LIVERMORE — Selectpersons on Tuesday night approved a temporary ATV trail to access Rich’s Mountain from Gibbs Mill Road because the mountain trail was heavily damaged last month.
Ashley Langlin-Hebert, Brettuns Wheelers ATV Club president, said trails have not opened yet because of the May storm and recent rains.
“We sustained a lot of damage to the trail around Rich’s Mountain in early May,” she said. “We rented an excavator, hauled in 32 yards of stone and spent three days work, but it just wasn’t enough, a lot more work is required to make it passable.”
Langlin-Hebert asked for access this year from the crossing by Renee Grondin’s property on Gibbs Mill Road through Fish Meadow Road, about 1.7 miles. A landowner there is going to be building a house for his daughter where the current trail is, she said.
The club is unable to reroute the trail this year because of a steep grade and costs, she said.
If the trail is not approved, the south end of the trail will have to be shut off, Langlin-Hebert said.
Signs would be posted for riders to stay on pavement and maintain speed limits, Langlin-Hebert said. “If the landowner does not offer other options, we might come back next year and ask for this access route to be permanent,” she added.
Asked about the speed limit, Langlin-Hebert said it can be the posted limit or lower.
The faster the speed, the more ATVs howl, Selectperson Scott Richmond said.
It was agreed to limit speed to 20 mph.
“As a resident of Fish Meadow Road, it wouldn’t bother me to have ATVs going by,” Travis Tardif said. “My biggest concern would be that corner down there. That’s dangerous.”
“Make sure the signage makes it very clear there is a corner coming up,” Selectperson Brett Deyling said.
Richmond suggested putting up a stop sign.
Selectpersons also granted one-day access along Goding and Spruce Mountain roads for the Spruce Mountain Ski Slope hill climb Aug. 26. Access would allow riders to get there from the parking area or the River Road access, she said.
“The more ATVs that are there and not cars, the better,” Selectperson Joshua Perkins said. The parking is terrible, he added.
In other business, a public hearing was scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, July 6, at the Town Office/Fire Station Complex on a license for a marijuana cultivation facility on River Road by Ben Thone.
“All the work is done, the Planning Board needs to hold a public hearing,” Administrative Assistant Carrie Judd said.
“Terry Pinkham, the code enforcement officer contacted me,” Richmond said. “We were one day short of having the 10 days required to set the hearing, couldn’t do it tonight.”
The next board meeting is July 18.
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