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Lebanon Valley Rail Trail officials on Thursday, May 7, presented a first draft of an ordinance to Lebanon County Commissioners to regulate use of the 32.8-mile asset by outdoor enthusiasts.
Commissioners also recognized winners of the elections office’s sticker contest for local students and continued discussion about 287(g) agreements, particularly about insurance coverage ending for local municipalities as recently announced by the insurance carrier for county governments across Pennsylvania.
Lebanon Valley Rail Trail ordinance
While the ordinance covers a variety of topics, including dogs and other animals on the trail, trespassing and property destruction, a primary tenet of the proposed regulations covers the use of e-bikes.
County solicitor Matt Bugli said there was plenty of discussion about e-bikes on the trail and what constitutes an e-bike according to the Pennsylvania vehicle code.
“We took the definition of e-bike as it is defined in the vehicle code and incorporated it into the ordinance,” Bugli said, noting that every municipality the trail traverses was asked for input.
LVRT president John Wengert said the organization worked to simplify the definition of an e-bike for the ordinance. Any bike above pedal assist is banned.
“We just thought we would make it simple because when it comes time to enforce this, how is an officer or a trail representative going to really be able to prove from a distance what kind of bike is flying by at 20 miles an hour?” Wengert said. “And really the simplest thing, in my opinion, looking at some of the other trails around our region, how they have identified it in their rules is, are they pedaling? Yes or no?”
Wengert said language would be added to the effect that, “no matter what type of bike you have, what class it is, what horsepower it is, how much it weighs, don’t really care. Is that person going by you pedaling? If not, it’s a problem. Don’t want bikes that are not pedaled, end of story.”
An initial stop would lead to further investigation, he added.
“The next question is how are you moving so fast, you must have a throttle. What is that? Is that your throttle? Yes, okay, you’re not allowed on here.”
Bugli noted language in the ordinance includes definitions for bicycles, pedal cycles, unicycles and e-bikes, again based on the state Vehicle Code.
“Such bikes must be in pedal-assist mode only when used on the rail trail, i.e. no throttle. All other e-bikes are prohibited so we wanted to just clarify that in the ordinance,” he said.
Wengert said trail officials recently witnessed two bikes traveling on the trail at an elevated speed – they were essentially motorcycles, not bicycles. He also noted another example of excessive speed on a non-pedal assisted e-bike.
“Coming off the North Cornwall Commons, a woman and a man somehow hit each other. And they even admitted to the police officer that they were going between 33 and 35 miles an hour. So on a trail where there’s kids, dog walkers, walkers, older people, we just don’t need it,” Wengert said.
It was noted Class 1 e-bikes (pedal only, no throttle) are among those classifications to be permitted on the trail.
“It’s not prohibiting all e-bikes. Class ones are allowed. It’s not the point that LVRT is against e-bikes. I’m out on the trail five, six times a week. And doing maintenance, we run across people all the time that are really happy that they can, like John said, they can go farther,” said LVRT board member Tod Dissinger. “Some of them said it’s helped with their health. So we just need … to get some of these slowed (down). I mean, we almost got hit (while working on the trail).”
Commissioner Bob Phillips asked Bugli next steps for adoption of the ordinance since this was the first time commissioners had an opportunity to review it.
“The county code requires the ordinance to be advertised “not less than seven days” before it’s considered for adoption, Bugli said. “So, hypothetically, if we got the advertisement published, it could be considered at our next meeting in two weeks.” Changes to the draft document by commissioners could impact the adoption date, he added, although minor revisions that don’t “the actual substance of the ordinance” could be adopted without re-advertising.
When completed in 2028, the trail will cover a route that begins in Swatara State Park in northern Lebanon County, continues south through the city and ends at the Lancaster County line in the southwestern corner of the Lebanon Valley.
The trail has been created over 30 years, beginning in 1996. A celebration will be held June 6 to commemorate the anniversary. (Details on the celebration can be found here.)
Sticker contest winners recognized
Jamie Shoemaker, voter registration employee, noted there were two winners out of the 146 entries received for the department’s two sticker contest categories. Shoemaker said the contest ran from January through the end of March, and she thanked everyone who supported the project.
She highlighted the support of commissioners, businesses that posted about the contest, participating schools, the county library system, and the media for promoting it.
“It was open to local students. Kindergarten through 6th-graders designed the Future Voter stickers and 7th-graders through 12th-graders designed ‘I voted’ stickers,” Shoemaker said. “We have Elise Stoner from the Paloma School, who won the ‘I voted,’ and Aubree Gross from Cedar Crest Middle School, who won the Future Voter.”
Kerry Royer, director of the Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show, presented winners and their families free passes to the art show this August, which is where their winning entries will be displayed. The two students received citations in honor of their achievements along with a roll of stickers featuring their winning entries.
Phillips addressed the role the elections office has in helping to promote elections to the younger generation to “try to get awareness built at all levels of our education” and a recent “50 consecutive years of voting” program.
“We have the older kids coming and spending time and training for representation at our elections so that they’re doing interpreting work and a lot of other activities,” said Phillips. “It just brings them into the process.”
Other business
In other business, commissioners unanimously voted, unless otherwise noted, to:
- Convey deeds for three county-owned properties in Lebanon to the City of Lebanon for $398,000 and agreed to pay $7,877.85 to Long Brightbill Attorneys at Law for legal matters involving the property transactions.
- Accept the treasurer’s report, including a beginning cash balance of $8,317,411.88, receipts of $3,281,109, for a total cash balance of $11,598,520.88, less expenditures of $7,676,386.69 and less tax claim of $64,845.28, leaving a final cash balance of $4,465,981.91.
- Give permission to Probation Services to apply for a $168,060 grant through the federal government for the Justice Reinvestment Initiative 2 program.
- Approve a contract with Laserfiche to provide software services for a migration project for Domestic Relations at a first-year cost of about $56,000 and ongoing costs of about $16,000 a year for software licensing fees. The project includes seven areas of work totaling an estimated 140 hours. The scope of the work focuses on the migration of records from 2016 and earlier that have to be permanently stored.
- Proclaim May 11-17 as Police Week to help recognize May 12 as Police Officer’s Memorial Day. The proclamation encourages residents to observe the day to honor men and women who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.
- Provide two hotel tax grant funding requests. One was for Gretna Productions doing business as the Gretna Theatre totaling $5,000 to promote their events. The second, passed by a 2-1 vote, was for $2,500 to the Community of Lebanon Association to hang flower baskets in downtown Lebanon. Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz declined, saying she wanted to be consistent with a vote on the Campbelltown funding request.
- Grant real estate tax exemptions to six fully disabled veterans or their families.
- Accept various personnel transactions.
- Approve the minutes of their April 16 meeting, April 15 workshop, April 29 workshop/executive sessions, and April 30 executive session. The two executive sessions were held to discuss personnel issues.
Next meeting
Lebanon County Commissioners meet the first and third Thursday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the county municipal building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 21.
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