Village officials are seeking a legal opinion on whether people may drive golf carts on the village’s streets.

“I think we’re at the point where we should probably check with legal counsel to find out if we can,” Village Trustee Dewey Tangwall said at this month’s board meeting.

The topic of golf carts on village streets was first brought up at the board’s June meeting.

It was noted that some residents are already driving them on village streets.

At that meeting, Police Chief Gene Goode said the village does not have a low-speed vehicle ordinance and that in order for a vehicle to fall under such an ordinance, it would have to be registered, licensed and have turn signals, lights and seatbelts.

When a resident asked this month if in the mean time, people can continue driving them on village streets, Goode said, “My research shows they’re illegal. I can’t give you authority to violate the law. If legal counsel recommends an ordinance allowing it, so be it. There will be two different opinions.”

Prior to the board’s July 10 meeting, the village’s Ordinance/Recycling Committee met twice to discuss the issue.

Tangwall said they learned that in some cases, golf carts are allowed on the streets when a golf course is within a mile of the municipality’s limits.

“As we checked further, we found villages that don’t have a golf course within a mile but still have allowed them,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any hard and fast rule, so that is why we want to check with legal counsel. Then, we could meet again.”

Universally, people are not allowed to drive golf carts on numbered highways and on roads that cross such highways, Tangwall said.

“So, there is a limitation from all the ordinances we have seen,” he said.