The warnings are over. A year has passed since Ketchum adopted an ordinance making it illegal to leave a vehicle idling for more than three minutes.
That means the City Council's recommended 12-month education phase of handing out fliers has come to an end, and enforcement has begun. First-time violators will be given a $100 fine, with second-time violators and beyond paying $300 for each offense.
Police Chief Steve Harkins said community service officers have handed out 400 fliers to those letting their cars idle longer than three minutes. He said most of those weren't distributed recently but during the peak-season, cold months. He said the two main areas seeing idlers have been outiside the post office and Atkinsons' Market. He said the downtown core, in general, had violators but not to such a great extent as those key spots.
"People have been pretty receptive," Harkins said, adding that violators have been a mix of residents and visitors.
<
He said police started issuing warning citations in April. And 40 of those have been written in the meantime. But tickets will now be the real thing, and the weather's getting cold.
"The idea is not [for it] to be a revenue enhancer," said Councilman Larry Helzel at the ordinance's second reading in September 2009.
The stated purpose of the ordinance is to improve "regional air quality."
Former Councilman Charles Conn said at the time of the ordinance's unanimous adoption on Oct. 5, 2009, that he often saw idling cars, and it was a problem "all over this town."
"I encountered two today," he said. "One was a giant diesel truck spewing fumes outside the post office."
Helzel said at the time that enforcement shouldn't take much manpower.
"I'm pretty confident, after the education period, this will cease to be an issue," he said.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
Ketchum police have spent the last year handing out only fliers to cars left idling, but they’re now handing out $100 tickets.
