NATCHEZ — Here’s a notice for parents whose children are riding or driving all terrain vehicles on county roads: It’s going to cost you.

Courtney Taylor, public information officer for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, said a major complaint at recent neighborhood watch meetings in Morgantown and Sibley was the number of youngsters riding the roads on ATVs.

“They are having a huge problem with these four-wheelers in Sibley and in the Morgantown area. Parents spend thousands of dollars on these ATVs or dirt bikes, but they don’t know the law when it comes to their kids riding them,” she said. “They are illegal on county roads, and we’re going to crack down on them.”

In response to complaints from these neighborhood groups about the vehicles, Taylor said any person caught driving an all-terrain vehicle on a county roadway, including gravel county roads, will face ticketing and towing of the vehicle.

“Between the ticket and towing fees, that’s over $300,” she said. “That’s the only way to get their attention.”

Taylor said only vehicles with license tags are allowed on county roads. ATVs and dirt bikes cannot get license tags in Mississippi.

“They have no taillights. They don’t meet the requirements for licensed vehicles,” she said.

The primary concern with the vehicles on county roads is the safety of the youngsters on them.

Carol Berry said teenagers, sometimes four of them on one vehicle, ride dangerously in Deer Lake Road area of Adams County.

“We have a neighbor that hosts parties on the weekends and he has a bunch of teenagers over there. They run up and down the roads on the ATV, hollering and screaming,” she said. “Casual riding is different. But these kids are going 90 to nothing, going up and down the road. Sometimes there are four or five of them on one of them and they are popping wheelies and stuff. It’s dangerous. Somebody’s going to be hurt,” Berry said.

She said he has complained to the sheriff’s department, “but they can’t do anything about it unless they catch them doing it.”