Ordinance on golf-cart use delayed for revisions
Even though the summer concert and movie season is gearing up soon, the city of Liberty Lake will not have rules regarding golf cart use until at least July 18.
After a half-hour of discussion during Tuesday night’s council meeting, members felt it best to wait on passing the ordinance until certain sections were revised. After listening to members of the community, council members felt it possible to remove the registration requirement for carts, and also to make changes to the allowable driving age.
“It sounds like this is being instigated by kids,” said Wayne Durnin, who uses his golf cart to drive from his house to some of the areas courses. He said he hopes the new rules won’t keep him from using his cart on city streets and paths. “I’m afraid they’re going to ruin it for me.”
Mayor Steve Peterson assured the five or so members of the audience that the new ordinance was designed to keep people safe.
“Our primary focus is on safety for the kids,” he said.
Members of the City Council said they would reconsider the ordinance, removing the requirement to register all carts with the city and to make wording changes throughout the document.
“The ordinance is in a little bit of disarray after all the comments tonight,” said mayor pro-tem Patrick Jenkins.
The council will revisit the ordinance at its next meeting, which will be July 18 due to the Independence Day holiday.
In other council news
The Liberty Lake Library requested a new checkout system at the last meeting on June 6, and city administration and finance director Arlene Fisher returned to Tuesday’s meeting with a plan to pay for the new software.
Originally the city had planned to pay for the software on an installment system, but Fisher said she found that the city would have paid $10,000 in interest by stretching payments out over three years.
“As a finance director, I thought this was unacceptable,” she said.
She instead proposed the library be allowed to borrow the amount of the software from the general fund to pay the software by September. The council approved the idea.