Knox City Council members amended the golf cart ordinance to provide some clarification about registration when they met Thursday night.
The language in the existing ordinance simply stated that registration would be good for one calendar year. However, Mayor Dennis Estok mentioned that caused some confusion since there was no consistency with when individuals were renewing. In order to make it easier to regulate, officials decided to come up with a set time-frame that registration would last.
The Mayor said that he coordinated with Police Chief Harold Smith since the police department is in charge of enforcing the ordinance.
Initially, they were considering January 1st through December 31st but eventually they agreed that May 1st to April 31st would be a good time since it would give individuals the ability to drive their golf carts over to the police station rather than requiring an officer go out to a residence to a perform the pre-registration inspection during the colder months. The Mayor recommended that members amend the ordinance to include that time-frame.
However, a resident who was in attendance suggested making the time frame a little later in the summer and proposed making the start date in July. He stated that this would allow for some people to come in earlier if they want to but it wouldn’t result in an abundance of individuals coming all at once at the start of golf cart season, as soon as there’s warmer weather.
The council members held a discussion over the matter and eventually found a compromise in between the mayor’s recommendation with the citizen’s suggestion and settled on June as a sufficient starting month.
It was noted that individuals are permitted to renew their registration prior to that date, but that will be the allotted amount of time that registration would be valid.
Members voted unanimously to amend the ordinance to include June 1st through May 31st as the registration time-frame.
As a reminder, Knox City Police will be set up in the south parking lot of the police department today from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. conducting golf cart inspections.
At any other point during the year, individuals can contact the police department to set up an appointment to receive an inspection and renew or obtain registration. The Knox City Police department can be reached at 574-722-4122.
