A proposal to amend how Marinette County decides which portions of county highway to open up to ATV riders failed to gain any traction at the committee level. The Infrastructure Committee Wednesday took up a request to consider expanding the reasons for establishing ATV/UTV highway routes to include connecting private residences to local routes after such a route was denied in October because it didn’t fit into the existing ordinance. While it was argued that considering highway routes that would connect private roads or residences to the trails would provide greater convenience for those residents, especially those who currently have to trailer their machine just a few hundred feet down the road to get to a trail, Supervisor Bill Stankevich says it’s not the county’s responsibility to solve these problems.

The current criteria only allows the committee to consider highway routes if they connect to a trail to a trail or trail to a route, to resolve safety issues, to provide riders access to businesses, or to connect local township routes. A motion to include connections to private residences in that ordinance died on a 1 to 5 vote.