For the past two weeks, ATV users in Bethel have been ticketed for driving on city roads. That's the result of the City Council directing the police chief to increase enforcement of ATV activity on Bethel's streets, and many in the community are now concerned that police enforcement may be too harsh. The issue will be reexamined at the next city council meeting.
Walking through the streets of Bethel you can see ATVs and snow-machines parked in many of the muddy yards. For the past two weeks, the usual buzzing of four-wheelers has been silent and City Council member Leif Albertson likes it that way. Albertson voted for a measure to increase police enforcement of ATV laws.
“Probably most people would agree that there have been a lot of folks in town kind of abusing four-wheelers and doing dangerous things," Albertson said.
Albertson, a snow-machine owner himself, maintains that regulations should be stricter on ATVs, but has softened his position on enforcement since Bethel’s police department started handing out tickets to everyone driving an ATV on the road.
“What concerns me is the situation we’re in now where a lot of folks maybe got blind-sided a little bit," Albertson said.
What the council will do next remains to be seen. There is a proposal from the Mayor concerning the issue, which will be in place before them.
Posts on the police department's Facebook account say that the council directed police to strictly enforce the law, and they started doing so the day after the council meeting with little warning.
“I work a mile and a half away from my house, two miles maybe,” said Ira Flowers, who recently received a ticket. “And that’s my only mode of transportation: either the four-wheeler or the three-wheeler.”
Flowers, from Michigan, is new to Bethel. He’s only been here a month. He doesn’t have a long history of driving an ATV, but he started a boisterous Facebook group that has become a forum for people to voice their grievances. He says he was getting groceries when he got a ticket.
“On the way to AC. I was just traveling on the side of the far right edge of the road," Flowers said.
Flowers was given a $50 citation.
He is not the only one. There have been many, and Bethel's city council members have been hearing from their constituents.