I know alot of you fellow riders come into the village of Wellsville for food, gas, etc. I know there has been problems for some from the local police. Technically, street tags allow you to be on secondary roads (those not marked with yellow lines), however if a permit was put in place (for a cost) allowing off road vehicles to travel these roads in order to visit our local businesses, would you be willing to partake in this?

I have talked to some of our local business owners and they have told me they do alot of business with riders. But in order to get local officials to agree to something like this, the village would have to make something from this idea and some king of regulations would have to be put in place.

Just let me know your opinion on this please.

Thanks

backseatrider

 

Backseatrider, you know how I love riding there and that I am always bugging you for info. If the city and the land owners were to creat a legitimate system where riders paid for permits and were provided with a nice parking area (just make the tracks crossable at the staging area) and access by quad to local businesses, I would support it 100%. I pay $25 a year to ride Wayne Nat. Forest, I pay the daily permit fees for Hatfield-McCoy, and I pay the gate fees to ride and race at local tracks, so for me to pay to use the pits is no problem. You should show the powers that be and your fellow council members info on Hatfield-McCoy. That is an overwhelming success and one of the towns (Mango?) allows quad access throughout the town. That is a perfect example for your (and our) cause. Here is the official website for H-M.

 

Thanks for the support.

The only downfall fall is that the Village of Wellsville has no say in what goes on at the Pits. Wellsville village limits goes just a little past the first tressel and the rest is Yellow Creek Township, Jefferson County. As far as the road going over the tracks, that is the railroads doing, they took it out and own up to several feet on either side of the tracks. I really don't know what can be done about it.

As for riders coming into the village, of course that is something we have control over.

 

Yeah, I'd pay for a legitimate permit, as long as the fees are reasonable and it is properly enforced. Enforcing the system once it's in place would (at least in theory) help to keep the bad apples under control. I'd like to see the money put to good use, as well.

It's good to see someone taking an interest in keeping Wellsville open to riders. I hope the landowner issues can be addressed, otherwise the permit system is moot. I've deliberately stayed away from there for the last year or so because of all the rumblings about closing it down. I'd gladly purchase a permit if I knew I could ride the pits legally too.

 

I would think that the railroad would not pose a big hurdle if they could be assured that the crossing would be maintained in a safe manner. If I remember right, one of the big problems that the railroad had was damage to the area along the side of the tracks and not just the crossing, so that would need to be addressed also. Being that the actual riding area is outside of Wellsville jurisdiction also poses a problem, but if everyone could see the big picture in that this area can bring some serious money to the local economy, I would think that the hurdles could be overcome. If you need names and phone numbers of people to show support, let me know. I can get quite a few from the Columbus and Cleveland area to show that this area is not just a "locals only" spot. I also know of a couple of riders from the Toledo area (Magnum, are you reading this?) that have never been there but always listen to me talk about it and would make a road trip if they could be assured of access without fear of tickets or towing.

 

Thanks for the info CBUS.

A major problem in dealing with landowners, and there has been organizations who have attempted to get with them and organize this riding area, is that there are so many. Two of the landowners, McCourt and Springer, want to make money off the riding which isn't a problem really, except for the fact that McCourt has Oaktree campsite and Springer has Forbidden Zone( and I believe these two don't get along). Noone knows for sure who owns what and the biggest part of the Pits is owned by a man who now lives in Florida I believe. Are you familiar with William Kaeppner and his group? They are the ones who have been working on this, trying to get something together to organize this great riding area.

Backseatrider[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I don't know anything about who owns what other than what I read on the 'net. All I am is someone who rode there for the first time last Thanksgiving and absolutely loves it. It is well worth the 3+ hour drive for me and I just want to see it stay open.

 

C-Bus

I have been reading about Wellsville for a couple of years now, but have never been there. I considered making the trip, however, I am not going to drive 3+ hours to ride an area that I risk getting a ticket over. If I could be assured that the area was open to riding without harrassment, I would come, but until then, I will continue to go to Wayne and spend my money there.

 

Magnum, I realize that, that's why I've never tried to get our group over there. The thing is, Backseatrider is on the Wellsville council (mentioned in another post) and this post is to see what kind of support there is out there to try to develop the riding area into something more legitimate so that riders such as yourself can feel comfortable making the drive there. TRX450 (4-MAN-S), SLB, Buckeye and whoever else from Time that's in here as well needs to respond to this post. I know they haven't riden there, but if we could be assured of safe parking and an open ride area, it is a place where the Wayne Gang could enjoy a ride or 2 outside of Wayne.

 

In all honesty gentlemen, as I said before, Wellsville has no control over the riding area. It is out of our jurisdiction. My post was simply to assist riders who wanted to be able to come into Wellsville for food, gas, etc...., but be able to ride their atvs instead of loading up and hauling everything into town.

On the other topic, there hasn't been any harassing going on,(that I am aware of) since Craig Roberts is out of the picture. The Pits has always been, and at this point still remains, an outlaw type riding area. The landowners know that riding is going on, but play dumb so they are not responsible for injuries. This place was a best kept secret for years, but popularity has brought more riders to the area. There are parking areas for a fee at Forbidden Zone and Oaktree campsites. Both of them are operated by property owners (small portions) of the Pits.

I have influence in Wellsville, and great support from local riders but my position doesn't mean squat to a different county in which the Pits is located. I will do whatever I can to help in anyway if someone has the answer to how we organize and get the ball rolling for making it a legal riding area.