PARIS — The issue of whether ATV riders have a right to use less than 500 yards of Parsons Road is contentious among the Board of Selectmen.

After the X-tra Mile ATV Club members left Monday night, the board revisited the issue when Selectman Jean Smart said the board should make it absolutely clear the club doesn’t have permission to ride ATVs on the Parsons Road and East Oxford Road.

Last week, the club found a workaround that allowed them to use less than 500 yards of the road, which Maine law says is allowed as a crossing between two ATV trail access points. They withdrew a request to use the road, as using more than 500 yards of a road requires permission from the municipality.

Using fewer than 500 yards is an exemption in state law that generally bans ATV riders from riding on public roads.

In the end, the board elected to ask the Maine Municipal Association whether Maine’s statute gives ATV riders the right to ride on public ways for fewer than 500 yards, or if the Board of Selectmen can rescind that right.

Smart brought an opinion from the MMA from September concerning a provision allowing municipalities to grant exemptions on usage of ATVs public ways, but selectmen disagreed on whether the provision would also allow the town to bar access to a road.

Selectman Smart made a motion for Town Manager Phil Tarr to draft a letter saying that the town’s rescinding of access to Parsons Road still stands. Selectman Lloyd Herrick seconded the motion then withdrew the second.

Board of Selectmen Chairman Raymond Glover said he was concerned blocking Parsons Road access would risk a lawsuit against the town.

“You’re looking to lose another lawsuit,” Cliff Goodwin of the ATV club said earlier at the meeting in response to Smart’s declaration that the club was not allowed to use the Parsons Road. On Tuesday, his son John Goodwin said his father hadn’t intended it as a threat to sue the town.

The club has stated in the past it would not take legal action against the town over road access, and spokesman and treasurer Mark Stearns reiterated that position Tuesday.

Smart said she didn’t think the club “will want to spend the money to sue us. They’re smart enough to realize that they do not need the bad publicity that will come from suing us.”

Selectman Ted Kurtz took issue with that. “The idea that we’re going to make a decision based on whether or not we’re going to get sued? That’s abhorrent to me,” Kurtz said.

Smart said the idea of a lawsuit had no bearing on her motion, and that continuing to bar access to Parsons Road was her interpretation of the law.

The board will meet again March 28 at the Town Hall.

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