ATV riders given final warning in Amboy

All-terrain vehicle riders in Amboy have less than 60 days to clean up their act.

Members of the City Council decided Monday to vote ATVs off the streets, possibly as soon as next month, unless riders change their ways.

Although a 2002 ordinance allowed ATVs (often called four-wheelers) to be driven on some of the city's roads, drivers must be headed out of or entering the city limits.

Council member Tom Nauman was the chief sponsor of the 2002 ordinance. The wild behavior Nauman recently has seen, however, has him regretting that decision.

"They're running up and down a ditch," he said. "They're running stop signs. There's children under the age of 16 with parents out front watching them.

"Really, I thought that this community, being a rural community, would support an ATV trail for getting to and from where they needed to go. Unfortunately, it was recklessly [disregarded]," Nauman said.

Amboy Police Sgt. Jeff Blake said repealing the ordinance makes economic sense.

"When you created the ordinance, it went from a state violation to a city ordinance violation," Blake said. "Therefore, the state's attorney's office came out of the picture ... your city attorney came in and cost you about $150 an hour for probably a $100 or $120 ticket."

Repealing the ordinance also would put ATV enforcement within the jurisdiction of the Lee Sheriff's Department, which is on call 24 hours a day. That means law enforcement could better deal ATV with drivers late at night.

Still, Blake acknowledged the law is hard to enforce, even without the ordinance.

"It is difficult to apprehend them without the same type of (vehicle)," Blake said. "... Unless someone is able to identify who it is on the vehicle ... I can't arrest them ... I have got to be able to identify the person."

Council Member Deanne Hoy agreed.

"I am not totally opposed to banning the ATVs," Hoy said. "My problem is, we appear to be passing ordinances that can't be enforced, and I don't want to add anything else that's not going to improve anything."

Amboy resident Chip Wells said the issue stretches beyond Amboy and needs to be resolved with more driver education.

"I work in Dixon and I've heard some people who live in Sterling say kind of half-kidding, 'Oh, we'll take our four-wheelers down to Amboy and ride some weekend," he said. "So there's a climate I think you're going to have to change if you're going to keep this ordinance."

Source: http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2008/05/20/news/local/5a1956ed6ea1405732b8454f2905cb21.txt

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