Flin Flon quad owners could lose the right to ride within municipal limits as city council once again contends with complaints of irresponsible ATVers.
Council planned to meet with police to discuss whether the concerns are solvable without revoking the designated routes ATVers use to exit and enter the community.
“We are getting a lot of complaints about the ATVs and I think the next step will be that they will be trailered out of town again,” Coun. Colleen McKee said at last week’s council meeting.
Council has fielded reports of ATVs illegally travelling through parks and schoolyards, and of riders not wearing the proper safety gear.
McKee said she has personally seen people use their ATVs to buy beer.
“It’s that whole thing where if you give an inch, they take a mile,” she said. “And to me that’s exactly what has happened here. We’ve done this as a benefit to the ATVers and what’s happened now is that they’ve taken it a little bit too far, in my opinion.”
Mayor Cal Huntley said council does not want to revoke the ATV routes but would meet with the RCMP on the matter.
“We need to discuss this with the RCMP: Is [the allowance of ATV routes] hampering them from dealing with [the concerns]?” said Huntley, who described the ATV complaints as “a significant problem.”
Problem
Huntley said the complaints stem from youth ATVers, but Coun. Leslie Beck said the problem goes beyond young people.
Beck said she regularly sees adult couples going for pleasure rides on side-by-sides within city limits.
“[If] you’re going to buy a side-by-side, it’s not for your enjoyment to drive around the city of Flin Flon,” said Beck. “The purpose is to get onto
the routes and then to leave
the community and go into
the bush.”
Roger Armstrong, an avid ATVer, told council he never sees the police stop a youth on
a quad.
“I’ve been stopped on my quad three times and I’m a fat old guy going fishing,” Armstrong said.
“I have yet to see a kid on an ATV get stopped. I have yet to see that. So you can ask fat old guys that are going fishing to trailer out all you want. You haven’t addressed the problem one little bit.”
At one point McKee said the ATV routes were put in place with the understanding that ATVers would help police them.
“We can’t police,” replied Armstrong, adding that he shares concerns about ATVers who break the law.
So worried is McKee that she said she does not allow her daughter to play in the park for fear she’ll be hit by an ATV or a snowmobile.
Coun. Bill Hanson said
99 per cent of off-road vehicle operators who use the designated route near his home are very respectful.
“It’s that one per cent that want to ruin it for everybody,” said Hanson, who urged parents whose children use off-road vehicles to “police them, please.”
Under the current bylaw, adopted in 2009, ATVers are permitted to use designated routes to find the shortest way out of, and back into, city limits.
Prior to that, they were required to move their ATVs outside of city limits on a trailer – though often that did not happen.
Council was warned of potential consequences of the ATV routes before implementing them.
“There are only a few months for families and friends to enjoy the outdoors in backyards, parks, etc.” Judy Zimmer wrote in a 2009 letter to council. “To allow ‘quadding’ with its noise, pollution, and practice of racing down back alleys with dust and rocks flying is not justified. There are also safety concerns.”
But many ATVers contended that having to load their machines onto a trailer was unfair since snowmobilers were not required to do the same.
Since the ATV routes were established, the city has received numerous complaints of irresponsible operators. In 2012, council raised the spectre of the routes being abolished.
Maps of designated ATV routes are available at city hall.
Bridge beef
Avid ATVer Roger Armstrong appeared before city council last week primarily to ask questions about the recent demolition of the Pine Avenue road bridge and its replacement with a wooden footbridge.
He said the removal of the bridge took away his shortest ATV route and that he would have welcomed the chance to provide feedback before the bridge was torn down.
Mayor Cal Huntley said the bridge was deemed unsafe and while the city would like to rebuild it, the funding is not available at this time.
He said the footbridge was installed for the convenience of students and residents.
“In lieu of totally removing the whole structure, we felt that we could accommodate a walking path,” Huntley said, “until at some future time when potentially we may have the resources to actually put a functional bridge back in there or something a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.”
Huntley stressed that the city does not want ATVs using the bridge and will not remove the poles that block motor vehicles.
