HUNTINGTON -- A proposed ordinance banning all-terrain vehicles in city limits now applies only to public streets and government property.
The original version of the ordinance drafted for Huntington City Council called for an outright ban on ATVs. But the scaled-back version was introduced on first reading Monday night. The council is expected to vote on the ordinance at its April 28 meeting.
City attorney Scott McClure said he recommended that the ordinance allow the operation of ATVs on private land after reviewing similar legislation in Morgantown and other communities.
The Huntington Police Department has received an increasing number of complaints about ATVs, many of which are operated by kids traveling at a high rate of speed on side streets without any protective gear. There also have been calls about ATVs riding on the earthen levee in Westmoreland.
Anyone caught violating the ordinance would be fined $500 and/or serve 30 days in jail. The vehicle also would be impounded.
Some council members took issue with a provision in the ordinance that says the city will pay for someone's impoundment fees if they are found not guilty of the charges against them. McClure, however, said, taking the provision out of the ordinance could jeopardize its constitutionality. An amendment to remove the provision failed.
Here is a look at other actions from Monday's meeting:
HEALING PLACE: By a vote of 8-1, the council postponed a vote on a resolution supporting the establishment of the Healing Place of Huntington, a planned residential recovery center for substance abusers. Councilman Garry Black voted against the postponement. Councilmen P.D. Adkins and Jim Ritter were absent.
Though there have been several community meetings about the recovery center over the past two years, some council members said they are just now hearing about the proposal.
"We're not hearing a lot of solid answers," Councilman Scott Caserta told John Hampton, a member of the Healing Place of Huntington's board of directors. "For me personally, I need more documentation to vote for this resolution."
Administration and Finance Director Brandi Jones, who was filling in for Mayor David Felinton, said the resolution was meant to be more of a show of support for efforts to curb substance abuse in Huntington.
"Obviously, there's a lot of information that still needs to be fleshed out," she said. "But the ordinance is just saying that we recognize we have a substance abuse problem in Huntington and that we need to find a solution."
Hampton said the Healing Place board, which consists of addiction treatment and recovery specialists and community volunteers from across the region, wants to model its facility after a long-term recovery program by the same name in Louisville, Ky. The board's efforts have received strong backing from several state lawmakers such as Sen. Bob PlymaleS and delegates Kelli Sobonya and Don Perdue. Perdue helped the Healing Place's board secure $100,000 from the Legislature last year to use for planning purposes. The program is set to receive another $100,000 from the Legislature this year, Hampton said.
Jay P. Davidson, president and CEO of the Healing Place in Louisville, gave a presentation to a state legislative committee in December.
He said then that the Healing Place is a medication-free program that uses the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as the root for its curriculum. Once clients graduate from the program, they stay at the Healing Place to mentor incoming clients.
The program costs $25 a day per person to operate, but many clients don't pay. Instead, they earn their keep by preparing meals, doing laundry and other chores at the center.
"If it were clinicians that got up and taught our classes, our clients would leave within 24 hours," Davidson said during the December hearing. "The fact that they see their own teaching these classes -- that's the hook."
Thirty percent of the Louisville Healing Place's $2.6 million budget comes from government sources, while the rest comes from monetary contributions and donated goods and services. The program can serve up to 450 people at one time. The Healing Place has a success rate of 65 percent, which is about five times greater than traditional recovery centers, he said. As a result, the Healing Place is being replicated at 10 additional sites in Kentucky and being used as a model in six other states.
TRAFFIC SIGNALS: The council approved the second reading of an ordinance calling for the replacement of all incandescent traffic signal lights with energy-efficient LED lights in the Wayne County portion of the city.
The ordinance is the first phase of a larger project that aims to replace all 110 signals in the city with LED lights over the next two years.
It costs about $200,000 a year to operate those traffic signals now. It will cost approximately $20,000 with energy-efficient lights.
PARKING BOARD: The council unanimously approved a resolution for the Huntington Municipal Parking Board's $909,000 budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
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