Montmorency County ORV Road Access Threatened?

Over the weekend I happened to have a chat with a local DNR officer. Really a nice guy, and clearly a supporter of ORV's and the need to have easy access to trails.

During our conversation he mentioned something a bit concerning. According to him, the local County Board of Commisioners, the County Road Commision, as well as the local Sherrif is "getting a lot of political pressure to close down the road access entirely". He asked "Are you a member of any motorcycle clubs? If so, get all your buddies writing some letters so they can see there is support out there to keep the roads open."

What i find quite suprising, is that just a year or so ago, the Montmorency County Road Commision sent a letter of SUPPORT to Oscoda County, indicating they felt it was a good thing.

My guess is, that the people pushing the road closing are deliberately keeping their battle quiet and behind the scenes - I have seen nothing in local papers etc. about this out there. There is a rather politically strong, conservative group of people in this area, who would be savy enough to play this out with political pressure making sure to not alert the supporters of road access. If they were to be sucessful, it would innocently come up at a board meeting, be voted away, and no one really ever knowing it was a topic on the table.

So warm up the keyboards guys! Later this evening I will post some names and address. I will also draft a letter and post it here so you can copy at will if you want.

Curtis - no problem. Now you gotta do your part! Write some letters!

Here are some addresses:

Montmorency County Road Commission
11445 M-32 West
Atlanta Michigan 49709

Send 3 separate letters to the following people at that address:
Merril R. Walker, Chairperson
Theodore Orm, Vice-Chairperson
Alonzo Weaver, Member

>>>>>>>>
Sheriff Douglas Baum
Montmorency County Sheriff’s Department
11045 M-32 West
Atlanta, MI 49709
>>>>>>>>

and lastly, for the County Board of Commisioners, looks like best bet would be via Email. Link here shows their address:

http://www.montmorencycountymichigan.us/countycommissioners.html

For snail mail to them, use

P.O. Box 789
Atlanta MI 49709

After thinking more about this, I realized that at this point, it is not like we "officially" even know there is an issue. And, I suspect it is best at this point that we dont needlessly create a confrontation. With that in mind, I decided that the tone of my letter would essentially be a general "thank you for your continued support of keeping county roads open to ORV use". In my case, I plan to approach it from the standpoint as a "local", doing lots of family riding. I will cite an example of a mechanical breakdown while riding with the boys, and being able to legally and safely return to the truck via county roads - avoiding a much longer back tracking trail ride, and likely an after dark bike extraction from the woods.

For the out of towners - you mean MONEY to the local economy. Jeramey - somewhere out there is a study that shows the average $ spent per ORV user when traveling away from home to ride. Do you know that figure?

Of course, the non locals also benefit from easy of access to food, fuel, to the trails themselves, etc. and of course, you in part choose where you ride based on such factors. (for you Camp Chaos Campers last fall - think of how we could just ride out my driveway regardless of if your bike was plated or not)

Please, everyone, do send in some letters! Even if you dont ride here, this could be a negative trend we dont want to see start. Worst case, do it for me! I regularily do ride right from home with the kids in tow. (my bike is plated but the boy's bikes are not). I dont want to see that end!

Jeramey, is there anything the CCC can do? I would think a letter from Lewis, representing X,XXX ORV users across the state might mean something!

Mike

Has everyone sent in their letters yet? Come on Woodsy - you should get on board with this given all the wandering you did up here last fall! Mark W? Inca? CR250? Sparkey? Curtis? all you guys that have ridden up here with me have benefited from the roads being open - lets keep them open!

Mike