ATV Club Delayed Permission

By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT – A change in state law is creating confusion and disagreement between city officials and a local recreational vehicle group over the process to permit road access, jeopardizing the readiness of roads and trails for the start of the recreational all-terrain vehicle (ATV) season.

Since 2013, the Claremont City Council has granted annual permission to the Sullivan County ATV Club to access a number of Class V and Class VI roads connected to Cat Hole Trails, a 55-mile wooded trail system spanning from Claremont, Newport, and Cornish.

The Sullivan County ATV Club, a non-profit trail management organization with over 400 members, typically seeks the annual permit around March or April, to have time to make trail repairs or upgrades before May 23, when the trails reopen for the ATV season.

“Our permission is a [grant-required] permission for us to do work,” said Steven Wilkie, president of the Sullivan County ATV Club. “I had planned to do two large projects [off] of Cat Hole Road where trucks and cars are dipping off the edge. We need to get boulders up there to keep the vehicles on the roadways.”

Getting timely permission is also necessary to securing annual grants from the New Hampshire Bureau of Trails, which help to fund trail upgrades and improvement projects.

“Our grant is due next Friday,” Wilkie told city councilors on Wednesday. “And we don’t have permission yet [to work on] those Class VI roads or your other properties.”

Historically these annual permissions have been relatively simple and uneventful formalities.

But city attorney Shawn Tanguay believes this process has become more complicated due to a state amendment passed in 2019.

In 2019, the legislature added a requirement that the governing body must hold “a duly noticed public hearing” prior to changing “the allowable usage of a class IV, class V, or class VI highway by OHRVs (off highway recreational vehicles).”

This amendment also requires that property abutters be notified by a verified letter.

The estimated cost to notify Claremont’s 370 abutters of these affected roads would be about $1,000 per year, according to Tanguay.

On Tanguay’s recommendation, the Claremont City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to pursue a local ordinance change that will open Class V and Class VI roads to OHRV use indefinitely, unless rescinded by the council.

The ordinance, if passed next month, would circumvent the requirement to annually renew use permission, thereby sparing the need for costly public hearing notices, Tanguay explained.

However, the passage of an ordinance will take at least two council meetings, or until Wednesday, May 28, after the official start of the ATV season.

Meanwhile the ATV Club remains unable to access the trails to prepare them for the riding season.

The city council helped the club by authorizing interim City Manager John Mclean to sign the ATV Club’s agreement form, which the club needs for its Bureau of Trails grant application.

But even with the grant, the club still needs the council’s permission to access the roads to begin the repairs, according to Wilkie.

Adding to Wilkie’s frustration is his disagreement with Tanguay’s interpretation of the state statute.

Wilkie contends that changing the city ordinance for Class VI roads is unnecessary, because Claremont’s Class VI roads are already open, according to city code.

Claremont’s ordinances explicitly state that OHRVs “may be permitted on Class VI roads and bridges” except between the dates of March 1 and May 23.

The state statute, RSA 215:a-6, only requires a public hearing when a municipality changes a road’s “allowable usage.”

“Anyone can use those roads because they are open,” Wilkie told the council. “You even have a sign up there that says they are open except from March 1 to May 23.”

While a city ordinance requires the ATV Club to request a permit through the city council, that permission is to maintain and manage the trails, not a permission to ride OHRVs, Wilkie explained.

Still, Tanguay disagreed with Wilkie’s interpretation of the process laid out by the state, and city officials said they need to follow their attorney’s recommendations.

“We just have to follow the statutes as our attorney is telling us that we have to,” said Assistant Mayor Deborah Matteau. “I understand it’s frustrating, but we have to listen to our attorney’s advice.”

This is the second consecutive year that the ATV Club has faced delays to receive council approval.

Last spring the council delayed permission for two months for ATVs to use Class V roads, following complaints by resident abutters on Cat Hole Road about ATV riders in 2020 traveling at excessive speeds and kicking up dirt.

To alleviate grievances, ATV Club members contributed over 900 hours last season to patrolling the Class V roads and educating riders about the trail rules and being respectful to property owners. The club also used $38,000 in grant money to pave the dirt portion of Cat Hole Road that contributed to the pollution.