By Krista Kielsmeier
The Haines Borough Assembly on June 14 introduced an ordinance that would permit the operation of all-terrain vehicles on borough streets and roads.
The ordinance sets a speed limit of 25 miles per hour for ATVs and is scheduled for a first public hearing Tuesday in the assembly chambers.
Under the ordinance, each borough-permitted ATV would have right and left rear-view mirrors, “at least one functional headlight, taillight and brake light,” and “shall not be operated on a sidewalk or pedestrian way.”
Other requirements include that ATV operators be at least 16 years old, have a valid driver’s license, register their vehicle through the Division of Motor Vehicles, supply proof of insurance upon demand and acquire an annual borough road-use permit. Permit fees would be reviewed annually.
ATVs were a discussion item at an assembly meeting last month, at the request of members Jerry Lapp and Scott Rossman.
Resident Jim Shook prepared a draft ordinance for that May meeting and promoted ATVs for consuming “only minute amounts of fuel” while offering a form of transportation “more visible and far more stable and inherently safer than bicycles or motorcycles.”
Borough attorney Brooks Chandler updated Shook’s proposed ordinance. A memo from Chandler explained the ordinance would be applicable to “borough-owned and maintained streets” and “some of this regulation simply expands existing restrictions regarding snowmachines to ATVs.”
According to the draft presented at the June 14 meeting, ATV operation would be allowed at Tlingit Park and the Fort Seward parade grounds from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The same hours currently are specified for snowmachine use.
Member Joanne Waterman said she would prefer ATVs to be prohibited at those two locations.
“Snowmachines, I can understand,” Waterman said. “There’s snow on the ground, they’re zipping across and the parade field is commonly used for that, but ATVs in the summertime are going to be ripping up areas, and I would not want to encourage them as an ATV/recreational use area.”
Borough manager Mark Earnest said the ordinance would be amended for the next meeting with changes for Tlingit Park and the parade grounds, and the assembly did not vote on Waterman’s request.
The proposed ordinance defines an ATV as “a motor vehicle that has four or more wheels utilizing low-pressure tires” or “two or more plastic-coated or rubberized tracks or treads measuring seventy-five inches or less overall width, having a dry weight of one ton or less, and designed primarily for travel over unimproved terrain.”
One of the penalties for violating the ordinance is that an ATV operator “may be held jointly and severally liable to a property owner for three times the amount of damages to trees, shrubs, landscaping or personal property occurring on private property and caused by” an ATV when it “is operated without the consent of the property owner or his agent.”