On Wednesday, four citations issued to cyclists on August 29th for blowing through stop signs on the Raccoon River Valley Trail were dismissed by Guthrie County Attorney Mary Benton. She says the stop signs were never made enforceable by their governing body, the Guthrie County Conservation Board. “Chapter 350 of the Iowa Code gives conservation boards authority to pass regulations concerning all of their parks and areas that they have control over, including trails. They’ve just never passed a regulation adhering to those stop signs.”

Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officer Jeremy King who issued the citations, says his intent was to increase safety on the trail, rather than increase revenue from the $780 that could have been collected from the four citations. “It’s a safety issue and that’s the biggest thing out of this whole deal.”

Both King and Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright say they’ve received much feedback from area motorists about the dangers of cyclists riding through the crossings without stopping. Arganbright says members of his own department have had close calls when driving past the bike crossings. “Going to calls and going across the bike crossings with emergency lights and sirens, and having vehicles cross right in front of you. It’s the last thing we want to do is injure a bicyclist on our way to a call.”

Arganbright adds that he would like to see the stop signs at the crossings made enforceable. “If we could get the stop sign problem on the bike trail figured out, then enforce it. Just by the DNR officer starting that, we know now what we need to do and get in place to enforce the stop sign violations.”

Stay tuned to Raccoon Valley Radio for more updates on this story as they happen.