MANSFIELD — It may soon get more expensive for truckers who don’t use established truck routes through the city.
Mansfield City Council on Wednesday evening is scheduled to begin discussions on stiffening penalties for truck drivers headed north and south who opt to take more direct routes through the downtown, rather than using Adams Street.
Certainly, enforcement of the existing ordinance has stepped up since Mayor Jodie Perry took office in January 2024.
In all of 2023, the Mansfield Police Department issued five citations for truckers who failed to follow the established route. That’s about one ticket every two months.
Since February of 2024, officers have handed out 177 tickets to truckers for violating section 339.02 of the city’s codified ordinances, an average of about eight per month.
There were 72 such citations in February and March of this year.
Safety Service Director Keith Porch said enforcement has increased due to citizen complaints and also a police department that has seen its staffing levels slowly increasing during the past two years.
“There have been almost constant complaints from pedestrians nearly hit by trucks and also business owners,” Porch said, adding that violators are primarily truck drivers from outside the area.
The current city law makes violations of the law various degrees of misdemeanor — a minor on the first offense and then harsher with subsequent repeat offenses within one year.
The proposal lawmakers will discuss would make it an “unclassified” misdemeanor with fines of up to $1,000 and two points on a violator’s driver’s license.
Porch said he met with Mansfield Municipal Court judges and the Law Director’s office in drafting the new ordinance, which includes an increased fee for companies seeking to move overweight and oversized trucks through the city.
He said the proposal will not be introduced as emergency legislation, giving lawmakers a chance to gauge public reaction. Council is meeting a day later than normal due to election day on Tuesday.
It would also require truckers making deliveries within the city to maintain a log of such deliveries.
Porch and city engineer Bob Bianchi said improved truck route signage at the entrances to the city will also be put into place, helping operators from outside the area more clearly understand the truck route.
Truckers going north for example, should turn right onto First Street from Main Street, left onto Adams Street, left at Fifth Street and then right onto Main. Truckers headed south would follow a reverse route, turning left onto Sixth Street, right onto Adams, etc.
Diamond, Mulberry and Main streets (when the ongoing construction project is complete) are not considered truck routes through the city.
Bianchi and other city officials are clearly frustrated by the continued trucking violations.
“We have had enough,” he said. “They should not be operating in areas with pedestrian-centered foot traffic.
The current city ordinance is below:
339.02 USE OF LOCAL STREETS; LOCAL PERMIT AND CONDITIONS.
(a) All motor trucks entering the City desiring to proceed directly through the City without making a stop therein shall proceed upon either duly designated State or United States routes, and any motor truck entering or leaving the City and desiring to proceed through the City without making a stop therein and entering or leaving the City upon streets other than those set forth shall proceed to one of the designated streets by the shortest route, and shall not thereafter deviate therefrom.
All motor trucks entering the City desiring to make stops therein upon streets other than those hereinbefore specified shall follow a route upon the streets designated, insofar as the same shall be possible.
The Chief of Police or person properly designated shall post proper signs and this section shall have no effect except when so posted.
(b) When signs are erected giving notice thereof, no person shall cause a vehicle having a gross weight in excess of 6,000 pounds to enter upon the highways or streets, or portions thereof set forth in Traffic Schedule IV A., notwithstanding other provisions of this Traffic Code.
(c) Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, no person shall operate a commercial tractor, alone or in combination with any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer, on any portion of the streets set forth in Traffic Schedule IV B. after an alternative truck route has been designated and proper signs have been erected, except for the purpose of making a delivery thereon.
(d) Local Permit and Conditions. Upon application and for good cause, the Police Chief may issue a local permit authorizing an applicant to move an oversize or overweight vehicle or combination of vehicles upon local streets.
No permittee shall be required to obtain a special permit from the Ohio Director of Transportation for the movement of the vehicle or combination of vehicles on streets or highways under local jurisdiction; however, the approval of the Ohio Director of Transportation shall be required for movement upon State routes as provided in Section 339.01.
The Police Chief may grant a permit for a single or round trip, or for such period of time, not to exceed one year, as the Police Chief in his discretion deems advisable, or for the duration of any construction project. The Police Chief may limit or prescribe terms or conditions of operation for such vehicle or combination of vehicles by designating the route, hours, speed or such other restrictions as may be necessary for the preservation of the public peace, property, health and safety. The Police Chief may require the posting of bond or other security necessary to compensate for any damage to a roadway or road structure.
For each such permit, the Police Chief shall charge ten dollars ($10.00), and for each hour of time or any part thereof spent by each police officer in supervising the movement of such vehicle, the applicant shall pay the then current overtime rate for a Senior Patrol Officer in the Police Department.
Signs shall be posted to apprise drivers of the limitations imposed by this section. No driver shall disobey the instructions indicated on any such sign.
Violation of any of the limitations, terms or conditions of the permit granted by the Police Chief shall be cause for immediate revocation or suspension of such permit, and denial of request for any future permit. Such violation shall also subject the violator to the penalty prescribed by subsection (e) hereof.
(e) Whoever violates any provision of this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor on a first offense; on a second offense within one year after the first offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree; on each subsequent offense within one year after the first offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.