Group denied chance to speak, laments not getting ‘fair shake’
By Alex Johnson
Correspondent
The Waterford Town Board on Monday denied a snowmobile group’s proposal to allow all-terrain vehicles on township roads.
The board voted 4-1 against the Tichigan Sno-N-Go’s proposal to allow ATV and utility-terrain vehicles access to public roads. The board’s decision, with board member Nick Draskovich dissenting, followed the Waterford Planning Commission’s recommendation for denial last week.
ATV recreational user and Sno-N-Go committee chairman Jason Kawczynski spearheaded the proposal to allow ATVs and UTVs to use public roads connecting various trails around the area.
An ATV, generally, is a single-person vehicle with a saddle seat the rider straddles, primarily a four-wheeler. A UTV is a multiple-person vehicle with bench seats, commonly called a side-by-side.
The proposal would have allowed ATVs and UTVs on Marsh Road, Fox River Road, North Lake Drive, Territorial Drive and Town Line Road, all in their entirety.
Town Board Chairman Tom Hincz began Monday’s discussion by addressing a photo on social media, posted by Jordan Karweik, that shows Hincz driving a vehicle on North Tichigan Road. The caption accompanying the photo reads: “When you are a leader of the town, you should try not to make it obvious when you are being a hypocrite.”
Hincz contends the vehicle he was in was a golf cart, which is allowed on public roads under the town’s golf cart ordinance.
“I think if things are posted wherever, they should be true,” Hincz said.
Hincz closed his comments by saying social media “was used in a manner not positive to the town.”
Town Board member Dale Gauerke cited congestion, safety, liability, lack of police resources, lack of open space, and Department of Natural Resources concerns for wetlands as reasons to oppose the proposal.
Gauerke also said he received a citizen’s email and photo regarding a manufacturer’s label on an ATV that reads “avoid paved surfaces” and “never use on public roads.”
Draskovich, who voted in favor of the proposal, said the measure could have been “changed, modified, added to, deleted by the Town Board, if it was ever to be approved.”
Modifications made to the proposal would have been in line with an official objective of the proposal that stated “potential solutions” could have been worked out with compromise for use of public roads.
Before the vote took place, Kawczynski asked to comment on the board’s concerns regarding the petition, but Hincz turned him down with a straight “no.”
After the meeting, Kawczynski said his group didn’t get a fair shake.
“The fact that they didn’t let us speak and try to address some of the concerns that we prepared today here isn’t good for anybody,” he said.
Supporters of the petition voiced their ideas and concerns to each other after the board’s final decision.
Bob Vail, UTV rider and advocate for public road use, said the proposal “needs to be modified.”
“I would be happy with just UTV use on the road. All it is is a four-wheel-drive golf cart,” he said.
“What I would have liked to see tonight from the board is instead of just a flat-out vote, that they would have tabled it, requesting more information, so that they could have been a little bit more informed” said Katherine Kawczynski, wife and supporter of Jason Kawczynski.
Jason Kawczynski said that the club “will be bringing this back to the table, maybe not in the next month or two, but we’re going to definitely get our ducks in a row.”
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