City Council moves forward with off-road vehicle ban

In an unpleasant surprise, City Councilman Tom Godbey passes away post meeting

by Carrie Moritz, Gazette

Ward 2 Councilman dies post meeting

            Ward 2 councilmember Tom Godbey passed away unexpectedly late Monday evening/early Tuesday morning, despite looking to be in good health during Monday evening's meeting. He was on the council for many years, at one point running for Mayor. A long-time figure in city politics, no one had any indication that this October 7 city council meeting would be his last.

            In a statement to the Gazette, Mayor Bruce Brown said, "The city of Garretson would like to extend their condolences to the Godbey family with the sudden loss of Council Member Tom Godbey. His love for the City of Garretson will be greatly missed. Tom's sincere dedication to the city parks will forever be unmatched in his gift of trees and shelter he built by hand."

            Godbey had a zest for ensuring the health of the city parks, sidewalk accessibility, and that the city was running as efficiently as possible. Despite a lifelong speech disability, he was not afraid to speak his mind, even if it was not a majority opinion.

            He was a longtime Garretson School bus driver who prided himself on delivering students safely to and from school and sporting events. In a statement, the Garretson School District said, "Tom took great pride in his role, not only delivering the kids to and from school safely, but also transporting our student athletes safely to and from the destination of their contests. He oftentimes would wear a tie on activity trips as a sign of how important those events were to him.”

            "Tom was not necessarily known as a man who loved change. That being said, he accepted the change to an electric bus without argument, and after driving the electric bus on the route, he reported that one of the best parts about it was that the bus was quiet enough that he could hear the kids well enough to talk to them and get to know them better. He was known to have said that driving the school bus was the most meaningful job he'd ever had.

            "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Karla, Derrick, Meghan, Danielle and the rest of the Godbey family. Tom made a difference for our kids. He will be missed by all of us."

Off-Road Vehicle Ban

            The Garretson City Council is likely to move forward with an off-road vehicle ban, but not in the format it was in before.

            At the October regular meeting held this past Monday, a new version of the ordinance banning off-road vehicles was put through another first reading. In this version, language clarified that the vehicles were not going to be banned from Garretson city limits entirely, nor from the parks entirely.

            The initial proposal to create an ordinance, which was brought forward in August, had requested that any off-road vehicle not be allowed to be on city property, except those vehicles that were licensed and equipped for road use. The reason for this was due to dirt bikes and ATVs that had torn up grass and roadways in Split Rock Park and Devil's Gulch by visitors and residents, and there was no legal recourse for the city to recoup the cost of repairs. There had also been an incident with off-road vehicles on private property doing the same damage without permission.

            In a first reading at September's meeting, the ban within areas considered city property remained unless it was on a roadway, but the vague language was a cause for concern, leading residents to believe their road-worthy UTVs would not be allowed to drive on the roadways inside the parks.

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