Brantley's new ATV ordinance is stiffer; Riders are barred from all roads, will be fined $250 for first illegal riding offense.

Mike Morrison

Unable to regulate all-terrain vehicles on its roads, the Brantley County Commission is barring them from cemeteries, riverbeds and parks.
After learning an earlier ordinance that was to have taken effect this month ran counter to state law, the commissioners passed a revamped version Tuesday.

The new ordinance will have the impact of the original, commission Chairman Ron Ham said, but will leave out a provision to allow riders to travel for short distances on county roads. It was that provision that caused the original ordi-nance to be scrapped because state law bars four-wheelers, as the ATVs are called, from all roads, dirt or paved.
"We left the teeth in it," Ham said of the ordinance that takes effect Nov. 1. "You still can't ride them in the Satilla River bed, on the sandbars, in cemeteries or on public recreation parks, as well as on roads."
The new ordinance also keeps in place stiff fines imposed by the original. While the fine set by the state is $25 for illegal riding, Brantley's start at $250 for a first offense and increases to $500 for a second offense and $1,000 for a third.
Another provision, that required ATV owners to purchase and display registration stickers issued by the county, also was eliminated.
The objective of the ordinance, Ham said, is to cut down on the destruction of private and public property and to protect riders and passengers.
ATVs also have caused considerable damage to the county's dirt roads and to the shoulders of its paved roads. Landowners have complained about riders trespassing on their property, tearing up their private dirt roads and fields.
ATVs ridden in the Satilla and other streams have been very damaging to those delicate ecosystems, Satilla Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers said.
"That's big news, for sure," Rogers said. "It's wonderful to see the County Commission tailor this thing to where it will work. They've really done a good job. This ordinance is not just slapped together. They spent a lot of time and a lot of mental energy on it."
The county is blazing a trail Rogers said he hopes the state will follow. A bill that would ban ATVs from all the state's rivers and streams is working its way through the General Assembly.
Keeping the financial bite in the ordinance will guarantee its effectiveness, Rogers said.
"It doesn't seem noteworthy, but I think it's equally important that they have re-calibrated the fines," he said. "They've upped the ante significantly. The State Patrol and the Department of Natural Resources can make these cases, as well as the Sheriff's Office."

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Source:  http://www.jacksonville.com/

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