Fort Kent councilors approve ATV route

FORT KENT – With little fanfare, and certainly with a lot less controversy than the snowmobile access trail dispute of last winter, the Town Council on Monday night approved an access route into the business district for ATV enthusiasts.

The Town Council voted 4-1 to allow ATV operators the use of Hall Street as an access route from the Heritage Trail to the business district. The section of Hall Street that will be used by four-wheelers is about 700 feet long

“The proposal was brought to us by the local ATV club,” Town Manager Donald Guimond said Tuesday afternoon. “It was quickly approved.”

Guimond said the dissenting vote, from Councilor Peter Caron, was made because there had not been a public hearing on the proposal.

The section of Hall Street to be used runs from the former Bangor and Aroostook Railroad bed to just north of the Century movie theater. From there, vehicles can cut across land owned by Roger’s Sport Center to area restaurants, gasoline stations and a motel.

Valley ATV Riders Club offered the proposal Monday night.

Priscilla Staples, a property owner on Hall Street, was at Monday night’s session and was opposed to the proposal. Guimond said property owners along the route had not been informed of the proposal.

The multiuse Heritage Trail is the former rail bed. It runs from Market Street in Fort Kent, across the Fish River over a former railroad trestle, and continues west about 18 miles through St. John Plantation and St. Francis.

The winterlong effort to find a snowmobile access route into the town’s business district is still without a solution. A proposed report of the West Side Trail Committee was not available Monday night.

The town councilors tabled action until at least their next meeting on May 13.

The committee report, according to one source, will offer three alternatives for winter access routes to the business district by snowmobiles.

This past winter, a snowmobile access route to the business ended up in the Aroostook County Superior Court when a residential property owner sued to stop snowmobile traffic on St. Joseph Street, the most direct route to gasoline stations, restaurants and motels.

In other business Monday night, the council approved a grant application for directional and informational signage at the town-owned Riverside Park. The signs would inform the public of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

The trail, which includes several portages over land, is a 740-mile trip from Old Forge, N.Y., to Fort Kent. The trip ends at the park located on the banks of the St. John River.