CHAFFEE TO CHECK HANDLING OF OVERSIZE TRAFFIC THROUGH TOWN

CHAFFEE - Two city committees will explore how overweight trucks and other vehicles should be handled by the city when they are too large to maneuver through the city's truck route.

Ward 4 Councilman Tom Cunningham, filling in as mayor Monday night at the Chaffee City Council meeting, sent the matter to the city's street and ordinance committees.

The action by Cunningham came two weeks after Chaffee Mayor Ron Moyers, who did not attend the meeting, said there had been a problem two weeks prior when a mobile home being moved along the route was too wide for it.

The city's truck route is made up of Yoakum and Main Street from Elliott north, said City Attorney David Summers.

Summers told the council Monday that city ordinance allows permits to be secured for vehicles over 10,000 pounds that are unable to use the truck route. A $2,500 bond is required for any repair to possible damage that results, he said.

But Summers said the ordinance's bond amount became "a little impractical to handle." He doubts, he said, that truck drivers coming through town would have that much money on them.

The biggest problem he foresees, Summers said, is an out-of-state truck driver coming through who has no contacts in Missouri.

He said he believed the preferred option is to have some type of bond requirement.

"From a practical standpoint I think that unless we have that bond in hand before they ever make a move across the blacktop, we're just pretty well at someone else's mercy...."

Also, the attorney questioned when the property damage would actually begin to show up.

"Do you see it right as they move across the blacktop, or is it something that shows up six or eight months later? I don't know."

Summers said he had drawn up a draft of an ordinance that would mandate a written permit request. It would require the chairman of the city's Street Committee or the chief of police to obtain the names and addresses of both the vehicle operator and owner.

The owner would also be required to confirm, either verbally or in writing, that he or she also understands the arrangement and that he or she will be responsible for any property damage.

City council members Monday also dealt with a matter relating to a request by the Masonic lodge to erect basketball goals at the dead-end sections of both Main and Second streets. No action was taken, however.

Moyers had asked Ward 3 Councilman Danny Finley and Ward 1 Councilman Jerry Wolsey two weeks ago to meet over the request. Concerns have been raised over the possibility of people being injured by traffic at the sites as well as the city's liability in connection with basketball-related injuries at the sites.

On Monday, Finley suggested two possibilities for the safety of people playing basketball at the sites. He said either barricades or chain-link fences could be used as barriers.

Finley also said the Chaffee Housing Authority is willing to help fund the project.

In other action:

City Administrator Reece Brown said a representative of the state Department of Natural Resources would visit June 18. The visit is being made in connection with the city's effort toward correcting the effluent problem at its waste-water plant.

Brown asked all council members to attend.

Prior to the meeting, City Clerk Diane Eftink swore in Ed Gauthier as councilman for Ward 2. Gauthier defeated Janet Sullivan 95 votes to 84 in last Tuesday's special election for the seat.