Public hearings Nov. 6 on maintaining Squaw Mountain Road and rerouting Chesuncook sled trail

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County Commissioners will be busy next week with a regular meeting and three public hearings on tap: two in Greenville and one in Milo.
    The traditional first Tuesday of the month meeting has been moved to Wednesday, Nov. 6 due to Election Day; and is being held at the Greenville town office to accommodate two public hearings of interest to Moosehead Lake region residents.

    The first hearing at 8:30 a.m. will be on reinstating winter maintenance for Squaw Mountain Road in Big Moose Township, which was shut off three years ago because of lack of traffic to the ski area.
    But things have changed dramatically at the mountain during the past year.
    Amy Lane, president of the nonprofit Friends of Squaw Mountain, told commissioners that 2,000 people skied at the recreation area during its limited reopening in February. “Given the fact that we’re much more prepared this year, I’m guessing we could double that number,” Lane said “Road maintenance will certainly help us.”
    Rodney Folsom, who was instrumental in negotiating the lease between Friends of Squaw Mountain and resort owner Jim Confalone, and Greenville Town Manager John Simko also spoke on behalf of Squaw Mountain. “If you’ve ever been to Greenville in the winter, every visitor makes a difference to the merchants,” Simko said. “What they did last year created something we hadn’t had in a long while.”
    Originally, the board was divided on whether to hold a public hearing on the request. Since a hearing was held in 2011 to close the road to winter maintenance, board chairman Fred Trask and Commissioner James Annis said they preferred to take the same route to restore plowing service.
    But Commissioner Eric Ward said he preferred that the commissioners adjust the unorganized territory’s winter maintenance budget to resume plowing this winter, and make a permanent decision next year.
    “If you guys (Friends of Squaw Mountain) get another winter under your belt, then you can say ‘Hey, we operated another year. So it’s another reason to reopen it,’” Ward said.
    “You might have 4,000 or 5,000 people this year. It gives you a lot more credibility and you’re still getting what you need.”
    Trask disagreed. “It’s a county road, and we have an obligation to take it over and maintain it if it’s going to be used,” he said.
    County Manager Marilyn Tourtelotte cautioned the board that they would probably have to transfer funds from another account to pay for plowing this year under any scenario. “If the will is there, we can find the money to do it,” Trask said.
    Eventually, the board voted 3-0 to hold the hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
    Although the ground was still bare and temperatures hovered in the 50s at last week’s lengthy session, two more items on the agenda dealt with another winter sport: snowmobiling.
    At the previous county commissioners meeting, a request by the E-Ville Riders Snowmobile Club to use part of the Onawa Road and Bodfish Valley Road — formerly known as Drew Mountain Road — to access trails in the area.
    The club had been using part of the Elliottsville Road from Ledge Hill to the Willimantic town line to access their trails for the past two years with no reported incidents.
    But Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin and Lt. Jamie Kane spoke against allowing the club to use part of the additional roads. Commissioners voted to table the request until a representative of the club could attend a board meeting.
    Last week, E-Ville Riders President Angelo D’Ambrosio brought a map to the commissioners’ meeting to show them where the new access routes would be. “When people come from Monson, they cross the bridge and want to go into the valley to get to the Long Pond Trail,” D’Ambrosio said. So they use about 3/10ths of a mile on Bodfish Valley Road as a shortcut, he explained.
    Trask noted that the sheriff’s department and game wardens have been reluctant to grant permission for the snowmobile traffic “because it’s a public road. But it’s a limited public road — it goes to nowhere (dead end). There’s not a lot of traffic.”
    The board voted 3-0 to grant permission for the extended trail access for one year.
    The commissioners also voted to hold a public hearing on a request to relocate a snowmobile trail in Chesuncook Village, an isolated community about 60 miles north of Greenville, at 11 a.m. on Nov. 6, after the conclusion of the county commissioners’ meeting.
    Larry LeRoy of Monson, who has a camp in Chesuncook, said that he would like to see the trail relocated to come into the village via a dedicated access road. “The route is now going right through our front yards,” LeRoy said. “I can’t even build a snowman for my grandkids in my yard without worrying if I’d get hit with a snowmobile.”
    Last December, Chesuncook Snowmobile Club President David Surprenant presented the commissioners with a petition with several hundred signatures, urging them to leave the trail intact.
    The relocation consideration would be only for safety’s sake, the commissioner said, and they have no intention of shutting the trail down.
    A third public hearing is set for Nov. 7 at the Milo town office at 4 p.m. for the purpose of taking verbal and written testimony to open Hamm Road in Orneville for winter maintenance.