MILLINOCKET, Maine — Volunteers have expanded an in-town all-terrain vehicle trail network as part of a plan to bolster ATV contacts with local businesses and make Millinocket more ATV friendly, one of its organizers said Friday.
New ATV access route signs have been placed onto Ash, Bates and Bowdoin streets and Forest, Massachusetts and Penobscot avenues since the Town Council informally agreed last month to permit the expansion, former Town Councilor John Raymond said.
The additions — and a state law permitting ATVs to venture up to 1,500 feet between trail connections — allow access to just about everywhere within town lines. The new streets make it far easier for out-of-town riders to find convenience stores and restaurants and in-town riders to access trails from their homes without using trailers, Raymond said.
“One of the complaints we heard when we had the first route in town was that riders had trouble getting to gas stations and other things they needed,” Raymond said Friday. “This takes care of that. It opens up the community to be accessed.”
“As long as they stay off Central Street except for crossing it, they can pretty much go anywhere in town, but at a slow rate of speed,” Raymond added. “Most of the people who come here from out of town understand that.”
Raymond and several other volunteers helped create a 16.5-mile multiuse recreational trail that runs from the Northern Timber Cruisers clubhouse just outside town to the Seboeis area. The five-year project, which began in 2007, was a massive undertaking. Paid for with an estimated $500,000 worth of in-kind donations and grants, it features 170 culverts, 450 signs, a bridge over the Penobscot River and a spur into downtown Millinocket that connects to the recently-expanded network.
Raymond and other volunteers also recently began working on another trail that would make Seboeis trail a conduit between the state’s two largest ATV networks. That work is ongoing. The ultimate goal is to replicate the Katahdin region’s international success with snowmobiling but to expand it over three seasons, not just winter, Raymond said.
“We see this as an emerging sport, and we want to cater to it,” Raymond said.
Volunteers John and Ashley Levesque, Arnold Madore, David Moore, Jim Ouellette and Councilor Paul Sannicandro spent the last two weeks putting up the route signs on the in-town network. All of them are members of the Northern Timber Cruisers club, which is vital to the trail expansion and its maintenance, Raymond said.
The new trails are open. Trail streets will be stenciled with white paint as soon as weather permits, Raymond said.
Councilor Michael Madore was among several councilors who complimented the volunteers for their efforts.
“This fits well with the town’s economic development plans, and will still help us keep that small-town feeling that we always have had,” Madore said during the May 12 meeting. “It is the type of visionary tourism that can add to what we already have. This is not an easy task. It is a lot of hours, and [John Raymond] has been carrying the ball on this for a lot of years.”
The in-town trail speed limit is 10 mph.
Police Chief Steve Kenyan told councilors that officers know to watch for ATVs and that he will keep an eye on how the trail use develops in case town ordinances need to be added to address ATV problems.