Trey Petro, the president of the Madison County Property Owners Association, met with Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker on April 12 and broadcast it via Facebook. It addressed safety concerns about this coming summer.
Two issues were addressed in the meeting: golf cart usage and thievery.
“Kids are getting out of school, the weather is going to be pretty, people are going to be out doing their activities. Obviously, people are going to be riding around with their windows down and their tops down. You just need to remember when you get back home, please, put your windows up, and put your top back on because most of the theft that we have is a simple mistake; leaving the car unlocked.”
According to Tucker, there have been 12 break-ins over the last several weeks and all of the vehicles were left unlocked. In the string of break-ins, there was no damage to the vehicles, but firearms were among the most common items stolen.
“A lot of this is kids doing it,” said Tucker.
“I don’t know how you were raised, Trey, but I know nothing good happens after midnight. Curfews are great.”
Petro then continued the conversation to a controversial topic for residents and police alike— golf carts on county and residential roads.
“And as far as when the summer rolls around most of your complaint calls were about kids on motorized vehicles not obeying traffic signs and almost causing an accident or a casualty, as bad as it’s been,” said Petro.
According to Tucker, it is illegal to drive a golf cart on the street. Some neighborhoods that consider themselves golfing communities have made ordinances allowing the golf cars to drive on the roads in the residential area.
“But outside of the municipality, where there is no legislation to address it, it is illegal. We don’t need to see a six-year-old riding a golf cart,” said Tucker.
While Tucker acknowledged the issue is kids having fun, he stressed the need for safety.
“But if things get out of control and we are forced to tighten the grip we will do that. We don’t want to see reckless behavior, we don’t want to see carts overloaded, anything that might present a big danger. These are five, six, seven-year-old kids that are blatantly running stop signs and we just can’t allow that.”
Petro agreed and asked how mothers or neighbors who witness this behavior should report it.
“Absolutely they can call in and we’ll try to locate the kids. And don’t be surprised now but we may make some parents mad, we’re going to locate the child and we’re going to have a discussion…”
According to Petro, underage kids recklessly driving golf carts have been on the decline.
The sheriff and Petro ended the meeting with a positive outlook on the approaching summer.
