Agenda - Council - 01/24/2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chief Way stated we have come up with an alternative plan in working with the snowmobile club. They have secured a permit to make changes and will make some changes on 167 That will make the north side better. He noted a couple members of the snowmobile club were present at this meeting. Mayor Ramsey stated he talked with a gentleman (also present at this meeting) who lives near the trail. Mayor Ramsey stated he would be in favor of allowing people to go to and from the trails — from their house. He talked about that there could be some type of permitting system and noted that St. Francis does that. He added he is in favor of opening this up so people can go out from where they like. Councilmember McGlone asked Chief Way about the system in St. Francis. Chief Way stated that it is a permitting system — color- coded. The permit color matches the color on a map and it tells where you can ride. There are four colors and one area where no one can ride. St. Francis has issued very few tickets. He felt that this type of system is an enforcement nightmare. Mayor Ramsey reiterated he would be in favor of just allowing people to ride from their house to a trail. Chief Way stated at one point, snowmobiling was allowed all over the City of Ramsey; then it was banned in the area of the MUSA. He talked about not being able to ride on a County Road as per state statute. Councilmember Tossey expressed agreement with Mayor Ramsey - if we just allow folks without permits to go to the nearest trail that would be fine. He stated he is concerned about inconsistencies in writing tickets though so if you have to get a permit — it makes for less chance for those inconsistencies — there are no questions. He expressed concern as well about enforcement issues. Mayor Ramsey suggested it could be written in such a way that they have to go directly to the nearest trail so if they are outside of that parameter — they get a ticket. Chief Way reported that we see very few violations. Councilmember Backous inquired if Chief Way knows why the complaints went down so dramatically and asked if we changed something Chief Way replied that we changed the area for riding but not just in the last year. We have had it the same for a number of years so people know where they can and cannot ride. We added Armstrong and Variolite last year but the other changes were made back in 2005. Councilmember Elvig felt it was because people are getting more educated. What he likes about permitting is the amount of education it brings. How well it would actually work — he wasn't City Council Work Session / November 1, 2011 Page 2 of 10