Safety concerns raised over ATV proposal
Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Ted Knoeck on Thursday told the Infrastructure Committee he opposed opening all county highways to ATV/UTVs because of the county’s higher traffic counts and crashes.
He said he preferred, instead, that the county stick with an existing ordinance where small sections of county roads are opened to connect ATV/UTV trails on town roads.
Knoeck acknowledged that neighboring counties — including Lincoln, Taylor and, most recently, Portage — have opened all county roads to ATV/ UTV use, but said crashes in Marathon County were more than double than in any of these counties. In 2020, he said, Marathon County had 3,400 total vehicle crashes. The next closest county was Portage with 1,182. Lincoln County had only 664 crashes.
“I feel our roads are different,” Knoeck told committee members.
Knoeck said the state DNR and DOT have jurisdiction over ATV/UTV crashes, but, between the two agencies, there is not much reliable crash data for committee members to review.
The official, the county’s highway safety coordinator, said he felt the county’s current ATV/UTV ordinance was working well. In the ordinance, towns get access to county highways in exchange for mandating ATV/UTV users be 16, have a driver’s license and maintain a standard 35 mile-per-hour speed.
Knoeck said sheriff’s deputies enforce the ordinance but “85 percent of the paperwork has been teaching through warnings.”
Knoeck’s comments followed a presentation by highway commissioner Jim Griesbach where he detailed in a series of maps what sections of county highway would be open with daily traffi c counts of under 500, 750, 1,000 or 1,250 vehicles.
Committee member Chris Dickinson, Stratford, questioned whether rural areas of the county were subject to the same number of crashes that urban sections have. He said most people would want to use ATV/UTVs on less travelled, rural sections of highway.
County board chairman Kurt Gibbs, town of Cassel, echoed this sentiment.
“If the data could be broken down, that would be helpful,” he said.
Highway commissioner Jim Griesbach said there would be a significant cost in signage to open county highways to ATVs.
“A ballpark number would be $20,000 to $45,000 just to place signs,” he said.
Each state-required ign will cost $92 in materials, he said.
Committee members agreed to return to a discussion of opening up county highways to ATV/UTVs at their regular July meeting.
In public participation, Judy Pagryzinski, spokesperson for the Rural Riders ATV/UTV Club, suggested opening up county highways to ATV/UTVs on a trial basis. She said current use of the county roads has not caused any “major incidents.”
She added that while “some idiot” ATV/UTV user might drive dangerously on the road, this was no different than the driver of other vehicles, including motorcycles.
