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Residents, council discuss potential ATV road connectors and trails after regional ride drew visitors
Summary
Citizens urged the council to pursue road openings and trail connections to tap ATV tourism after a recent regional ride brought visitors from multiple states; councilmembers said the city would need lease/landowner agreements and PennDOT or county approval to open connectors to existing trails.
Several residents raised ATV- and trail-connection opportunities during public comment at the May 19 Saint Marys City Council meeting, pressing the council to consider opening specific local roads as connectors to regional ATV networks.
Speakers said a recent regional ATV ride brought tourists to area businesses and suggested the community could benefit economically from improved access. "There was over a thousand people that this ride they had this weekend — every restaurant around here ... made a hell of a business," one resident said. Participants reported riders from Ohio, New York, Virginia and Maryland.
Speakers and council members discussed the legal and practical steps needed to create a roadway connector. Council members and other speakers said PennDOT has indicated greater receptivity to opening road connectors but emphasized that the community or county must request such openings, obtain landowner permissions or leases and establish marked trails that connect to existing off-road trail systems. "It is up to the community to ask to open those," a council member said; "the county can ask to open certain areas."
Participants and council members noted constraints: many leaseholds and trail access agreements are private, and opening a public road for a single lease would be impractical. Council members said a connector would need to give riders access to downtown businesses so economic benefits accrue in town, and that suitable endpoints and routing would require maps and agreement from property owners. One council member suggested Market Street parking as a potential terminus.
The council did not vote on any policy changes or on opening roads; members asked staff and interested residents to provide maps and more detailed proposals showing where connectors would begin and end and which landowners or leaseholders would need to be involved. Council members also noted vehicle classifications and regulatory distinctions — for example, utility and farm vehicles and ATV rules are governed by different state agencies, and helmet rules vary by location and vehicle type — and said those distinctions affect what can be allowed on public roads.
The discussion closed with the council asking for additional information and mapping so it can evaluate whether opening specific local roads as connectors would meet legal, safety and community-benefit criteria.
