Land use issues

[blazerbrad]

I know that this club does not use the trails commonly referred to as the "Furnace" area, but we really need some help as this area is on the brink of being completely shutdown.

As a brief summary, representatives from our club (Ohio 4x4 Trailriders) and OMTA (Ohio Motorized Trails Association) attended a meeting last week to debate the official vacating of the roads (trails) through this land. The county commissioners elected to keep the roads open during this meeting, however they appeared to have pulled a quick one on us and came back later and voted to vacate them. They had already vacated one road (trail) in the area in which "we" have a pending appeal.

See the e-mail below.

From: William Kaeppner [mailto:kaeppners@verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 12:02 PM
To: Ohio Trails
Subject: Richland township

I just attended the Vinton County Commissioners meeting. Last week they decided not to vacate the Richland roads.

Today they have turned their back on the public and vacated the roads.

OMTA will be appealing the decision. It will cost MONEY. Now is the time to renew your membership and get everyone you know to join OMTA. It is time to make that tax exempt contribution to OMTA’s legal fund.

If we do not support OMTA’s efforts now we will lose not just this set of roads but every set from now on.

This is crunch time.

Bill Kaeppner

www.ohiotrails.org

[redcj3a]

Brad,

The Richland Furnace area is where a group of us Flatfender owners hold a ride each year. I have been following this issue on your site (Ohio4x4) and as a result sent a donation in today. Hopefully others will also.

Keep up the good work.

John

[94Dodge Truggy]

Never heard of it. Where is this located?

[blazerbrad]

About 30 miles East of Chillicothe, and 2.5 hours from Cincy per Mapquest.

I'm really surprised you guys have never heard of the place as it's a really popular area in Ohio...of course I guess there are several other options if you are in Cincy. I have never been to Livingston but based on what I have heard and pictures it was the same type of area (township roads running through it).

There are (were) several areas all within 10-15 minutes drive of a nice state campground, so you could spend a couple days of driving and see different areas, or just do a day trip.

[GPER]

They shut it down then that will let the heathen's have the run of the place to steal and burn cars all they want.I guess Stone Quarry Rd. will be next or is it already shut down also???

[her94yj]

its been awhile since i have been there but it was a nice day run and had a blast.

[blazerbrad]

Originally Posted by GPER

They shut it down then that will let the heathen's have the run of the place to steal and burn cars all they want.I guess Stone Quarry Rd. will be next or is it already shut down also???

Unfortunately you are probably right. Officially shutting it down will just keep the people who respect the area and help take care of it (our club had clean up days there) away, but I doubt it makes much difference to the hell-raisers who go back there after the bars close at night or the locals who dump trash or burn cars.

We were also working on GPS'ing the area and would have been more than willing to work with the surrounding landowners.