Thief River Falls council restores omitted city ordinances, adopts 'careless operation' rule for personal wheeled vehicles

Thief River Falls — The Thief River Falls City Council on Sept. 1 approved first and second readings to restore a range of ordinance sections that were omitted during a recent city code recodification and adopted a new ordinance defining "careless operation" for personal wheeled vehicles.

City staff told the council the omissions resulted when previously passed ordinances were not forwarded to the company that produced the published code. "So, we did the recodification ... when we passed the book, we repealed all the former ordinances," a city staff member explained, and asked the council to reinstate the missing sections and forward them to the codifier for inclusion in the next quarterly update. The council approved the motion by voice vote.

The ordinance package read into the record included a broad set of provisions: a cost-sharing section for electric service upgrades, water-use restrictions tied to a governor-declared critical water deficiency, adoption by reference of portions of Minnesota traffic statutes, bicycle and pedestrian rules, licensing and alcohol-related provisions, definitions and penalties for public nuisances and tree-disease abatement, flood-control definitions, and other technical code amendments. The council also approved a resolution allowing a summary publication of the approximate 54‑page ordinance package and ordering the full text to be posted at City Hall for public inspection.

Council members then approved an amendment to City Code chapter 73 to add section 73.03 addressing "careless operation." The ordinance text read into the record states, in part, that "no person shall operate or halt any personal wheeled vehicle ... carelessly or heedlessly in disregard of the rights of others or in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger any property or any person," and lists devices covered (bicycles, electric-assisted bicycles, golf carts, ATVs, off-highway motorcycles, scooters, skateboards, hoverboards and similar devices). Staff said the proposal came from the Public Safety Committee and that penalties would be enforced under existing penalty provisions; the council approved the measure by voice vote.

The actions restore technical and enforcement provisions the city said had been unintentionally excluded from the published code and create a new local tool to address hazardous operation of small, wheeled vehicles. The full ordinance package will be available for review at City Hall per the adopted summary-publication resolution.