(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake city council is thinking about allowing all-terrain-vehicles to operate on city streets.
Councilman Jerry Harbst says allowing the machines on public right-of-way in the city needs to be considered since a company that makes them is located here and that giving them a place to go may cut down on them going across private property.
But Police Chief Jeff Hanson told the council he’s worried over safety and enforcement issues. He says it would be very difficult or impossible to try to catch an A-T-V operator for a traffic violation, saying the off-road machines are no match for police officers in cruisers.
Hanson says his officers have been bombarded this winter with complaints of snowmobiles damaging private property. He told the council allowing A-T-V’s on city streets would turn the problem into a year-round one.
The council took no action on the matter Tuesday. It was referred to the city’s Public Safety Committee for further review.
