MECHANIC FALLS — The Town Council on Monday approved a sixth-month trial for ATVs to use town roads where the speed limit is 35 mph or lower.
The unanimous vote gave members of the Bog Hooters ATV club greater access than they hoped for. Originally, members had considered seeking access to all town roads. However, they pared their request to access routes to particular points in the downtown with connections to trails in Poland and Oxford. It would have affected about five miles of town roads.
The decision allows access to 22 miles of town roads.
Discussion had focused on gaining access to critical points in the downtown, with several proponents arguing that access would be a boon to local business.
“This is a good family sport and it would be a great revenue stream,” chamber of commerce member Susan Goulet said.
Tom Webster pointed out that the ATV owners weren’t a bunch of kids, hot-rodding back and forth, but people more interested in the quickest route out of and back into town.
Others noted that riding an ATV on tar roads wasn’t at all the main idea behind the sport.
“It’s no fun to ride on roads. Roads are just access to trails out in the countryside,” Goulet said.
Riverside Drive resident Nancy Guptill noted that it wasn’t the Bog Hooters who posed a problem, but the “bad apples that you always have.”
“We’ve seen all of the bad on our road,” Guptill said, “it’s not the people here tonight who are the problem.”
Councilors Stephen Bolduc and Nancy Richard expressed reservations over how effectively the “bad apples” could be controlled and insisted on approval only under the condition that it be for a limited trial period.
Club members noted they would be very active in ensuring that ATVs were operating in a legal, safe and respectful manner.
It a separate but related action, the council voted to dissolve an agreement between the town and an association of Riverside Drive property owners whereby the town was granted an easement to sand and plow Riverside Drive.
Riverside Drive is a private way and the easement opened the road to ATV access.
Now that the easement is ended the Riverside Drive association is free to negotiate access directly with the Bog Hooters organization.
In other business, the council met with Mike O’Donnell of O’Donnell and Associates, the firm which recently completed a property appraisal equalization study of the town’s 1,400 properties.
The equalization reduces the town’s overall valuation from $142 million to $136 million, a move which automatically raises the town’s tax rate.
While the council took no action in setting next year’s tax rate, it appears it will increase from last year’s $18.55 to about $20.45, according to a letter property owners recently received.
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