St. Mary Aldermen Want To Be Clear On UTV Use In City

With two recent attempts to allow utility vehicles (UTVs) on city streets shot down by the city of St. Mary Board of Aldermen, the aldermen now are exploring a proposal to prohibit the use of UTVs on city streets.

Board president Brian Helms said the board wanted to pass a measure that would clarify the situation for the police department in order to issue tickets.

A vote to ban UTVs was on the agenda for a special meeting on January 24 at one point last month but Mayor Gloria Bader had it taken off because that meeting was supposed to be a work session dedicated to budget talks.

The board voted in October 2017 and in October 2018 against a proposal that would provide regulations for using UTVs on city streets. The board in December did not take up a proposal to put the matter to a vote of the people this April.

While proposals to allow them haven’t passed, Helms said the city currently has nothing specifically prohibiting the vehicles. UTVs are not legal on state-maintained highways, such as Highway 61, which is a main road in the city, or Route U, which leads to Kaskaskia Island.

“To better define it for the police department, we thought perhaps we could have an ordinance that says we’re not allowing them in the city of St. Mary on our streets,” Helms said during the February 13 Board of Aldermen meeting.

See complete story in the February 20 edition of the Herald.