SIREN—Despite urgings from ATV enthusiasts to delay the vote, the county’s infrastructure committee approved an ordinance to open sections of county highways to ATV traffic at its meeting last week.

Basically, the ordinance allows the county to open portions of a county road to ATV traffic in order to serve as connectors between trails.

Take County Road B east of Siren, for example. Several ATV routes dead-end at the county road, leaving riders who live on that side road no choice but to trailer their ATVs to a trailhead.

But the ordinance provides the means by which ATV clubs or townships could petition the county to open a piece of county road to connect the end of one trail to the beginning of another.

The committee saw an increase in ATV use as the impetus to develop an ordinance, and directed highway commissioner Bob Morehouse to come up with a rough outline. He adapted the Douglas County ordinance to Burnett County as a starting point.

“We went in with the best of intentions,” committee chair Chuck Awe said of the ordinance. “We chose to seek public input.”

That led to an ATV ordinance work group — committee members, the highway commissioner and ATV enthusiasts — who worked on the new law.

But between the work group and the final ordinance is where things broke down.

“The ordinance has changed and no longer reflects what T and T (ATV club) agreed with at an earlier work group meeting,” ATV enthusiast Richard Costerisan told the committee.

He said there are several issues in the ordinance the club doesn’t agree with, including no clarity on decision-making, the enforcement issue and no specific language on rider safety.

“We tried our best, but they avoided working with us,” Costerisan accused. “We have found Bob [Morehouse] and Chuck [Awe] were undermining the process.”

“We feel our rights have been violated,” he continued. “We think it’s in your best interest to delay the vote and have another work group meeting.”

“The county is in control of its highways,” Awe retorted. “We asked for public input — but we don’t have to abide by it.”

“We went to corporation counsel with it and they approved it,” he continued. “The direction from corp counsel was to follow the statutes and that’s what we have done — I’m sorry if there’s dissatisfaction there.”

After the committee approved the ordinance Wednesday, it then came to the entire county board for approval Thursday.

“This is not meant to open all county roads to ATVs by any means,” Awe assured fellow supervisors. “It is only meant to establish them as connectors to other trails.”

Board chairman Don Taylor concurred.

“We looked at this as a way to promote economic development,” he said.

For his part, Costerisan was subdued by the passage.

“We are happy to see the ordinance passed,” he admitted. “But it’s not perfect.”