T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY The Marshalltown Police Department currently has about 90 found bicycles in storage at the impound building near the entrance to the Compost Facility on the northeast side of town. During Monday night’s meeting, Chief Mike Tupper’s suggestion to move away from auctioning them off and instead taking the bikes to a salvage yard received informal approval from the council, and it will come back as an official resolution at a future meeting.

As he introduced the first discussion item of Monday night’s meeting, Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper joked that there were many important topics on the agenda, but the subject he was about to cover wasn’t one of them.

“Bear with me,” he said. “Found bicycles have become a bane of our existence at the police department. It’s odd to me. It’s been odd to me for many years now, but apparently bicycles have become disposable property because we don’t take many stolen bike reports, but we sure take in a lot of found bicycles.”

Judging by the shape some of them are in, he added, he isn’t surprised that no one is claiming them. Currently, there are about 90 bikes sitting in storage at an impound building near the Compost Facility, and Tupper said the MPD has historically used public auctions to get rid of them.

Because of the lack of revenue they generate and the cost to store the bikes and put the auctions on, the chief suggested adopting a new policy that will allow the MPD to take unclaimed bikes to salvage yards about every six months with whatever money is brought in going back to the general fund.

“We use social media every once in a while, and we’ll continue to do that to remind people ‘Hey, if you lost your bike, give us a call.’ But they really don’t, so I think it’s no longer worthwhile to store these bikes,” Tupper said. “Let’s get rid of them, and if we come across one that’s worth fixing up, we’ll fix it up and donate it to a charitable cause.”

He said he had consulted with Black Tire Bike Shop Owner Matt Gerstandt to see if any of the bikes were worth fixing up, and he did not feel that any of them were. Councilor Gary Thompson asked if the six month timeframe was a legal requirement and if the bikes could potentially be disposed of even faster.

“There’s nothing magical about six months. As we were writing the policy, staff recommended to me six months, so that gives people ample time to claim their bike. And if they don’t after six months, we’ll take our chances and just get rid of it,” Tupper said.

Councilor Melisa Fonseca asked if there would be any cost for destroying the bikes, and Tupper responded that the city would actually generate a small amount of money by delivering it to the salvage yard, with any proceeds going back into the general fund.

“It’s not gonna be a lot of money. It’s not gonna be much,” he said. “(But) we’ll be bringing in a little something.”

Tupper lamented that the job of picking up junk bikes has fallen on police departments across the country.

“Every community does it. I wish we didn’t, but we do. So let’s just quit storing them and get rid of them sooner,” he said.

Mayor Joel Greer recalled having to get his bike licensed as a youngster, and Tupper said such a program does still exist, although it’s rarely utilized anymore. Councilor Jeff Schneider then made a motion to direct staff on bringing back a formal resolution to adopt the policy.

During the public comment period, Linda Clark advocated for a licensing and inspection system in Marshalltown as she contended that there was “no accountability” and riders were not using their bikes safely in the city.

“We need to go back to licensing and some accountability for the people that are riding these bicycles in Marshalltown, these big ones that cost lots of money that don’t share the road with people walking on the bike trails,” she said.

Jim Shaw agreed with the calls for a licensing system, citing an incident involving a kid who had threatened to throw his bicycle through the rear window of Shaw’s car. The original motion passed by a 6-0 tally with Greg Nichols absent.