CANTON — Selectmen made a plan Thursday to help stop speeding and reckless driving by ATV riders on Alden Hill Road, an issue resident Mark Densmore said he has been raising for over a decade.

The Vietnam War veteran said he suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and has been “fighting” with the selectmen for over 10 years to resolve the problem. “And this is the first time that I haven’t basically been kicked out of the room,” he said after the meeting.

In his most recent complaint submitted in writing in August, he said there is “almost no signage on the road, no dust control throughout the settlement” and no speed enforcement.

Selectmen Kristi Carrier and Michelle Larrivee said Thursday that they visited the area last week and noticed only one speed limit sign.

“My concern is that the issue has been going on for so many years,” Carrier said.

“I’ve been almost T-boned pulling out of my driveway probably three times since” the ATV access trail was created, Densmore said. “I’m not at all against the ATVs, it’s the behavior of the operators. It’s just ridiculous, you know, there is no respect.”

Brian Jordan, one of three members of the Canton Trail Riders ATV Club at the meeting, said he has ordered some 15 mph signs for the area.

Lance White, a logger from Dixfield who often works on the Alden Hill Road near Densmore’s home, told selectmen, “I worked on that road last summer and I witnessed 30-year-old teenagers last summer on that road driving 90 miles an hour on four-wheelers without even an exhaust on.”

“It’s the wild, wild West in there,” White said. “It’s a dead-end road, and people just think they can go in there and do whatever they want.”

He said he has never seen a deputy or game warden in all the time he has worked there.

While listening to the discussion, Chairman Don Hutchins wrote a list of steps for the board to take:

• Meet with the Androscoggin Land Trust, which was said to own the section of the trail in Canton, and make a plan to avoid the Alden Hill Road ATV access trail;

• Notify law enforcement of the ongoing problems and ask for coverage;

• Add more speed limit signs on the trails next spring;

• Add game cameras to photograph vandalism;

• Add calcium on the road to keep dust levels down next spring; and

• Create a map for a new trail away from the Alden Hill Road access trail.

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