LINCOLN, Maine — Snowmobiles were riding Buckley and Penobscot Valley avenues on Tuesday after town leaders opted to reopen a temporary trail to allow snowsleds access to West Broadway and a major statewide snowmobile trail.
With Councilors Michael and Marscella Ireland opposing, the Town Council voted 5-2 to reopen the temporary connection to U.S. Route 2 and Interconnected Trail System 82, a major 25-mile east-west snowmobile trail corridor that links to the north-south-running ITS 83, near Seboeis Lake, and ITS 81, near Burlington.
Residents of Buckley and Penobscot Valley avenues objected to their neighborhood being opened again to snowmobile traffic. They dislike the noise and safety hazard they believe are created by the snowmobile trail running so close to their homes and along their streets.
It was a move no councilors were pleased to make, council Chairman Steve Clay said.
“It is too bad that we have to, but we have to keep those snowsleds coming in and out of town,” Clay said Tuesday. “I think they [local snowmobile club leaders] will find a way around it and they are continuing to work to find a way around it and to keep those snowsleds out of a residential area.”
Local snowmobile club leaders have complained that without the connection, snowmobilers riding through the Lincoln Lakes region have no easy access to gasoline and food available at Why Not Stop? and other convenience stores along Route 2.
Under the council’s latest vote, the trail will close at the end of the 2011-12 snowmobile season, Clay said. A council attempt to temporarily reopen the trail died during last month’s meeting when only two councilors favored it.
Town leaders had hoped that a deal with Pan Am Railways would allow access across railroad tracks that run parallel to Route 2 through much of downtown, but railway officials recently advised that they had no plans to accept the liability of such a crossing, Town Manager Lisa Goodwin said Tuesday.
That leaves snowmobile club members hopeful of making a deal with a landowner in the area allowing a crossing that would connect to the ITS. Negotiations have been attempted for several years.
A homeowner has the right to peace and quiet. I suggest that they file suit against the Town for the degradation and loss of enjoyment of their homes.
They should also sue Pan Am? They have trains running across their lawns, and they are complaining about a couple months of snowmobiles.
Bad comparison. First, they knew the train was there when they bought the property. Second, I would guess 100 snowmobiles pass by for every train.
I’m not so sure, with the exception of the train already being established. Each train must have 40 or 50 cars, all screaching and clanking, times maybe 6 trains in 24 hours…..every 24 hours. Also you have ambulances and police sirens heading to the hospital. You have 18 wheelers coming and going from LP&T at all hours. Yet it’s unsafe and loud for snowmobiles a few months out of the year. Give someone something to complain about and they will jump.
……helicopters doing touch and goes from the hospital to the airstrip……….
If the people on that street don’t like it, they are free to move somewhere else. If they want peace and quiet, move to the country.
That part of Lincoln *is* pretty darn close to country, and was forest when most of these homes were built. But unfortunately, the homeowner has a right to nothing outside his own property boundaries, and the town could easily make a defense case for themselves.