It appears the town of Keene will not hold a referendum on Old Mountain Road this fall and is instead working on a town law that would allow limited use of ATVs on the road for Keene residents during big-game hunting season.
The decision to pursue the law was made at a special town board meeting held Wednesday evening.
"We're not going to referendum," Keene Supervisor William Ferebee said Friday. "We're going to town law, which will allow four-wheelers, or ATVs, from the weekend following Columbus Day until Dec. 15 in the Keene end."
This summer, Ferebee had said the town was leaning toward a referendum. That changed after the town board decided it would be best to enact a local law after getting input from the public.
"We just felt that the general public wouldn't have understood what our message was, so we unanimously decided to just do a town law to that respect," Ferebee said. "It'll be a basically hunting season time frame, with, again, restricting use to town of Keene residents only, ATVs only - and again, they have to produce proper town paperwork that they are a town resident."
The town would not permit snowmobiles.
Ferebee said that under this proposed town law, ATV users would be required to get a special permit displayed by a sticker on their vehicle and the use of ATVs would also only be allowed on the first section of the trail on the Keene side, ending where a beaver pond exists.
He also said the town still may make changes to the law and that a public hearing will be held in the coming weeks or months with the goal of having the law enacted by the end of 2009.
Motorized use had been banned on Old Mountain Road in recent years because it's in the Sentinel Range Wilderness. But in May, state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis tossed out a fine against Lake Placid Snowmobile Club President Jim McCulley for driving his truck on Old Mountain Road in 2005, stating the road - a 3.5-mile section of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail - was under the jurisdiction of the towns of North Elba and Keene. Since then, Keene, which has the majority of the road, has been grappling with what to do with it.
McCulley, who has stayed out of the Old Mountain Road debate at the town level, said the road could accommodate snowmobiles and skiers, but he was happy to hear that some hunters may one day ride ATVs on it.
"I think it's great," McCulley said. "I think everyone who would like to use it should use it."
Keene resident Tony Goodwin, executive director of the Adirondack Ski Touring Council, was responsible for leading the effort to reopen the road to skiers two decades ago and currently maintains it. Goodwin said he agreed with the decision the town board made Wednesday. He said the referendum may have been confusing "because the idea was to allow motorized use but to limit it" and it was too difficult to come up with language to express the specific limitations.
"I had not been in favor of the referendum from the moment it was first proposed because I didn't think they could word a question on a ballot that could really be understood by the majority of the people," Goodwin said.
He said this decision would also help "reduce the chance we have an us against them war on the Old Mountain Road."
But the decision could draw objections from environmental organizations who have fought motorized use in other areas of the Park.
"I tend to think that any form of motorized use on the land is likely to bring some sort of challenge either from us, or other organizations, or a group of organizations," said Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan.
The use of Old Mountain Road may also be affected if there is a reversal of the DEC's May decision. Currently, the Adirondack Council, state Adirondack Park Agency and an attorney from DEC's Region 6 offices have asked Grannis to revisit his decision. Grannis has yet to address those appeals.
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Contact Mike Lynch at (518) 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.