Advertisement

You are here

Home ›

City Council discusses drones

Error message

  • Warning: array_merge(): Expected parameter 1 to be an array, bool given in _simpleads_render_ajax_template() (line 133 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Notice: Trying to get property 'settings' of non-object in _simpleads_adgroup_settings() (line 343 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Warning: array_merge(): Expected parameter 1 to be an array, bool given in _simpleads_render_ajax_template() (line 157 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/includes/simpleads.helper.inc).
  • Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in include() (line 24 of /home/pdccourier/www/www/sites/all/modules/simpleads/templates/simpleads_ajax_call.tpl.php).
Submitted by admin on Wed, 08/05/2015 - 15:16

By Caitlin Bittner

At the Prairie du Chien City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4, the council discussed an ordinance regarding the illegal use of drones within the city.

“We decided to address this because drones have been in the news recently,” said city administrator Aaron Kramer. “There is, because of the city airport, a 5-mile no-fly zone in the city.”

The no-fly zone is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for safety purposes. If residents do have a drone, they are required to notify the FAA via the Prairie du Chien Airport prior to flying it and receive permission.

Those with permission would not be ticketed unless they are violating the law and interrupting others’ privacy. At that point, the Prairie du Chien Police Department would get involved and ticket the offender. In more serious cases, the offense would be turned over to the FAA.

Police Chief Chad Abram said the fine for violating this ordinance would likely be somewhere between $150-$170.

At the end of the discussion, following questions from councilman Edward Hayes-Hall, it was determined that a decision would be postponed until the Aug. 18 meeting, when details regarding personal use of drones under an FAA regulated height on private property could be more available.

In passing an ordinance like this, Prairie du Chien would be the third city in the state of Wisconsin to do so.

In other business, the council:

∙welcomed Lara Czajkowski Higgins as the new city attorney and Chelsey Ritter as the new municipal attorney. Both of these positions are considered independent contractors with the city. Because of this change, it was necessary to repeal and recreate chapters 1.03 and 1.04 of the city’s municipal code in order to create the position of municipal attorney, as well as abolish a required annual review between the city administrator and the city attorney.

∙commended the legal services of Tom and Mark Peterson.

∙held a public hearing regarding the adoption of a revised floodplain ordinance. Julie Jackson, zoning administrator and municipal technician for the city, explained that although they were updating, none of the data has changed for the city in terms of elevation; therefore, everything will remain exactly as it is.

Rate this article: 
No votes yet