PARIS — ATVs will be allowed on East Oxford Road and Parsons roads again this year, if only for a short time.

Selectmen approved allowing ATVs to use the road until June 16.

Selectmen voted 3-1 to allow the club two weeks to ride on the previously-barred roads. Selectman Jean Smart voted against it, citing the club’s lack of a nonstandard use permit.

The permission was conditional on club members bringing in an application for nonstandard use of the roads by Thursday morning. They delivered it Thursday, according to ATV club trailmaster John Goodwin.

By Tony Reaves
Staff Writer
PARIS — ATVs will ride down East Oxford Road and Parsons roads again this year, if only for a short time.
Selectmen approved allowing ATVs to use the road until June 16.
Selectmen voted 3-1 to allow the club two weeks to ride on the previously-barred roads. Selectman Jean Smart voted against it, citing the club’s lack of a nonstandard use permit.
The permission was conditional on club members bringing in an application for nonstandard use of the roads by Thursday morning. They delivered it Thursday, according to ATV club trailmaster John Goodwin.
“We’ve done our part,” he said.
Selectmen approved the nonstandard use permit in April of 2011 to create a uniform way for the town to process requests to use public land and roads. Cliff Goodwin told the board that since the policy had been enacted, only he and his son had applied for the nonstandard use permit.
There have been parades and high school activities that didn’t bother to take out permits, he said.
“I would use it, however I think you were pointing it directly at the ATV club. If we’re the only ones that have to use it, then it’s discriminatory,” Cliff Goodwin said. “Nobody has done it but us.”
Smart said it was important to use the process the town approved.
Eventually, selectmen voted to allow use of Parsons Road temporarily, on the condition they filled out a nonstandard use application.
According to John Goodwin, the club made an agreement in February 2011 to use a trail that circumvented the home of James and Paula Hakala, who had objected to ATV use on their road.
When the snow melted, the ATV club learned that much of the land was swamp. Since then, he and other ATV club members have trucked in hundreds of yards of fill to keep from tearing up the land.
John Goodwin said he’s hoping they won’t have to repair it again next spring.
“That’s the joy of picking a trail in February. You just don’t know what’s underneath it,” he said.
treaves@sunjournal.com