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Nov. 13, 2007 KEVIN SWAYZE RECORD STAFF CAMBRIDGE
All terrain vehicles are destroying the city’s new hiking trail system along the Speed River in Hespeler, but nobody seems to be able to do anything to stop it.
And when hikers on the Mill Run trail in north Preston tell ATV riders they’re not supposed to be there, the response isn’t a warm one, says Bob McMullen, chair of the city’s trails advisory committee.
“I know a young man on the Mill Run has been accosted, physically accosted, for talking to the ATVers,” he said after showing city council pictures of people riding all_terrain vehicles on trails.
McMullen wants the city to pass a clear, anti_ATV bylaw with a $1,000 fine. He also wants police and city staff to enforce the rules to ensure safety for trail users. McMullen also called for city staff to carry digital cameras whenever they police the trails.
“People don’t like their pictures taken and that’s the only evidence you’re going to get,” he said.
Coun. Rick Cowsill represents Hespeler on council and has heard plenty of complaints about the all_terrain vehicles in his ward. He said the city already has a bylaw to ban them from the trails and sent a copy of it to Waterloo regional police. “I don’t know why we aren’t enforcing it __ the devastation, you’ve got to see it to believe it. It’s scary to see what these ATVs are doing,” Cowsill said.
Big rocks or posts are needed to block trails from all_terrain vehicles, but not people on foot or bicycles, he said. “These guys who are driving these things don’t give a hoot,” Cowsill said, as he called on staff to investigate the problem.
Coun. Gary Price said the issue will be discussed at the next trails committee meeting, of which he’s a member…