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In early July, this column focused on a report delivered by Marshall Police Chief Jim Marshall to Downtown Business Association members.
The subject of community policing and the successful working relationship established with downtown retailers was brought up.
Marshall's report led to discussion on scooters and bicycle riders moving at sometimes high speeds on downtown sidewalks.
“I still see scooters downtown,” one member was quoted in the column. “I’ve personally seen them going down the sidewalk. Sometimes they’re two on them. I see one of the non-classified e-motos, the motorcross looking ones. I see two last week going down the other side of the street. One, I don’t know how old he was. He was wearing a helmet, the other was not. I seen one on the other side of the road, heading that way. He was cruising with traffic.”
As I stated in that column, a lot of back and forth discussion followed, which eventually led to discussion on signs. Would "walk your wheels" signs posted along sidewalks help. The discussion advanced to the stage of maybe such signs should be purchased by the association with some help from the city or police department.
The association meets monthly, so the sign discussion carried over to the August meeting. At that meeting, Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce Marketing and Communication Coordinator Shelby Buchholz shared that she was at event in Brookings, South Dakota, when she looked down and noticed "Walk Your Wheels" painted on the sidewalk.
"I was like, well, that's cheap. The city could do it," she said.
Buchholz and Chamber Events Specialist Sam Lund reached out to city of Marshall Administrative Assistant Amy VanKeulen about the possibility of duplicating what was being done in Brookings to Marshall's downtown sidewalks.
While they found out the city was interested in partnering in such a endeavor, there were some obstacles to be worked out because of present city ordinances.
The consensus, however, was to get the city involved to allow for applying the paint on the sidewalks.
It was at Wednesday's September meeting that association members learned how slow the wheels of government can turn. VanKeulen delivered good news and not so good news.
Yes, the city would like to help, but it would probably be next spring before city crews would apply the paint on the sidewalks. VanKeulen described the process to make changes to ordinances.
"We took it to the PI&T (Public Improvement and Transportation) committee, which is a committee of three of the council members and their staff, just to bring this request to them," she said. "The PI&T committee was on board for moving this forward. The only thing is, we’ll have to take this to the L&O (Legislative and Ordinance) committee too before presenting this to the whole city council, because there would be a few ordinances that would need to be adjusted in order to get these sidewalks painted with this stencil."
VanKeulen told the downtown group that because of that process and with winter just around the corner, full implementation would probably take place in 2027. That revelation disappointed a few people in the room.
"Can we move faster?" one member asked. "I mean, we’re losing precious time, and we’re just waiting for something to happen."
I paid a visit to City Hall on Friday to get a clarification on what ordinance or ordinances needed changing to allow for the painted signs on the sidewalks. Jason Anderson, director of Public Works, provided me with this statement:
"The city of Marshall is reviewing the current city ordinances as they pertain to motorized and non-motorized vehicles; bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, etc. City Ordinance sections 74-91, 74-92, and 74-151 all currently address these items. Staff wants to take the time to ensure that our ordinances are aligned with state statutes and that they also reflect the desires of our community. City staff is in the process of drafting ordinance amendments that would propose limitations on the use of scooters, bicycles, and other similar vehicles on city sidewalks and streets, including the downtown district. At the time of last ordinance amendment, electric-powered bicycles, scooters, and hoverboards did not exist. Staff will be presenting these proposed changes to city council committees and ultimately, the city council, to review these changes in the coming months."
So like I said, the wheels of government do move -- just not as fast as we would like.