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LEWISBORO, N.Y. The Lewisboro Town Board has amended a local law to prohibit the use of all-terrain vehicles on town properties.
An exception to the law was given to ATVs being used by town employees and emergency services for official use.
The amended Town Code adopts the definition of an ATV as described in state law: [An ATV is] a self-propelled vehicle manufactured for sale for operation primarily on off-highway trails or off-highway competitions and only incidentally operated on public highways, providing such vehicle does not exceed 70 inches in width or 1,000 pounds dry weight.
Board members said there have been reports from the Westchester County Land Trust expressing concern about how some park and preserve areas have been torn up by ATVs. Town Supervisor Peter Parsons said he had urged police to make arrests in such cases for damaging town property but was told that was not practical.
Unfortunately, its hard to make that work in the real world, Parsons said. So, [Police Chief] Frank Secret has been pushing me to add ATVs to the law, which already includes [banning] motorcycles and snowmobiles. This [amended law] now gives police a tool to work with.
Parsons said that the places most affected by ATV use have been the Leon Levy Preserve and the Town Park, as well as Onatru Farm Park and Preserve.
Onatru has a big wilderness area there in the back that many people dont even know about, he said.
Parsons added that, so far, Old Field Preserve and Brownell Preserve seem unaffected by ATV enthusiasts.
In other town news, the Town Board announced the appointment of a new deputy receiver of taxes. Deirdre Casper will replace M. Shen-Zhuang Chien, who resigned last month.
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