Editorial: Keeping off-roaders out of town

Written by The Daily Item

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Northumberland County’s board of commissioners voted earlier this year to use a state grant to pay a landscape architect $240,000 to come up with a plan to develop a 6,000-acre off-roading park on abandoned coal land near Trevorton.

The conflict between off-roaders and in-towners described by Trevorton residents and property owners illustrates the merit of developing a formal ATV park that includes measures for regulating the behavior of recreational riders who seem only to attract notice when they crash or annoy the neighbors.

Trevorton residents and business owners say off-road vehicle riders are causing property damage by kicking up rocks while illegally roaring down the streets of their village. The ATV riders are drawn to the area by the thrill of off-roading on coal wastelands outside of town.

A former police chief says that he handed out dozens of citations to off-roaders and sent notices reminding those on ATVs to obey traffic laws. Residents say the effort worked, but over recent months, police enforcement has trailed off and the number of ATV riders has picked up.

County officials say that ATV riders could be an economic boon to the area, but they probably didn’t foresee the situation described by a local beer distributor. He recalled a summer day in 2009 when a family of four visited his business.

The purpose of their visit?

It was not to buy beer, but to escape a cloud of coal dust raised by off-roaders.

A state police sergeant recently compared the behavior of off-roaders to the shenanigans in the Wild West.

At a minimum, Northumberland County ought to take steps to control the situation to stave off lawsuits from those injured in accidents or crimes that take place on county-owned land.

More ambitiously, one proposal would create a county authority to operate the park and collect fees from riders and other visitors.

Proponents envision a world-class facility. Northumberland County’s coal lands already draw off-roaders from up and down the East Coast. The county would be well-served to develop the ATV park into a resource rather than a burden.

Source: http://dailyitem.com/0109_opinion/x537287578/Keeping-off-roaders-out-of-town

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Community Voices

"We can't continue to utilize the Black Hills in the fashion we have, particularly in the past 10 years. Just because the hill is there doesn't mean we need to climb it and produce another trail. Those ruts are there for years."

-- Tom Blair, ORV rider and owner of Whistler Gulch Campground in Deadwood, "Changes coming for ATV riders", Rapid City Journal (10/18/09)