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Gypsum man wants ATVs to be legal on town streets

Randy Wyrick
Vail Correspondent
Post Independent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

GYPSUM, Colorado – A Gypsum man will ask his town council to make it legal to ride ATVs through the streets.

Todd Duty is on the Gypsum town council agenda for next Tuesday, when he’ll ask the town to make it legal for ATVs and possibly other off road vehicle operators to ride from their homes to a trailhead. That way. They won’t have to trailer their machines to the trailhead.

Duty said his son was pulled over by an Eagle County Sheriff’s deputy while riding to a trailhead. It’s illegal to ride an unlicensed vehicle on public streets, and that’s why his son and other people have been stopped by law enforcement officers.



The Sheriff’s Office contracts with Gypsum to provide the town’s police protection.

“It’s illegal right now,” said Eagle County Sheriff Joe Hoy. “He wants an ordinance to get to trailheads within the town of Gypsum, but if he’s headed to a trailhead that’s outside Gypsum’s town limits, the ordinance is moot.”



At least a half dozen Utah towns have similar ordinances, Duty said. He will bring some those to Tuesday’s Town Council meeting to give council members something to work with as they consider his proposal.

Ordinances in most of those cities require that ATVs be equipped with headlights, taillights, mirrors and be insured.

“We’re a hunter-friendly community. Maybe it would help our local businesses if we were more ATV friendly,” Duty said. “Set some rules and people will obey them.”

If they don’t, they’ll spend some quality time with a deputy by the side of the road.

The Saratoga Springs, Utah, City Council is considering a similar ordinance.

Utah law allows ATVs on city streets where the population is 7,500 or less. Above that, cities must pass ordinances specifically allowing ATVs on streets.

ATVs in Utah are considered off-highway vehicles. Like Eagle County where 85 percent of the land is public, Utah has a wide variety of public parks and land where ATVs can be used.

ATVs in Utah have to display a current OHV registration sticker. It costs $20.50 a year to register an ATV in Utah. Riders and passengers in Utah under the age of 18 must wear a helmet. All ATVs must have a muffler with an approved spark arrestor.

rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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