RANGELEY – At a public hearing Tuesday, selectmen tabled a decision on a proposed snowmobile trail to provide snowmobilers access to the IGA and gas station on Route 4 south of town.

Town Manager Perry Ellsworth said that several people were concerned with safety.

The proposed trail would run along both sides of Route 4 from town to the IGA, with sled traffic traveling in the same direction as motor vehicles. Snowmobilers would have to cross Route 4 to get to the store or to head back toward town.

A decision was tabled because it was suggested that a trail running along the pole line behind the buildings would be safer. Central Maine Power has a 100-foot-wide utility easement for the poles on the corridor, which belongs to about six landowners. It was unclear Tuesday if the snowmobile club could obtain permission from all the landowners to use their property for snowmobile travel.

Selectman Mark Beauregard is one of those landowners and said he would grant permission. In an interview Thursday, Beauregard sounded optimistic that permission would be granted by all the landowners to provide a safe trail from Depot Road to Dallas Hill Road, though not all have weighed in as yet.

Clark Allen, president of the Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club, was unavailable for comment Thursday.