If you ride a bicycle in Eunice, you will soon have to register your bike with the city.
It’s a law that’s been on the books for years, but Police Chief Randy Fontenot says he now wants to implement it throughout the city.
Fontenot says the bike law has been in place since 1978 and that when he left the department as an officer in the 90s, all bikes had to be registered. When he came back in 2015 as chief, the law had fallen off.
He says that with the recent amount of bikes being stolen in the city, he wants to ensure people get their bikes back, and he wants to make sure the people stealing the bikes are held responsible for their actions.
“If we catch someone on a public roadway or in a right of way without their registration, the officer has their discretion of three options. He can either warn them with a verbal warning and tell them, ‘You are not supposed to have this bicycle on the road.’ He can give them a written warning and tell them to have it registered in five days, or the other option would be to give them a regular citation to appear in court where they could be fined,” Fontenot said.
The registration kicks off March 23 at the City Hall parking lot. The registration fee is five dollars. The chief advises everyone to get their bike registered, so if it is stolen, it can be returned to its owner.
