If it isn't snowmobiles in the winter, it's quads in the summer.
It's illegal to drive them within the limits of the Town of Battleford and councillors are hoping to be able to ticket some of the violators to send a message.
Violators are being rude about it, said Councillor David George at Monday's town council meeting.
"The other day I saw this fellow on a quad coming up 36th Street," George said. "I pulled over – and he had a young person with him riding a dirt bike – I stopped and said you can't ride these in town."
Basically, he said, the riders told him "where to go."
"I'm thinking safety for these people. What happens if you had clipped that guy?" he said, referring to Councillor Ames Leslie's report that he was almost hit by a quad flying out of a back alley recently.
George also said their activities are damaging the river valley, but his biggest concern is potential injury.
"I have friends whose kids were killed on quads," he said. "It's a bit of a sore spot. Hopefully these people are smart enough to wake up a little bit."
It's quads at one time of year and snowmobiles in another part of the year, said Mayor Derek Mahon.
"There has been lots of discussion about it in the community."
People out walking or sitting on their decks are complaining about the noise coming from the quads driving around the river valley and ripping up and down streets, he said.
RCMP S/Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt, who was at Monday's meeting to present the first quarter crime statistics, said the police are "pretty confident that the neighbours of the people who own these quads know who they are."
He said all it would take is a phone call and they can do a door-knock and advise them of what the bylaws are.
"We're obviously not going to chase a quad, and we don't expect people to jump out in front of them, put themselves at risk to try to stop them and gather information," said Woolfitt. "If people in the community know who they are, please give us a phone call, then we have the opportunity to go do a door-knock and have a chat."
As for laying charges, Woolfitt said the problem is determining the identity of the riders.
"The biggest thing is we are not going to chase quads on risk of endangering other people while they're fleeing from us," he said. "The biggest thing in order to lay a charge like that is identity, do we know exactly who is driving the quad, who owns it, do we know where they live. That's the biggest hurdle of making a charge like that stand up in court is to the identity of the person who is operating, not necessarily the owner, but the person driving it at the time."
He added, "Most times people are wearing helmets. You can't see exactly who is driving. You can take a guess but to say for certain, that's one of the challenges we have with dealing with this."
However, he said he agrees with enforcing the bylaw and "giving somebody a ticket certainly sends a message."
He also said they could do a media release as well as to what the current bylaw is for ATVs, snowmobiles and other recreational vehicles, so people are made more aware.
The mayor also suggested the Town put the information on its website.
