Batesville’s outgoing Board of Aldermen met in a special meeting on Friday, June 27, to hastily pass an ordinance to prohibit trucks weighing more than 10,000 lbs. from using House-Carlson Rd., the stretch of roadway that runs from Medical Drive (Hwy. 6 entrance to Wal Mart, Civic Center, medical center) to Eureka Road.

The road was built and opened about 10 years ago with contributions from Panola County and the City of Batesville and has long been posted with signs saying  No Trucks. 

Recently, though, when contractors learned that the city has no ordinance and the signs have no legal teeth, several began using their gravel, sand, and dirt trucks to save several miles of driving from Eureka to Hwy. 6 using the road.

Alderman Stan Harrison asked for a special meeting to stop the trucks, he said, when several people noticed new damage on several spots of the road. “We had to act quick to stop this,” Harrison said. “Somebody told (contractors) there was no ordinance and they could use the road and it didn’t take them long to start tearing it up. We had to stop this before they caused the taxpayers even more money.”

By law, all five aldermen had to agree to a proposed ordinance for it to become effective immediately. Generally, new ordinances are given a month (sometimes more) before they are enforced. Not so with the truck ordinance.

Deputy Chief of Police Barry Thompson confirmed the police department has written several tickets already this week, and are not giving any more warning.

Aldermen set the fine for the first offense at $1,000. Subsequent fines were not clear as of Tuesday, but a full reading of the new ordinance will be available at the next meeting of the board.

Harrison acknowledged Tuesday that the ordinance will need some fine tuning, especially when reminded that many Recreational Vehicles exceed the 10,000 lb.limit and exceptions will need to be considered for owners of those type vehicles.

Also, the Batesville Police Dept. currently has no calibrated, mobile scales to actually weigh vehicles, a fact that may complicate the prosecution of some cases.