up to 10 of them under a single permit. Violators will be subject to a civil infraction…
“It does not hurt their driving record and it’s payable at City Hall. It’s a cheaper fine, so to speak, where you don’t have court costs and the fine, so it becomes a cheaper violation plus it’s also does not go on the driving record, which is a big thing for a lot of people that it doesn’t raise their insurance premiums and so forth, it doesn’t go on their driving record.”
Kruger says several things led up to the new ordinance…
“We’ve had such a, been inundated by such a golf carts going to the amusement park, going to the concerts, operating on city streets, parked illegally, and we just were unable to enforce parking violations and we’ve had a lot of underage kids operating motor vehicles, or golf carts, excuse me, on city streets. We’ve asked them not to do that so we’re going to have to take enforcement actions to make it safer for everybody to be on our city streets and operate golf carts.”
While the new ordinance becomes effective this coming April 1st, Kruger says they won’t actively start enforcing it until July 1st in order to educate golf cart owners of the new regulation first.
