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| NH ATV Club News |
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Monday, August 26, 2002
Windham ATV Foes Take Case to State Panel
By Stephanie Hooper - Derry News Staff
Taking it to the top, some Windham residents who have been vocal in Selectmen's meetings lately about problems with enforcement against off highway recreational vehicles in their neighborhood approached a study committee of four state representatives and a state senator in Concord Wednesday to plea for help.
John Mangan of 1 Depot Road, Robert Samsel of 4 Depot Road, and Wallace Ramsden of 10 Depot Road, each told Representatives Charles Royce of District 9 Cheshire, Robert Odell of District 5 Sullivan, Robert McGuire of District 26 Rockingham, John Alger of District 9 Grafton, and Senator Robert Flanders District 7, that because OHRV use in their neighborhoods was a major nuisance with little enforcement, the state should close the trail. Their homes abut the Windham Depot entrance to the Rockingham Recreational Trail.
"It's a sad state of affairs when someone's hobbies and recreation can override other's peace and quality of life for the sake of their fun," Mangan said.
"I would ask you to give back to us a quality of life we had and restrict all motorized vehicles from our section of the trail in Windham or close it and give it to the town and the abutters," Mangan said.
The committee would not consider closing the trail but Alger, the chairman of the committee, asked Trails Bureau Chief Paul Bureau to look into Ramsden's request to close an accessory portion of the trail that leads across Depot and Frost roads past Mangan's property and to a Citgo gas station.
Gray said that he would like to look into other ways of handling the problem first because he does not like the precedent closing the trail could set. He said many riders who have parked at the Fremont end of the trail need to be provided access to the gas station.
Alger told Gray to look into what it would take to close that portion of the trail and told the residents to write a letter to the committee, to Gray and to Commissioner Ball to request a meeting on the closure.
The study committee was the creation of House Bill 717, which the legislature passed in 2001 and charged with issuing a study on OHRV issues in the state.
The meeting was the first one of the new fiscal year. Last fall the committee issued its study which concluded that:
OHRV use in the state was increasing and it was better to try to manage the problems stemming from increased usage rather than try to ban it.
More enforcement of the trails was needed and it was better to provide funds to local law enforcement to patrol the trails rather than employ more conservation officers.
Because of increased usage by OHRV riders, more trails were needed. As a result of the study's findings, the Senate passed House Bill 1273 in May which went into effect July 1.
That law raised OHRV registration costs to provide badly needed funding to towns for patrol of their own trails. The registration fees increased $10 for all New Hampshire two- and four-wheeled vehicles, and $19 for out-of-state registrations.
The program is run by the State Fish and Game Department who disperse the money to towns in the form of grants-in-aid.
Extra money from the fund is supposed to finance the building of new trails in the state.
However, since the program just went into effect in July the money is still being accumulated and is not immediately available to help towns. The Windham residents have been complaining about the issue in Selectmen's meetings since May.
Since that time the Selectmen have voted to install no parking signs to control some of the traffic problems at the trail and voted to close down the town's portion of the Depot parking lot. After presenting the committee members with a map of the trail and pictures of the depot, Mangan, who lives directly across from the trail entrances, said he was sick of the dust, noise and other problems the OHRV activity has brought to his neighborhood. "I have personally witnessed public urination, defecation, disrobing entirely and changing clothes in public after these people come back from their rides," Mangan told the committee.
Mangan also complained that because trails in Northern Massachusetts had been shut down the Depot had become a staging area for the Rockingham trail, and that the riders get bored on the four-mile straightaway portion of the trail and are going onto private land.
"The town of Windham is carrying the burden for policing, traffic and everything else," Mangan said.
After listening to Mangan speak, Alger and McGuire told Mangan that the town of Fremont had worked with the state to put an enforcement program in place and asked what kind of help Windham's Police Chief Bruce Moeckel had attempted to receive from the state for the enforcement problems. The residents said they were not sure but that the town was not doing a good job with enforcement at the depot. McGuire said the ideal situation the state was working toward with the new law was to eventually have enough trails for everyone, not to close down trails.
He said that ultimately it was an enforcement issue. "I agree with what you are saying," Mangan said. "But I have a little trouble understanding why the state permitted its registration to grow to 15 percent a year yet admittedly Fish and Game can't handle the policing of it and the [Fish and Game] gentleman that covers our town services eight towns," Mangan said.
"Where were you people a year and a half ago?" Alger immediately shot back at Mangan.
"We have had 80 operations on this damn thing and you people should have been here! I agree with you but I've got to tell you gentlemen we worked the law to do two things, prevent illegal operation and provide more trails where people can ride. Because we can't stop registration," Alger said. Alger later asked the residents why the town's officials were not at the meeting.
Selectman Margaret Crisler said she didn't know anything about the committee otherwise she would have attended the meeting. She said OHRV issues at the Depot are on the agenda for the Aug. 26, meeting.
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