Joliet takes new measure to keep off-road vehicles off roads

Joliet is taking new measures to deal with dirt-bike hooligans and packs of off-road vehicles cruising on city streets.

A Joliet City Council committee recently recommended approval of an ordinance that would create a new fine for fueling up ATVs, dirt bikes and unlicensed mini-bikes that are driven to gas stations.

Meanwhile, police are working on new tactics for dealing with the problem.

Police Chief William Evans recommended the ordinance, which is based on a similar law used in Kankakee to deal with the same issue.

Council members acknowledged it alone won’t solve the problem but said they have to do something, and the new law is one tool that can help.

“It’s really bad,” Councilman Joe Clement said after the meeting of the Land Use and Legislative Committee. “We have packs of ATVs and motorcycles that are unlicensed that drive through the city of Joliet.”

Clement, a retired Joliet police officer, said the arrival of lawless off-road vehicles on city streets is a problem that’s developed in the last three or four years.

“It’s not Dad taking a kid out to the cul-de-sac to teach him how to drive a go-kart,” he said. “It’s packs that drive all across the city.”

Councilwoman Jan Quillman said they don’t always stay on the streets.

“You’ll be sitting on your front porch,” Quillman said, recounting one resident’s complaint. “They’ll come all the way up across your front porch and scream at you.”

Quillman said she gets “a lot of calls about them. People are afraid to walk down the street because they come right on the sidewalk.”

People also called with concerns about the proposed city ordinance, thinking it would prevent them from filling gas cans for their lawn mowers, Quillman said.

It would not stop people from filling gas cans or even dirt bikes and ATVs if they’re hauled on a trailer to the gas station.

The proposed ordinance likely would go to the City Council for a final vote at the June 7 meeting.

The ordinance would prohibit the sale or purchase of gasoline at a station directly into an all-terrain vehicle, mini-bike, mini-motorcycle or dirt bike unless it is brought to the station by a licensed motor vehicle.

It is designed to make it harder to cruise on off-road vehicles by making it illegal to gas up on the road.

Evans told the council last month that a similar ordinance used in Kankakee has helped deal with the issue.

“They’ve been able to successfully discourage off-road vehicles in their town,” he said at the April 9 council meeting.

Clement said police are not counting on the ordinance in itself to keep off-road vehicles off the streets.

“We’re working on this, and we’re coming up with a plan,” he said but would not go into details. “We have to do something. It’s a problem.”

The proposed ordinance creates a $750 fine for gassing up an off-road vehicle at the station. The same fine would be applied to a gas station that allows an off-road vehicle driver to fill the tank.

“Usually, they’re not watching the pump,” Land Use and Legislative Committee Chairman Terry Morris said at the meeting. “So, they’re going to be penalized for not watching the pump.”

“You have to pay attention to your own business,” Deputy City Attorney Chris Regis replied.

The ordinance also requires that notices of the prohibition be posted and visible at all gas station pumps. Regis said the city will create the notices suitable for posting and make them available for gas stations.