Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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April 10, 2007

Community looks to muffle ATV noise

By GREG JORDAN

PRINCETON — Windmill Gap residents approached the Mercer County Commission Tuesday to see if the county can address problems their community is experiencing with ATV traffic.

Area residents, located approximately three miles from Route 52 near McComas, told commissioners that four-wheeler traffic is often on their community’s road all night, making sleep difficult. The community is located near an entrance to the new Hatfield-McCoy Trail.

“You can’t keep a job, your health, and on some Sunday mornings you can’t hear the preacher,” said one resident who would not give his name. “How can a community function in the shape it’s getting into?”

County Commission President Joe Coburn said he did not know what authority the county had over Windmill Gap’s road. Prosecuting Attorney Timm Boggess said he was researching the law to see what the county can do legally to address the traffic problem.

If the commission can legally take action, it would need to call a public hearing on the matter, said Commissioner Karen Disibbio. She expected to hear from Boggess about the issue within two weeks.

The county has a regulation limiting where ATVs can travel in the Kirby Addition area near Princeton, but is specifically for that area and not countywide, Disibbio said.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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