MINOCQUA – More residents along Blue Lake Road in the town of Minocqua may be able to drive their all terrain vehicles on that road to established ATV/UTV trail systems.
The town board voted 3-1 Tuesday to open Blue Lake Road from Jahnke Road near U.S. Highway 51 to Mercer Lake Road. It will take a second vote before the measure becomes official. The action doesn’t make the road an official ATV/UTV route, only local travel will be allowed.
Supervisor Billy Fried, who cast the only “no” vote, wants to wait to see if there are problems from when they opened another section of Blue Lake Road last August to ATV/UTV travel.
“I would suggest that we as a town wait to see what happens that section that we opened up from Mercer to Sutton on Blue Lake Road before we advance further down Blue Lake Road. Living there, and you being on the town board know, we have had two or three meetings over the years with people come concerned with the speed limit. We have 45 mph from the highway up o at least Blue Island Road. And in the summer with the bikers, walkers and the traffic.”
Police Chief David Jaeger came prepared with the number of ATV violators last year.
“We don’t have problems with ATVs in our jurisdiction, at least not brought to the police department. I looked up our ATV complaints last year, and we had three for the entire year. We had one in May, which was an ATV running on the Bearskin (State Trail) Timber Ridge area. We had one in July, was on the roadway, which traveled from Forest Lane to Maple to (Hwy.) 70 in the Bo-di-Lac area. Then we had one in October, which was a UTV on the roadway on Kilawee out by (Hwy.) 70.”
Supervisor Fried wants the speed limit reduced on the road.
“If you want to move this forward, that’s the board’s prerogative. I’m saying if the board does, then we should seriously be changing that speed limit because now you are adding another entity out there. I personally see a lot going on out there. I drive it there two, three times a day.”
The matter returns to the board next month with final approval likely.
