JAY — For six months, all-terrain vehicles will be able to ride on Alden Hill Road instead of a trail for about a mile to connect to another trail. The trial period will give selectpersons a chance to see how the arrangement will work.
Selectpersons voted to open the road to ATVs and spend up to $200 out of a recreation account to buy signs that will say “stay to the right” and “go slow.” The Western Maine ATV Club will buy the poles for the signs to go on and install and maintain them.
Elise Despres of Canton, who lives on the Canton end of the road, previously brought safety concerns to Jay selectpersons about ATVs riding on the road instead of taking the trail off the Jay section of the road and having no signs posted.
On the Canton end, there are signs, including signs posted by a Canton ATV club, that set the speed limit at 15 mph, she said Monday.
Western Maine club President Bob Dalot of Jay said he went up to the road and stopped as many people as he could on ATVs, including side-by-sides, to see why they were not riding on the trail. They said the trail was not wide enough and rocky. A side-by-side is about 60 inches wide, he said.
The speed limit on the Jay section of the road is 35 mph but is not posted, acting police Chief Richard Caton IV said.
In order to lower the speed, the town would have to ask the state Department of Transportation to change the speed limit or the town would have to adopt an ordinance that would allow the board to set the speed for ATVs.
Brian Bronson, a representative of the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, said that the law states the governing body for the road can allow an access route with safety taken into consideration. It also needs to have state-approved signs posted.
The signs would need to caution riders to stay to the right, he said. A posted speed limit will also help, he said.
“I would rather see them on a trail than a road,” Bronson said.
The Jay trail is narrow and very rocky because of a ledge. It runs along a fence around Verso Paper Corp.’s property, he said. The opposite side is soft and could be a better trail. It would cost about $10,000 to upgrade the existing trail, he said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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