CBS asks Crown Lands to approve ATV route
By Craig Westcott/October 7, 2022
When he returned to CBS council last year after a four-year hiatus, Paul Connors promised to make the establishment of an ATV route in town a priority. On Tuesday, he offered some concrete evidence of headway in reaching that goal.
“I have what I think is great news for the town tonight,” the councillor-at-large told his colleagues at their regular public meeting. “Tonight, I’m very pleased, extremely pleased to be honest, to advise that the Town has submitted a Crown Land application for a license to occupy an ATV route from the Seal Cove staging area to Legion Road in Kelligrews. This is something that we’ve been working on for quite some time. Land ownership has always been the biggest challenge and hurdle for the development of the trail, but we have finally identified a trail that we can use and work with.”
Connors attributed the identification of the route and the preparation of the application to the work of an ATV committee that has been coordinating with council for a number of years on the project, and to Town staff. Connors, who was also instrumental, with others, in pushing for the town’s second arena almost a decade ago, helped start the ATV committee, which officially formed in 2018. He stayed with the group even during the four-year period from 2017 to 2021 when he was not on council.
“The application has been registered and the referrals have been sent out to the applicable departments and agencies for review,” Connors noted, adding the information has also been placed on the Town’s website for public review. “If anyone is interested in providing any commentary – and I highly encourage people to do so – to the Crown Lands regarding the application, the e-mail address can be found on the Town’s ATV site as well.”
Connors said the application is significant for the development of the ATV trail.
“I want responsible ATV users of Conception Bay South and residents to know that we are making progress on the trail,” Connors said. “There have been issues and challenges with land, but the Crown Land application is a huge step forward. We will keep residents updated as the application progresses through the various departments and agencies.”
Mayor Darrin Bent asked Connors for more details on the route from Legion Road to the staging area.
Connors said the trail will run south of Route 60. “We will be using pole lines, some existing trails that are already on Crown Land, the ends of some roads and other areas,” he said. “But it will go on back and run along the side of Route 60. It has to go through a little bit of Holyrood and then down through the power line going down to the (Newfoundland Hydro) generating station (in Holyrood) and back to the Seal Cove staging area.”
Bent complimented Connors on the work.
“Hopefully we’ll get a positive response back from the Crown Lands on that one,” he said.