Problems Persist With Trail Rides

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COFFEEVILLE – There was a solemn round of “yes, ma’ams” following a passionate plea from Mary Dudley during the Board of Supervisors meeting Monday morning. Dudley requested that county supervisors take immediate action to prevent future problems from trail rides.

“I think y’all can hear in my voice this morning, I am depending on you to take action,” Dudley stressed.

Her appeal started with a simple explanation of the problems stemming from a trail ride – an event people attend to ride ATVs and UTVs (side-by-sides) and enjoy music and food – held on County Road 66 between Coffeeville and Oakland on May 10. She told county officials that trail ride attendees had parked along the county road, blocking her from accessing her house for three hours.

“I was in line from a quarter until four until a quarter to seven,” Dudley said. “Now, I am a diabetic. I need to eat. There were cars on both sides (of the road).”
Compounding the problem, as identified later in the meeting, was extremely wet conditions that kept the trail ride attendees from pulling into the pasture where there was parking for the event. Instead the attendees parked along the public road.

“The sheriff was there, he couldn’t get out,” Dudley continued. “People were getting stuck, that is a public road. If a house had caught on fire on that day, it would have burned to the ground. If somebody had gotten sick, the ambulance could not have got in there.”

Dudley also cited other problems, the trash that was left up and down the road. She also noted that the sheriff had evidence that people were using the bathroom between vehicles parked along the road.

“Toilet paper and everything, that is filthy,” Dudley said.

“And,” Dudley said as her appeal came to an end. “They had the audacity to drive through my yard. They were having a good time, I was miserable.”

After Dudley spoke her piece, she exited the second floor courtroom inside the Coffeeville courthouse, leaving county officials to mull options.

Earlier Complaints

Her plea is not the first complaint. Last October District 4 Supervisor Eddie Harris told board members that he had fielded several complaints following a trail ride for UTVs (side-by-sides) and ATVs (four-wheelers) at an event on County Road 216.

During that meeting, Harris said he had reached out to the event organizer requesting that all of the trash left behind be picked up.

Two weeks later, on October 21, multiple residents who live on County Road 216 shared additional concerns about the event. The complaints included loud music that extended into the early morning hours, heavy traffic on the road and trash left behind.

The topic was discussed a third time in April when Supervisor Harris revisited the matter after again receiving multiple complaints about another trail ride held on County Road 216.

Harris reiterated prior problems – loud music, trash and parking issues. Harris also noted that with a wet spring, the vehicles tracked mud onto the county road, making it difficult to travel. Harris also said there were problems with the UTVs and ATVs traveling on county roads instead of remaining on the private property.

In all three meetings, supervisors resisted implementing an ordinance to regulate trail rides and instead instructed Sheriff Jerimaine Gooch to enforce existing laws and to tow vehicles that impede traffic on county roads.

The Response

District Five Supervisor Gaylon Gray was first to provide input.

“She is absolutely right, it was like a tornado came through there,” he said. “This lady presented a case, she is looking to us.”

Sheriff Jerimaine Gooch explained that deputies started calling for tow trucks to tow the vehicles blocking the road. The sheriff also said deputies attempted to patrol the area, but were overwhelmed.

“It was 500 people for each deputy,” Gooch said.

Supervisor Harris noted that both deputies on duty on May 10 attempted to patrol the area.

“They could not move,” Harris said about the parked vehicles also blocking deputies.

“They could not get out,” he said.

“If they had received another call they couldn’t respond?” Gray asked.

“Yeah, they could not move,” Harris reiterated.

Supervisor Gray noted one problem was the persistent rain.

“When they have had those trail rides before, it has been pretty dry. And the man who owns the land does have parking space for them. But it had rained that day, it was so wet they couldn’t get out there and get parked. So they just used the road for a parking spot,” Gray said.

“I talked to the landowner and like Gaylon said, he has plenty of parking off the road,” Harris said. “But that Saturday it was raining. I was headed toward Oakland that day and I was meeting these folks with big trucks with four-wheelers on these trailers. I thought, surely they aren’t going to still have this trail ride. It should have been canceled.”

As in previous meetings, the discussion shifted between enforcing existing laws only or enacting a new ordinance to give the sheriff’s department additional regulatory authority.

“You don’t need an ordinance to make them comply with laws that are already there,” Board Attorney Shannon Crow noted. “And I think that Jerimaine is doing the job. The problem is staffing.”

Crow said one option is for the sheriff’s department to aggressively cite and tow vehicles parked on the public road.

“If the deputy goes out there and there are 15 of them out there and they are parked impeding the public road, start writing tickets. And if they don’t move them, start towing them,” Crow recommended.

Crow cautioned that an ordinance requiring a permit fee to help offset the salary for additional deputies paid to patrol during the event could be problematic.
“You enact an ordinance saying they have to pay a permit fee before a trail ride. What if they ignore that and have the trail ride. The sheriff goes out there and there are 500 of them. The landowner hasn’t paid the permit and you are still in the same boat, you have 500 folks out there acting like idiots,” Crow explained.
Following additional discussion, Crow said he would research options and report back to supervisors. Options discussed included implementing a hefty permit fee, money that would flow to the county to fund additional deputies during trail rides.

“Some of the vehicles are loud, loud, loud and they are running them all night. Do we also need to set a time on it,” Gray asked about the prospective ordinance.
“The Constitution allows you to do reasonable time, place and manner,” Crow answered.

“We don’t want to get on the constitutional rights of a landowner,” Gray said. “But what did we take an oath to do, ‘protect the public safety.’ I think this is part of that, because of the ambulance can’t get to you that is not public safety. Or if a fire truck can’t put your kitchen fire out and it burns your whole house down.”

“I can get an ordinance drafted that we can discuss in the June meeting. We could have something to adopt in August or so,” Crow said.