Huntingburg: $25, Then $50, Then $100. The Vote Is Nov. 10.

Huntingburg has not passed an e-bike rule. The Dubois County Free Press, staff, 14 October 2026, says the common council introduced Ordinance 2026-36 on Tuesday and set the vote for 10 November. Introduction is not adoption. The paper says the text can still change. The ordinance would replace Chapter 73, the chapter that now covers bicycles, skateboards, and rollerblades. Fifty divided by 25 is 2. One hundred divided by 25 is 4. Those are the fine steps: $25, then $50, then $100. A judge could raise a fine for a repeat offender. The story does not print the raised number. A parent who knowingly lets a child break the rule could also be fined. The story does not print that parent’s dollar either.

Twenty and twenty-eight are the classes, not a posted cap

The paper uses the ordinary class line. Class 1 and Class 2 top out at 20 mph. Class 3 can reach 28. Twenty-eight minus 20 is 8. That gap is why Class 3 would be off the sidewalk and off the multi-use trail, and why Class 1 and Class 2 could stay on most sidewalks. It is not a sentence that says a Class 2 must ride the sidewalk at 20, or that the sidewalk itself has a posted 20. The class chart is the state version of those three numbers. Huntingburg would be choosing where each class may be. It has not finished choosing. E-motos, which the paper defines as electric dirt bikes, trikes, and motorcycles, get the Class 3 treatment on sidewalks and trails, plus a possible route if the Board of Public Works designates one. E-scooters are in that same sentence. Gas mopeds and gas motorcycles are outside the ordinance. So are medical mobility devices.

Three and a half feet, against eight to ten

Mayor Neil Elkins told the council they would need sidewalks of 8 to 10 feet, and that the city’s are 3.5 feet. Eight divided by 3.5 is 2.3. Ten divided by 3.5 is 2.9. Three and a half feet is 42 inches. He also said it will come down to what parents allow and how they train their kids. Jeff Bounds said that if kids are on the sidewalk on bikes that go 20 mph, the sidewalk needs to be clear. Those are two different complaints. One is the width. One is whether anyone else is standing on it. Councilwoman Pam Bolte said the council is not taking the question lightly. City Attorney Phil Schneider, on the name for the whole group, said it is hard to come up with a word that covers all of them. The word they are using is micromobility: bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-motos, electric skateboards, rollerblades, hoverboards, and Segways.

Downtown is a box, and the parks are roads

No device of any kind would be ridden on the sidewalks downtown around Fourth Street. The box is Third to Fifth, and Geiger to Van Buren. A Class 1 bike that is legal on a neighborhood sidewalk is not legal on that downtown sidewalk. In the parks, riders stay on the roads. The Park Board’s exception lets bicycles, Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, skateboards, hoverboards, and Segways onto the park sidewalks. Class 3, e-motos, and e-scooters are not in that list. On the street, the devices would have the same duties as a driver: signals, signs, as far right as practical, and no more than two side by side. A street closed to cars for an event would be closed to these devices too. The sidewalk page is the other cities’ version of this split. Huntingburg’s version is still a draft.

A hundred dollars is the third offense. The vote that would make it real is 10 November.

Modesto, the same week, introduced a first fine of $500. Five hundred divided by 100 is 5. Huntingburg’s third offense is a fifth of Modesto’s first, and neither one is law. That comparison is on the Modesto page. It is not a reason to treat a $25 ticket as adopted. No helmet rule and no age are in the Huntingburg story. No public film of the meeting turned up. If the 10 November vote adopts the text, the date plus whatever effective-date line they add is the day this page has to be rewritten. Until then Chapter 73 is still the chapter on the books.