New London sees increase in registration for golf carts

NEW LONDON - The city of New London has 11 registerations for golf carts and off-road utility vehicles (UTVs) this year with the warming weather.

While city ordinances No. 47 and No. 48 were passed, signed and approved in October 2018 to allow the use of these vehicles on city roads, only a handful of people registered vehicles at the time.

Now, though, City Clerk Kasi Howard suspects more people have been coming in because of more comfortable temperatures. According to Howard, the process is pretty quick.

”If the stars align just right it could take a day or even a few hours (to register) as long as you have the insurance and paperwork you need,” said Howard. 'Someone came in at 9 or 10 in the morning and got his sticker by 2 p.m.”

One of the first people to register back in October was city council member Brad Helmerson, who's owned a UTV since 2014 which he uses for snow removal and to help carry equipment for maintenance on New London's Little League facilities. While the idea of making golf carts and UTVs street-legal came up during a public safety committee he was not present at, he was attracted to the convenience it could offer.

'It lets me drive on the road to get gas rather than having to store it,” Helmerson said. 'I know a lot of people have talked about using them for getting groceries.”

Residents registering their vehicles will be required to have a valid driver's licence and functioning headlights/taillights for operation after dusk. A $25 fee is required and a slow-moving vehicle sign and pre-numbered sticker which operates like a license plate must be placed on the vehicles.

Before this ordinance, the vehicles were used around town without set rules. Though Howard isn't aware of any problems with golf carts or UTVs before the ordinances, the council wanted to have rules in place in the event an issue did arise.

'They wanted to make it legal so that there are rules for officers to follow,” said Howard. 'They wanted to have it so there wasn't a question of what (residents) can and can't do.”

When the ordinance was approved on Oct. 2, 2018, it passed unanimously, though council member Tom Davis was absent during the vote.