Chesuncook snowmobile trail solution still elusive

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GREENVILLE — The Piscataquis County Commissioners revisited the controversial snowmobile trail issue in Chesuncook Village at their Nov. 6 meeting, but a compromise between a landowner and the owners of a local business seems to be elusive.
    Still, the commissioners plan to make a decision at their next session on Nov. 19 at the Bowerbank town hall.

    Larry LeRoy submitted a request to relocate the current trail because it runs in front of several camps, and claims that the snowmobiles often operate at a high rate of speed.
    But David and Louisa Suprenant oppose the relocation of the trail because it could potentially take business away from the Chesuncook Lake House — which they own — and force them to forfeit some state funds they receive for grooming the trails. David Suprenant is also president of the Chesuncook Snowmobile Club.
    The commissioners made their preference known at last month’s meeting to start maintaining the new route in order to bring most of the snowmobile traffic into the village, but away from the camps. But Suprenant then asked the commissioners to hold a public hearing on the issue, take written and public comments and reconsider their decision.
    Fred Trask, chairman of the county commissioners, said they received 11 e-mails in favor of the trail relocation and 11 opposed to it.
    Leroy asked the commissioners to “put yourself in our shoes as residents and weekend visitors to our camps. On a busy weekend day, upwards of 300 snowmobilers visit the Lake House. David and Louisa (Suprenant) do a great job with their business.”
    But Leroy added that once they stop in, gas up, relax and eat, half of them “head south again on the lake trail. The other half heads to points north and return later in the day or evening, and these machines have to travel the lake trail to return home. This represents 600 machines passing in front of our homes and camps over a 10-hour period of time.”
    Trask said, however, that the only section of trails that the commissioners have any control over “are in the village itself. We can’t say ‘You have to go this way or that way.’ So we came up with a compromise.”
    Scott Ramsay, the director of the off-road unit for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said that Chesuncook Village’s issue is not unique. He suggested that one way to deal with the safety issue is to post a speed limit “and I think it would be enforceable.”
    Ramsay said his department is willing to work with both sides on the access issue. “There are growing numbers of people who want to visit the backcountry,” Ramsay said, “but they want to do it in a day … they want their hot showers, TV and computers.”
    Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service said that only one warden is available in the Chesuncook area “and he’s usually involved with fish and game regulations. But wherever the trail goes, we’ll enforce the law. It’s just not our primary responsibility.”
    David Suprenant said some of the supporters of keeping the trail as-is “can walk off their front porch right onto the trail.” He also noted that he has to plow the roads leading into the village so he can get supplies during the winter. “So I don’t see why you’d want to groom a plowed road,” he added.
    Suprenant said that creating the new trail as suggested by the commissioners and Leroy would be more expensive for him because he’d have to “backtrack two miles.”
    The commissioners and Leroy then examined a map of the area for several minutes, trying to figure out a route that would satisfy everyone.
    But everyone agreed that the a decision needs to be made soon because of the possibility of snowfall before the end of the month. “This isn’t going to be easy,” Trask said, “but it’s necessary.”