Candor says no to golf carts ♥

Published in the Courier-Tribune on May 12, 2011

by Hugh Martin

CANDOR — Following an animated discussion on a proposed ordinance to allow golf carts to be driven on the town’s streets, Candor commissioners voted to not allow the vehicles to operate.

At the April meeting, Candor resident George Myers had asked the board to consider an ordinance that would allow golf carts in town, renewing a request he had made a year ago. Since that time the Town of Star has approved a golf cart ordinance, Myers said. The board had asked Town Management Advisor John Gowan, who holds the same position with the Town of Star, to adapt the Star ordinance to Candor.

Gowan had prepared an ordinance for the board to consider, but commissioners and Mayor Richard Britt all had reservations.

“I think this is a safety issue,” Britt told the board. “I think if someone wants to drive a golf cart in town then they need to legalize it to meet the same laws as any other vehicle on the street.”

Britt polled the commissioners individually on the proposed ordinance. Commissioners were unanimous in their feelings that safety would be the main issue for anyone operating a cart on the town’s streets.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing that someone was hurt or killed because of an ordinance that my name is on,” Commissioner Tim Smith said.

Myers, who lives in the Sandhill Acres subdivision in Candor, also had issues with some of the wording in the ordinance.

“The Star ordinance doesn’t require seat belts but this one does,” he said. He also felt that there was no difference between golf carts and tractors that use the roads. “They’re up and down the highway all the time,” he said.

The discussion grew heated when Commissioner Tim Privett, who also lives in Sandhill Acres, expressed his opposition to the ordinance.

“I expected you to be against it,” Myers said to Privett.

Before Privett could reply, Britt quickly admonished Myers for his comment and brought the meeting back into order.

Commissioner Phillip Hearne said safety was the key.

“Vehicles fly up and down some of these streets,” Hearne said.

Commissioner Leslie Thomas had concerns with the amount of tractor-trailer traffic on the roads in Candor and the huge difference in the volume of traffic in Candor and in Star.

“I’m worried about kids. Golf carts are fun to drive and anybody could jump on one,” she said.

Commissioner Layton Booker agreed that trucks would have a hard time avoiding a golf cart in the road.

In other business, commissioners:

• Rejected a request from Healthy Kids/Healthy Communities through FirstHealth to apply for a grant to build a community garden on town-owned property because the board could not identify a suitable site that would meet the requirements of the grant.

• Will re-bid the sale of pine straw on town-owned property because the two bids received were for the same amount.

• Made plans for the annual employee appreciation dinner on June 6.

• Scheduled a public hearing on a conditional use permit to allow FLS Energy to construct a biomass boiler facility on a 3-acre leased tract adjacent to the Mountaire facility for May 25 at 7 p.m. The biomass boiler will generate power to operate Mountaire’s chicken food processing facility.

• Heard that a billboard that had fallen during a recent storm would be removed within 30 days and could not be rebuilt because it did not meet current zoning requirements.

• Learned that construction on the walking trail at Fitzgerald Park would begin following the annual N.C. Peach Festival on July 16.

• Heard a report on a recent Robin Sage exercise in town from Police Chief Randy White.

• Received draft copies of a proposed personnel policy for the town.