The City of Maryville is in the process of updating its UTV ordinance so it can provide better enforcement. A group of citizens has been coming to meetings calling for stronger regulations. Two such citizens addressed the council at Monday’s meeting. Currently, state law is vaguely written. It prohibits their use on highways, but it carves out exceptions for industrial or agricultural use. That, according to Maryville Police Chief Mike Stolte, leads to situations where his officers get excuses such as:
—They were just getting done with farming and going to town to eat;
—They were getting groceries and were taking them back to the farmhouse;
—They were getting together for a farmhouse social.
The Maryville City Council has been having discussions over regulating ATV’s, UTV’s, electric bikes, and other low-speed vehicles.
The goal is to rewrite city ordinances so that people would know what they can and can’t do. The city currently doesn’t have a licensing system for UTV’s. They used to, but Mr. Stolte said they haven’t had one in the 22 years he’s been on the force.
One of the challenges the city faces is that Northwest and Nodaway County have different regulations. But everyone agreed that UTV’s were not safe for roads. Another challenge is how to regulate UTV’s and other slow-moving vehicles, such as golf carts. Mr. Stolte noted that his officers don’t enforce golf carts because there is no city ordinance against them. Council members agreed they need to be addressed separately.
City Manager Ryan Heiland said that these conversations about UTV regulations have been happening all over the state. Section 304.052 authorizes Missouri cities to do permitting.
Mr. Heiland has been checking with other cities for their ordinances. For instance, Cottleville has the following regulations:
—UTV’s must be for official use or for agriculture;
—All users must wear helmets;
—They are restricted to streets with maximum speed limits of 30 mph;
—All such vehicles must have safety flags that are at least 7 feet high;
—They can only be operated in daylight.
Mozingo Lake already has restrictions on such vehicles. They only allow golf carts. And nobody on the council wanted to include four-wheelers.
Officers cannot set fines if they ticket people for unlawfully operating a UTV on the highways. That is determined by the legislature and the court system. Officers can arrest users for DWI, and that person would lose their license through the Department of Revenue just like they would if it were a car they were driving. These administrative rules apply even if someone is arrested driving a lawn mower while intoxicated. “We’ve picked up a couple of those,” said Mr. Stolte.
The council will revisit UTV’s and other such vehicles at their August 10th meeting.
At the start of Monday’s meeting, Mayor John McBride read a statement saying, “A lot of people don’t know me. We all have full-time jobs. We all do very important work, and we raise families here. Nobody is in this to make money; we ran to serve. If you see social media postings that head south, show some grace.” The July 23rd issue of the Maryville Forum had posted a lengthy front-page article that displaced even the recently-passed data center moratorium charging the city with having repeated closed sessions that were in violation of state law and with errors in the minutes. The city, in its own Facebook post, responded that their closed meetings were done in accordance with state law and after consultation with its attorney, that errors in the minutes cited in the Forum article were clerical in nature and not an attempt to alter the record, and that it was never given a chance to provide an accurate response. The Facebook post was signed by Mayor John McBride, council members Erin Allen, Bryan Williams, Ben Lipiec, and Dannen Merrill, Clerk Stacy Wood, and City Manager Ryan Heiland.
Scott Wilson addressed the council about the recently submitted permit application by White Cloud Generating to build 12 gas-powered turbines at the site of the proposed data center south of Maryville. He said that the 102 did not have capacity to provide the water needed for such a project. Mr. Wilson said that after being told that the project would only need 70,000 gallons of water per day, that the recent permit application stated it would be running nearly 24 hours a day instead of the three hours per day cited at the Mozingo Lake community forum. He called on the city not to supply the proposed data center project with water. Mr. Wilson, who is running for Nodaway County Presiding Commissioner as an Independent and who will appear on the November ballot, asked to be included in any future discussions about the data center.
Ray Garten asked for the city to put in a miniature golf course next to the Thompson Splash & Play area.
The council gave permission for the Downtown Maryville Market to close Main Street from 4th Street to 5th Street from 6 am to 1 pm for setup and teardown, potentially on August 1st, 8th, and 15th depending on how construction is proceeding. The market is moving from the Nodaway Valley Bank parking lot to the Downtown Pavilion across the street from the Public Library. It has hosted 30 vendors a week and 300 customers this year.
The council approved the closure of numerous roads for Saturday, October 10th for Maryville Fall into Fun. The roads will be closed from 7 am to 8 pm to allow for setup and teardown. The event itself will be held from 12 noon to 6 pm.
The following roads will be closed — Main Street from 2nd to 5th Street, 3rd street from Vine to Buchanan Street, and 4th Street from Vine to Buchanan. The closures will still allow access to the A&G parking lot and the Nodaway Valley Bank parking lot.
Fall into Fun, which marks the closing of the Downtown Maryville Market season, is in its fourth year. Last year, it drew 2,200 visitors.
The council approved the closure of North Vine Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets on August 22nd for the Elks Membership Drive event they are holding between 7 pm and 10 pm that evening. The street will be closed from 7 am to 12 midnight. There will be bounce houses, Fire Department water activities, Bingo, live music, and a street dance.
The council tabled a request by Sunrise Dispensary to extend its hours from 6 am to 1:30 am. This would put it in line with the liquor stores in the city. It says it would be able to offer more hours to its employees and that it would be safer, since there would be less opportunity for break-ins. Currently, other cities are expanding hours of dispensaries, with Kansas City looking at 24/7 and St. Joseph also looking to increase its permitted hours. Generally, marijuana dispensaries are regulated by the state, but cities can set hours that they can operate.
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