When
riding your bicycle on the Heart of Iowa Recreation Trail or the High
Trestle Trail in Slater and you see a stop sign, you probably should
stop.
The Slater City Council recently approved the first reading
of an ordinance which recognizes stop signs on the trails as a part of
the Slater Code. Therefore, if you ignore a stop sign, you can be issued
a ticket, once the ordinance is passed.
This all came about after
a recent issue on the Raccoon River Trail, which passes through Panora.
In September, a Department of Natural Resources Officer wrote tickets
to six bicyclists who ran stop signs on the trail. The officer, over a
three-hour time span, watched as 21 bicyclists failed to stop at posted
stop signs. Eventually, the tickets were all dismissed as it was
determined that recreational trails are not considered roads and not
enforceable for ticketing.
This has prompted many towns along the trails to look at their codes to see how this pertains to them.
In
Slater, the City Council has identified stop signs that exist along the
two trails that pass through the town, What Council members were
looking at was where the trails cross roadways and would be considered
enforceable under Slater City Code. Stop signs identified that would
fall into that category need to be adopted into the code in order to
make them enforceable. Two more public readings will take place before
they are actually added to Slater City Code.
The council also
discussed a situation regarding the city of Sheldahl sewer agreement.
Sheldahl has contracted with the city of Slater sanitary sewer services.
But, according to Slater’s Public Works Director Mark Estrem, an
essential piece of non-working equipment does not allow Slater to
determine exactly how much is being taken care of with the equipment not
working.
“It’s a meter which registers what and how much waste is
going into our treatment plant,” Estrem said. “It’s been a long time
that this has been going on, and it needs to be fixed.”
The
council directed Slater city staff to try to work with Sheldahl city
officials to get the equipment fixed. The proposed solution would be for
Slater to fix the issues and bill Sheldahl for the cost of the repair.
The current contract with Sheldahl for providing waste water treatment
would need to be amended if it accepts the proposed solution.
The
council also heard from Slater city clerk/administrator regarding
regulations from the State of Iowa concerning the Slater Cemetery.
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