Residents tell House Transportation committee BB Spur is unsafe for snowmobile use; panel to seek AOT clarification

Chair Walker convened the House Transportation Committee on May 6 to hear roughly three hours of testimony from homeowners, volunteers and trail advocates urging the state to reverse or limit recent snowmobile access to the Beebe (BB) Spur rail trail near Newport and Derby.

Derby resident Chuck Greenwood began the morning by reading what he described as an earlier state commitment that the spur would be maintained for pedestrians and bicyclists and that motorized vehicles were not permitted; Greenwood said signs prohibiting motorized vehicles had stood for 25 years and called recent allowance of snowmobiles a “bait and switch.”

Presenters and multiple homeowners told the committee the spur is narrow—about 7 feet wide in many stretches, with a handful of trestles measured at roughly 8 feet 4 inches—and that there are numerous steep banks and abrupt drop‑offs of 10 to 30 feet or more. They said those features, together with blind curves and areas of erosion, make it difficult or unsafe for skiers, walkers and snowmobiles to safely pass each other on the same corridor. “If a snowmobile is going 15 miles an hour, a skier…