Maine

Rebekah Metzler

AUGUSTA — The state Legislature's Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee voted Tuesday in favor of a measure that would allow game wardens to stop all-terrain vehicles on private property without cause.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Ralph Sarty, R-Denmark, passed by a vote of 7-6.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- All-terrain vehicle use on private land is on the agenda in a Maine legislative committee this week.

On Tuesday, the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee takes up a bill that would allow wardens to stop ATVs operated on privately owned property without a reasonable and articulable suspicion to believe a violation of the law has occurred.

AUGUSTA, Maine --Legislators in Augusta are working to ease relations between land owners and ATV riders.

They are looking to amend part of an existing law to allow law enforcement to stop an ATV rider without any obvious physical reason, if only to see if they have permission to be riding on private property.

A gaping state budget hole resulting from relentless revenue shortfalls will be the center of Maine lawmakers' attention during the 2010 election-year session, which starts Wednesday.

But cell phone safety, ATV regulation and highway funding also will be on the agenda.

Maine's highest court has overturned a lower court judge's ruling that a state law that authorized game wardens to stop all-terrain vehicle operators without cause was unconstitutional.

In a decision Thursday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated a ruling that had suppressed evidence against Charles Bromiley IV, who was stopped in July 2008 for a random ATV check in Monson and arrested for operating under the influence.

Allison Aloisio

Andover selectmen Tuesday voted to close most town roads to ATV use, reversing in part a decision by an earlier board, three years ago.

The earlier board approved use of all of Andover’s roads in August of 2006.

Sharon Kiley Mack

MACHIAS, Maine — Kenneth Chandler, 20, of Beals Island, who took a drunken joy ride on a lobster boat in May 2008 and abandoned the boat in the island’s harbor allowing it to crash into four other boats, was sentenced Monday to 40 months in prison, with all but two years suspended.

He also was ordered to pay $69,777.99 in restitution for the damage to the fishing vessels.

Diana Bowley

DEXTER, Maine — A proposed fence amendment, a request for all-terrain vehicle use of a couple of roadways and a swimming hole issue were addressed Thursday by the Dexter Town Council.

The planning board had recommended that the council amend the land use ordinance to address fences after an issue surfaced last year on Shore Road. The board, which claimed a fence was installed on town property, believed the town had no authority to act on the fence without an ordinance. Although the proposed amendment was meant to prohibit fences being installed within 42 inches of any property line, the council was troubled by an added requirement that would have made it mandatory for property owners to register even pre-existing fences.

Nick Sambides Jr.

TOWNSHIP 3 INDIAN PURCHASE, Maine — Construction of the area’s first multiuse recreational bridge over the Penobscot River is off to a good start, Millinocket Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said Wednesday.

Since construction began in late July, the cement anchors for the bridge’s pilings have been set, brush clearing has been done and riprap has been set in the water, Conlogue said.