Yorktown discusses formal policy for bicycles left locked on bike racks

YORKTOWN, N.Y. — After receiving several complaints about the bike rack located at 308 Underhill Ave. and others in town being used for “as a storage unit in essence,” Parks and Recreation Superintendent James Martorano Jr. proposed the addition of a formal policy to the town code for those bicycles left locked on bike racks. He went before Supervisor Ed Lachterman, who commended Martorano’s bike policy research, and the Town Board during its Jan. 14 work session to discuss it. 

“I thought it’d be some quick work,” Martorano said. But when he told the Chief of Police that he was “going to take these bikes and cut them right off,” he told him, “Not so fast you don’t have a town code to do that, you’d be stealing these bikes.” 

He said he does believe other cities and towns have policies and codes regarding bike racks, which gives him a sounding board to move forward with creating one for Yorktown. Martorano said during the meeting he’s been talking with Adam Rodriguez, the town attorney, about different options and what they could do to change the code. 

 A seven-day period was presented as an example in the proposal. Martorano said after seven days of no movement, a bike could be tagged. If that bike continues to show no movement after a tag has been placed, then it could be confiscated. Following the two-week period, the unclaimed bikes could be moved to police storage, where they would be held for later pickup by the owner. 

Martorano told Yorktown News after the meeting that he will work with the town attorney on the language for an amendment to the town code “so our town has legal recourse when dealing with abandoned bikes.”  

Lachterman asked for a revision of the suggested code by the board’s next meeting, or soon after. Martorano said it will likely take a couple of weeks. “If the code passes it will be on the parks department to utilize the new law to remove bike when warranted.”  

Martorano wants to be clear: he’s not looking to take bikes from residents.  

“I support bike riding and an active healthy lifestyle in Yorktown,” he said. “However, we don’t want Yorktown to be a storage facility, and we’d like to keep Yorktown the clean beautiful town we all love.”  

The addition of this code would give the town merit to do something about the bikes left behind, rusting the racks.  

“A lot of the date requirements are the minimums," he said. "When enforcing we will most likely give extra days for the owners to claim their bikes.”