Good article in the recent Moab Sun News (Between a rock and a loud place, Oct. 15, 2020 edition). Therein, the article lists a number of options for dealing with the scourge of UTVs plaguing our town with obnoxious drivers and “intolerable” noise. Both complaints are true and on full display every single day.
The best option by far is to “lobby the state legislature to allow Moab to opt out of state law,” and impose appropriate restrictions on the darned skeeters.
It should not be a tough sell. If the powers that be in Utah are for anything, it’s local control. Whether it’s land use, regulations, wilderness, the coronavirus pandemic or myriad other topics, the state invariably takes the position that the locals know best about how to manage the issue and should be free to do so.
Well, we’ve got a huge issue here in the proliferation of motorized skeeters doing whatever they want, wherever and whenever they want. On Kane Creek, it often sounds like we are track-side at a NASCAR race. It is quite clear that the vast majority of local residents want sensible restrictions on these toys to be imposed in order to preserve what little is left of our small-town feel and values.
The city and county councils, law enforcement and everyone else concerned about it should demand the right for local authorities and citizens to put appropriate limits to the use of UTVs in town.
Then the state can either follow its own mandate for local control or have to explain its own hypocrisy.
Steve Russell
Moab
