Elkhorn OK’s ATV ordinance

By Russ Cassady, Staff Writer

ELKHORN CITY — The Elkhorn City Council unanimously approved the a new ordinance Tuesday that will make it the only area in the county where it is legal to ride an ATV on the streets.

The ordinance received the support of a small group of ATV riders who came to the council’s regular meeting to ensure exactly what the ordinance means.

J.C. Chaney, one of the group’s members, said the ATV riders just wanted to make sure they wouldn’t have any problems riding in the city.

“We’re not against your ordinance and we’re for more control, especially around that river access,” he said. “But we’d like to maybe get you to explain it a little further if you can.”

Council member Tim Belcher, who drafted the ordinance, told the ATV riders the ordinance benefits them.

“Basically what this ordinance does is it makes it legal to ride an ATV on city streets in Elkhorn City,” he said. “If anyone’s riding an ATV (on city streets) right now, it’s actually illegal.”

In addition to setting a 5 mph speed limit on river access areas, the ordinance institutes the provisions laid out in the state’s law regarding the use of ATVs on public property.

State law, KRS 189.515, has restrictions requiring that ATV riders only ride in daylight hours and requires that the ATVs have at least one headlight and two taillights.

The law prohibits anyone younger than 16 from riding an ATV with an engine size exceeding 90 cubic centimeters displacement and without parental supervision or protective gear on public property.

The law further prevents anyone without a driver’s license to operate an ATV on state highways like Ky. 80, which runs through the city.

Belcher said the ordinance was necessary to make ATVs legal to operate on city streets.

“The city streets of Elkhorn City are public property,” he said. “You’re not allowed to operate on public property unless the government gives you permission.”

While Belcher said he doubts the city can regulate ATV use on Ky. 80, the state law allows that ATVs can be ridden on two-tenths of a mile of state highway if its moving between roadways on which they can legally operate.

That would allow ATV enthusiasts to ride at outlying areas, come into town and food and gas in Elkhorn City. That means that the city has positioned itself to take advantage of tourism trade from ATV riders, Belcher said.

Also in Tuesday’s meeting, Powell and City Council member Mike Taylor clashed after Taylor questioned why work orders were not being done, including a specific one in which he claimed a drainage ditch on city property is flooding a house.

Taylor also mentioned a recent situation in which a citizen came before the council asking that problems with her water be fixed. The council voted to fix the problem, Taylor said, but nothing was done until he bought the materials and went to the woman’s house and installed a tank himself.

“That’s how it got done — out of my own money,” he said.

Taylor said a work order was issued for the drainage ditch situation, but nothing has been done. He made a motion to force the city to go ahead with the work, but it failed after only Belcher and Taylor voted for the measure.

“If it was our homes, it would be a different story with the walls starting to get black because of the water coming down the hill,” Taylor said, adding he would ask something be done no matter whose house it was. “We owe them that because they elected us.”

Powell said the city has a lot of work to do and work has been held up for a couple of weeks.

“Mike, there’s a lot of things that need to be done in this city,” Powell said. “They will not be done overnight and they’ll not be done in a month a year.”

However, Taylor said the city needs to do something.

“I just wanted to make it clear when three or four come asking ... why it’s not done, that I did my part,” he said. “It’s a shame that it has to be an argument and my blood pressure has to go straight out of the ceiling here to get something done for the public.”

Powell said the work will be done, but did not say when.