Local club stresses snowmobile access on select Mondovi streets will not be a free-for-all

by Beth Kraft

Snowmobile access will be opened up to include more streets in the City of Mondovi this winter, but residents who wish to reach local trails from their homes will be required to obtain a permit from the local snowmobile club to do so.
It’s a restriction Mondovi-Gilmanton Sno-Blazers snowmobile club reps say will help regulate which streets each snowmobiler will be allowed access to in an effort to curb potential abuse of the new privilege.
The club asked the Mondovi City Council this past summer to OK additional streets as snowmobile routes in the city.
The Council at its June 24 meeting voted 5-2 in favor of the club’s plan, which includes permitting access to portions of Parker Avenue, Mill Street, North Harrison St., N. Washington St. and Industrial Drive.
Snowmobilers will be allowed to ride on the new streets from 5 - 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays with a 15 mph speed limit enforced.
Previously the only city streets open to snowmobilers were Water Street and one city alley, which will continue as open snowmobile routes.
Sno-Blazers rep Dale Poeschel reasoned that snowmobile enthusiasts living in town previously didn’t have many options for accessing local trails without using trailers, prompting the club to ask city leaders to expand the list of streets on a one-year trial basis.
“That was the big thing is for people to be able to get on their sled and reach the trail from their homes,” Poeschel said, though noting, “use it, abuse it, and it’s gone,” to warn local snowmobilers to be on their best behavior while traversing city streets.
Charged with the task of policing the privilege in the city, Sno-Blazers members agreed to establish a permit structure, “just to get a handle on who has sleds and where they’re operating,” Poeschel said.
Permits will be available, free of charge, from club members in four designated quadrants of the city. Snowmobilers will be asked to identify which approved streets they will be using to reach the trails from their homes.
Poeschel said city leaders have indicated that expanding the operating hours of the city routes is a possibility depending on how things go this year.
To obtain a detailed map of city snowmobile routes or to apply for a permit, please contact one of the following Sno-Blazers club reps serving your residential area:
• South of U.S. Highway 10, west of Eau Claire Street—Todd Holstein, (715) 495-1010
• South of Hwy. 10, east of Eau Claire St.—Chad Gruber, (715) 926-3530
• North of Hwy. 10, west of Eau Claire St.—Rick Gruber, (715) 926-5246, or Brandon Saxe, (715) 495-0209
• North of Hwy. 10, east of Eau Claire St.—Jack Doerr, (715) 533-0742, or Dale Poeschel, (715) 495-1427