GREENVILLE – With support from businesses, town officials and police are working with the local all-terrain vehicle club to find an access route for these recreational vehicles from the junction to the downtown.

The club has proposed using the paved shoulder on Pritham Avenue as a route, and a public hearing on the proposal will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 20 in the town office.

“I think the ATV community very much wants this to be sort of a community- and family-friendly route that’s just a means to bring people that are visiting our community via ATVs to come farther into the community safely and legally,” Greenville Town Manager John Simko said this week.

Simko said Pritham Avenue is a wide road that has travel lanes, a paved shoulder and, in most places, a median and sidewalk.

“Even though it is not ideal to have ATVs going up and down an in-town street, my personal thought is that if the ATVs are in front and center where everybody can see them, there will be more voluntary compliance,” Simko said.

Ken Snowden, president of the Moosehead ATV Club, has spent considerable time investigating the matter and has researched other towns and communities where similar ATV routes have been established, according to Simko. He said the club is willing to work with the town to limit the hours of usage of the trail and to establish proper signage.

The proposal for an access route to the downtown is supported by local businesses, according to Simko. “We’ve gotten numerous letters of support for this access route; the club’s really doing their homework,” he said. The bulk of the letters received by municipal officials are from businesses along the route. Simko said he had not received any letters in opposition, but has had some concerns expressed by residents about the nighttime use of the trail. Police Chief Scott MacMaster is researching how the town could limit the use of the route in the very early morning or nighttime hours, he said.

Unlike an ordinance, a municipal officer’s action of establishing the trail could be discontinued if a problem arose, according to Simko. “It’s not like we’re signing on the dotted line and it exists forever; it could be curtailed if the board so chose,” he said.

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