Lyonsdale puts ATV openings on hold
LYONS FALLS — Lyonsdale officials plan to wait for a decision in the latest Lewis County all-terrain-vehicle lawsuit before trying to open town roads to ATVs again.
"We're probably going to take a wait-and-see attitude," said Mark G. Gebo, the town attorney.
"I'm not going to throw good money after bad on a law that may not stand up to a lawsuit or judge's decision," town Supervisor Samuel A. Marmon said.
State Supreme Court Judge Joseph D. McGuire, in a decision filed last month, nullified the town's February 2009 law that opened to ATV traffic about 10 miles of Fowlerville, Fowler, Lowdale, Penny Settlement, North-South, Holmes and Wildcat roads. The judge ruled the town didn't provide enough justification for opening each road nor conduct an adequate environmental review.
The ruling came in response to a June lawsuit by Town Councilwoman Nancy A. O'Brien-Dailey, the lone member of the five-person board to vote against the ATV law.
Mr. Gebo met recently with some town and county officials to discuss the possibility of reworking the tossed-out law so it could pass legal muster.
However, before that discussion, Greig resident Rose V. Pettit filed a lawsuit against the county seeking annulment of an October law that opened 2.32 miles of county roads in the towns of Greig and Turin to ATV traffic. The openings, which include the Burdicks Crossing Road bridge over the Black River, were intended primarily to connect the Tug Hill and Brantingham areas.
Mr. Marmon said Judge McGuire's lengthy ruling on the town's law offers plenty of insight on how to open roads to ATVs properly under state law. And he suspects the judge, in making a determination on the county's latest ATV law, will clarify matters further.
"We'll explore it in the future when we determine what would satisfy Judge McGuire and the state of New York," Mr. Marmon said.
In early 2009, Lewis County completed a two-year environmental review of a countywide ATV system, which includes a checklist for adding trail segments to the system, and set up a permit-based trail system.
Volunteers last summer developed about 50 miles of trail on county and private land, about 30 of which are on several parcels of county reforestation land in Lyonsdale, according to Robert C. Diehl, Lewis County's trail coordinator.
ATV riders this year still will be able to drive their machines from Brantingham to the larger reforestation tract — containing the lion's share of trail miles in Lyonsdale — on the northern edge of the town. However, trails on some county land to the south will be isolated without the opened roads.
"We just won't be able to get down there," said county Legislator Richard C. Lucas, R-Barnes Corners, chairman of the legislative Economic Development Committee.
Trails on the isolated county parcels will remain open, but riders will have to take their ATVs there by trailer to use them, Mr. Diehl said. There is some room for parking, but probably only enough for five or six trailers, he said.
"I'm just hopeful that when our lawsuit is settled, they will do whatever they have to do to reopen roads," Mr. Lucas said.
Mr. Marmon said that likely will be the case because most town residents appear to favor having places to ride ATVs in Lyonsdale.
"The people's will will eventually win out," he said.
Mr. Diehl said he has received permission to develop trails on one private parcel in Lyonsdale and is working with other landowners to secure similar agreements. The goal ultimately is to provide a connection between the county reforestation tracts while using minimal road miles, he said.
