The legal use of utility vehicles, mini-trucks and similar under-sized, under-powered sized vehicles on city streets got one step closer to reality Tuesday, Oct. 27, as the Bellefontaine City Council approved, by a slim 4-3 margin to advance the measure – the so-called "golf cart” ordinance.
The ordinance will now be forwarded to a third reading and final vote at the next meeting, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The current ordinance would restrict the use of such vehicles to streets that have a speed limit of 25 mph or less, while prohibiting their use on state and local highways to include U.S. Route 68, and State Routes 47 and 540 in the city, as well as forbidding their use on the downtown Bellefontaine bypass.
The ordinance will also ban the use of these vehicles on heavily-trafficked “connector streets” as designated by the service-safety director.
None of the council members changed their vote from the first reading of the ordinance at the Oct. 13 meeting. Council Members Nick Davis, Jenna James, Kyle Springs and Devin Palmer all voted in favor of the measure, while Wes Easton, Mick Lile and Jordan Reser all cast “no” votes against the ordinance.
The “golf cart” ordinance that was before council at Tuesday’s meeting is in contrast to similar measure that was voted down by the council earlier this summer, with the most notable difference between the two being that the current ordinance restricts the use of golf carts and other low-speed, under-powered vehicles on streets with speed limits of 25 mph or less. The ordinance that was voted down earlier this year would have allowed their use on streets with speed limits or 35 mph or less.
While they did not say so at Tuesday’s meeting, Service/Safety Director Wes Dodds and Chief Chris Marlow of the Bellefontaine Police Department are both on record as being adamantly opposed to allowing low-speed, under-powered vehicles to use the city’s streets. This opinion was shared during the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting Tuesday by former Bellefontaine Law Director Howard Traul, who opined that the passage of the ordinance would be “pandering to the few who will benefit” from the measure.
Nevertheless, the fate of the ordinance and the use of golf carts, low-speed and other under-powered utility vehicles will be decided with the third reading and final vote on the matter at the next regular meeting of the council.
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, the second reading of the “excessive noise” measure was passed with a unanimous 7-0 vote and will be heard for a third reading and and final vote at the Nov. 10 meeting.
Two ordinances were passed and adopted at Tuesday’s meeting, both with unanimous votes. The first will allow the administration to place replacement pages into the city codes to comply with state laws, while the second will set the pay rate from Bellefontaine City Schools for School Resource Officers (SROs) from the Bellefontaine Police Department at $40 per hour.
The council also waived the three-reading rule and passed on the first and final vote an ordinance that will allow for the administration to enter into a non-competitive, no-bid contract for the enlargement of the Michigan Street retention pond.
The ordinance calls for the removal of 45,000 cubic yards of soil to increase the size of the retention pond, which will accommodate the expected additional water runoff from the Liberty Landing and Brighton Meadows developments, both of which are now underway.
Also passed with a single reading, again with a unanimous vote, was a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office, Washington Township, the Village of Russell’s Point and the Village of West Liberty regarding the distribution of forfeited property that has been seized by the Logan County Unified Drug Task Force.
Two ordinances were before the council for their first reading Tuesday, the first of which would allow the purchase of miscellaneous supplies, equipment and services – a 70-item list ranging from patches for police uniforms to gasoline for city vehicles to labor relations attorneys – which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
The second measure will direct the service safety director and/or fire chief to enter into a grant writing agreement to apply for a 2026 Safer Grant, a grant, if received, which will go toward the hiring of six full-time firefighters. Both measures passed without a dissenting vote and both will be up for second readings at the Nov. 10 meeting.
In his report to the council, Service/Safety Director Dodds reported that flood mitigation efforts for the White Pines and Red Pines areas on the east side of the city were well underway and that over 18,000 cubic yards of soil have already been moved, with Dodds noting that the flood mitigation efforts in the area were ongoing. ■
