Trustee Heffley moves to have village attorney draft ordinance for e-bikes and scooters

The Village of Germantown Public Safety Committee voted to recommend that the village attorney draft a local ordinance to define and regulate bicycles, electric bikes, scooters, play vehicles, skateboards and inline skates, moving the issue from discussion toward formal review.

Chief Delaine presented a sample ordinance used by other Washington County jurisdictions and said definitions are needed to enforce different modes of personal transportation. Trustee Heffley moved the committee "to make a recommendation to bring this to our attorney for review and structure an ordinance that can be discussed at a future public safety meeting," and Trustee Kaiser seconded; the chair called the vote and the motion carried.

Trustees debated potential provisions: helmet requirements for minors, device wattage limits (750 W was discussed as a threshold tied to licensing/endorsement), and whether play vehicles such as hoverboards should be expressly included. Chief Delaine said the village can tailor the sample ordinance and that the state statute already bars some motorized vehicles from roads; he also suggested the village attorney is best positioned to place devices in the correct legal categories.

Several trustees urged pairing any ordinance with education: Trustee Kaiser suggested school-based outreach rather than flyers, and chief Delaine agreed to work with school resource officers and include utility-bill messaging. The committee left the substantive drafting work to the attorney and signaled that the ordinance will return to the committee for review before any board action.