Door County Board Sets Up Ordinance to Allow ATVs on Roads

Don’t be surprised if you see ATVs driving down the road in Union sometime soon. At its Dec. 11 meeting, the Door County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that will allow ATVs and UTVs to operate on county highways within the town.

The ordinance was pushed for by Supervisor Cletus Fontaine, who is also the town chairman for Union. Union has been discussing opening roads to ATVs for some time now because residents have been driving them there anyways, despite the fact that it’s been illegal.

Under the new ordinance, ATVs and UTVs can be driven on county highways that are designated and signed as ATV/UTV routes. The vehicles are held to a 25 mph speed limit, must ride single file, must have a headlight and taillight on at all times, and can’t be driven by anyone under the age of 12.

Four supervisors, Ken Fisher, Ben Meyer, Leo Zipperer, and Richard Haines, took issue with the ordinance and voted against it. Fisher said he didn’t feel comfortable putting 12-year-olds on the road.

“You’re talking about establishing a trail system and putting 12 year-olds on these roads,” said Fisher. “When the cars are going by at 55, I don’t care if the state says it’s okay or not, I’m not okay with it.”

Anyone who’s passed the state’s safety course can already drive ATVs down the road for agricultural purposes, said Fontaine, so opening roads up further isn’t that large of a step. Sheriff Terry Vogel said his office has cited some minors for operating ATVs on roads illegally, although it hasn’t happened very often.

Vogel also weighed in on the ordinance, saying he did a poll of sheriff’s offices statewide to see which other counties allowed ATVs on their highway.

“There are a few other counties that allow it, and they haven’t had any issues,” said Vogel. “One sheriff was actually dead-set against it when they enacted it. Once they enacted it, he saw that it worked quite well.”

Fontaine assured the rest of the supervisors that minors would not be the ones who took primary advantage of the ordinance.

“Everybody’s making a big issue of the 12-year-olds,” said Fontaine. “95 percent or more of the people that are going to use this in the town of Union…are going to be twenties, forties, fifties, and sixties.”

Currently, only the county highways in Union have been designated as ATV/UTV routes, but the new ordinance is set up so that other municipalities can easily petition the county to open up the highways within their boundaries to ATV and UTV traffic. Supervisor and Washington Island Town Chair Joel Gunnlaugsson said the island has also been talking about opening up their town roads to ATVs.

“We are without a doubt the most heavily used ATV/UTV town in Door County,” said Gunnlaugsson. “There’s 50 people on the island who ride these things all the time. For recreational, for fishing, for agricultural. We have high school students that ride them to work.”

Gunnlaugsson said he doesn’t see the law as a major issue because all ATV operators are already required to pass the state’s safety course and ATV operators don’t really want to spend that much time on the road anyways.

“They’re not designed to be on the road,” said Gunnlaugsson. “It wrecks the tires so fast. You can burn up a set of tires in a season if you ride on the asphalt. You don’t want to do it.”

The cost of putting up signage on the highways opened to ATV traffic will fall on the town of Union. Fontaine said he hopes to raise the needed funds via donations.