The drive for a county-wide off-road vehicle ordinance continues.

The Leighton Township Board Thursday evening adopted on a 4-1 vote a resolution to encourage the Allegan County Board of Commissioners to come up with an ordinance that would establish rules for ORVs in all 24 townships.

Clerk Mary Lou Nieuwenhuis cast the lone dissenting vote, expressing her opposition to ORVs on main roads and driven by children.

Scott Beltman of Monterey Township, who spoke to members of the Martin Township Board Wednesday night, said the goal for his group of advocates is to have as many as 20 townships adopt a resolution in support. He said it’s better to have a county-wide ordinance rather than 24 different sets of rules.

He said there are 60 counties he knows of who have adopted such ordinances, and not one of them since has sought to repeal them. He added that Leighton would be the 10^th township in the county to approve.

“The genie’s already out of the bottle,” Beltman insisted, noting that many farmers are using ORVs, as well as rural residents.

Trustee John Hooker added, “I think it’s wise to let Allegan County do it (set the rules and polcies for enforcement).”

Supervisor Steve Deer said, “I think snowmobiles do more damage to our roads than ORVs.”

In other business Thursday night, the Township Board:

• Approved the request of the Leighton Township Library Board to place a request for 1.1 mill on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
• Was told by Citizens’ Road Committee Chairman Steve Shoemaker that a grass-roots campaign door to door for a road millage this year would not be feasible because of the Coronavirus. The township plans to have 137^th Avenue between Division and Kalamazoo Avenue paved in 2021, but that is all.
• Was told by Allegan County Deputy Bernard Austof that the only way to curb a recent rash of larcenies inside parked vehicles is for residents to have them locked.
• Noted there were four building permits issues in August, bringing the year to date total to 23 permits at a value of $5.3 million.