Winter snow event between now and April 1 could still result in citations, other updates also made by department

Don't celebrate just yet, but a tangible sign of spring is here: the Stanley police department has suspended–that’s right, SUSPENDED– local winter parking ordinances, meaning that parking between 3am and 6 am on City streets might not result in an orange envelope citation–unless it snows between now and April 1. In such a case, winter parking restrictions are back in place, and monetary forfeitures back on the table. Better to be safe than sorry.

In the meantime, there’s the golf cart update to report: they may still be possible, pending local statute, thanks to a paragraph discovery in state law. First the bad news.

Under no circumstances, Police Chief Lance Weiland said recently, was the county highway commissioner going to allow golf carts on county-administered highways that go through Stanley. There may come a time (pending ordinance) when back nine golf cart drivers can cross said highways, but citizens could otherwise forget about going down Broadway to Fourth, or Franklin north of Maple Street—it wasn’t going to happen. New findings in state law mean that this unequivocal “NO” to golf carts in the city might still become ‘under specified terms and conditions,’ pursuant to further research and local statute, as state statute overrides local (including county) law in most circumstances.

Regarding back nine transport, meanwhile, a future golf cart ordinance for the City of Stanley hasn’t been ruled out, though further research and Committee/Council review is still needed. The hope for a future golf cart ordinance (including some stretches of county highway within the City of Stanley) is con-

See POLICE UPDATE, Page 2

On Wednesday March 3, a Chevrolet found its way into snow-free Soo Line Park, sometime prior to the time as shown on the above clock tower. By evening the vehicle was removed from the site and an orange and white traffic cone put over where the light pole had stood. Staff photo. FROM PAGE 1

tained in state statute 349.18((1m) (a) pursuant to which “any city, village or town” may establish such travel option by local ordinance, provided that the speed limit does not exceed 25 miles per hour. The loophole is in the details, as stated in 349.18(1m) (a): “(1) Any city, village or town, by ordinance, may: (1m) (a) except as provided in (paragraph c), a municipality may, by ordinance, allow the operation of golf carts on any highway that has a speed limit of 25 miles per hour or less that is located within the territorial limits of the municipality, regardless of whether the municipality has jurisdiction, for maintenance purposes, over the highway.”

Paragraph c, meanwhile, outlaws such transport on state trunk highways, or in other words along highways 64, 73, 29, and 27, none of which (save 29) pass through the city limits of Stanley. County highways are fair game though.

What this means is that an ordinance could be made that opens up most highways in Stanley, including County H north of Pine Street (but not to the south) along with County O, but not X/East Maple Street east of Broadway, as this currently exceeds the 25 mile per hour threshold in state law for county road allowances. That aside, Chief Weiland told the Council in his bi-weekly report that he had “been informed that the county will be reducing the speed limit on East Maple Street (County X) from 35 to 25 miles per hour between South Broadway and Dewey Street in the very near future.” At the same time, the 25 miles per hour threshold had its local downside, also included in the Chief’s report.

“The key to this statute is the 25 per mile hour threshold,” Chief Weiland said of opening up highways in the city to golf cart use under 349.18 (1m) (a), but then going on to deliver the potential bad news. “If a golf cart ordinance is established, the city would need to prohibit traffic for such transportation on Pine Street (between South Franklin Street and Junction Avenue) and Urquhart Road/Development Drive (West Industrial Park) as these stretches of roadway have speed limits of the 25 miles per hour threshold,” Weiland related.

In other department news, meanwhile, the City of Stanley had seen part-time officer Shaun Starck leave his post citing the need to be present for family, including a newborn.

“My last days will be March 10th and 11th as I already told you I would work these days,” Starck wrote in his resignation letter to Chief Weiland, calling it an honor to work for Stanley. “I wish you and everyone there the very best,” Starck finished out his letter of resignation. Officer Starck’s resignation puts the department down an officer, or back where it was prior to the recent hire of Officer Kevin Hageman to replace Eric Russell, who resigned. Along with officer resignations, meanwhile, were frozen sirens on squad cars potentially not working when called upon to do so.

“We recently experienced issues with the sirens of the squad cars freezing up and becoming unusable due to the cold,” Weiland said without elaborating on the exact temperature. “This is a huge liability issue for the city when we are in a situation that requires use of both audible (siren) and visual (red/blue lights) cues to warn the public of our emergency response mode of operation at a given time,” the Chief said. “This is just another illustration as to the issues we continue to face with the elements as it relates to our equipment’s reliability and effectiveness due to the lack of an indoor, temperature-controlled area,” Weiland said of squad car storage. Finally, for police news are the Information Technology (IT) issues the Stanley PD has been dealing with.

“IT continues to work with us and the ongoing computer and network issues we have been experiencing,” Weiland informed the Council in his report. “They have spent many hours on site and also working remotely however they haven’t been able to single out what is causing the ongoing issues,” the Chief said. “They have assured me that when it is all said and done, they will work with me to determine what is fair as it relates to the billing process due to the extended amount of time they have spent already,” Weiland wrote, expressing hope to have better news in the days to come and technology issues behind the department.