The city of Springfield, Massachusetts has a new tool in cracking down on dirt bikes that are ridden illegally on the streets.
The Springfield City Council gave final approval by a unanimous vote Monday night to an ordinance that makes it illegal for gas stations to sell fuel to the operator of an off-highway vehicle when it is driven up to the pumps. Gas station attendants could be ticketed for a $100 fine for violating the ordinance.
City Councilor Orlando Ramos, the author of the ordinance, said it is not intended to punish gas station operators, but to get them to work with the police to crack down on the illegal activity.
“The goal is to reduce the number of illegal dirt bikes that are on the road and the way to do that is to cut them off at the fuel pump,” Ramos said.
The ordinance was given first-step approval from the Council back in the spring, but then it stalled amid worries that it could put clerks at convenience stores that sell gas at risk of violence from dirt bike riders irate over being denied fuel for their vehicles.
Ramos researched the impact of such bans that are on the books in other cities and invited officials from those jurisdictions to field questions from Springfield Councilors.
“I held six committee meetings on this topic,” Ramos said. “I think just about every Councilor was able to attend at least one committee meeting.”
The Public Safety Committee hearings swayed skeptics like City Councilor Kateri Walsh.
“There was legitimate concern about what was going to happen to the people who had to enforce this and whether we were making gas station attendants become cops, but the meeting with police chiefs helped very much to resolve a lot of issues,” Walsh said.
The work Ramos put into crafting the legislation and guiding it through to final approval by the 13-member City Council garnered praise from several of his colleague including City Councilor Mike Fenton.
“I want to thank Chairman Ramos for bringing this forward and putting together a really impressive legislative endeavor,” said Fenton.
Now that the ordinance has been passed by the City Council in Springfield, Ramos said he hopes neighboring municipalities will follow suit to make it even more difficult for the operators of vehicles that are not street-legal to get fuel.
“Chicopee and Holyoke are also taking steps to put this ordinance on the books which will help us take the regional approach of reducing dirt bikes in our city,” Ramos said.
Ramos, who is a state legislator, is leaving the City Council at the end of the year when his current term expires. He did not run for re-election.
As a state legislator, Ramos is pursuing a home rule bill that would give Springfield police the right to ask a court to order the forfeiture of a confiscated dirt bike so it could be destroyed.
