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Bedford County officials are looking into adding ATV/UTV recreational trails, if county residents support the plan and if suitable land can be found on which to locate the trails.
The Bedford County Planning Commission, in partnership with the county commissioners, are planning a series of public meetings to determine the community's interest in a trail. Meeting dates and locations have yet to be set.
According to planning director Stephanie Clevenstine, the planning office applied for a Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant in 2024 and received up to $100,000 for a feasibility study in 2025.
"We'll be looking at holding public meetings in the coming months to get a sense of if the public wants something like this. And then the municipalities would have to open their roads up to it," she said.
Part of that study includes collaborating with area municipalities to get a pulse on the public's opinion and determine if Bedford County can support this type of project.
Because the county doesn't own any land, she said there isn't a spot to build an ATV/UTV trail, so they are currently considering state roads unless someone donates property for the project.
PennDOT takes petitions to open up a state road if there are places riders want to access easily on an ATV/UTV, such as a campground, she said, as long as they're limited to crossing over roads.
The steering committee has met with some municipalities about the proposal, Clevenstine said, noting they found that while some local officials are against opening their roads to recreational vehicles, others are open to learning more about the legal aspects of the project.
"There is this interpretation of some kind of law that says municipalities will be held liable -- and obviously that makes some municipalities wary of insurance claims on them," she said.
Pennsylvania's governmental immunity statutes and the Tort Claims and Sovereign Immunity Acts protect municipalities if an injury occurs on their land and they are granted full immunity for certain recreational injuries, according to Pennsylvania's Recreational Use of Land and Water Act.
County Commissioner Mike Stiles also said that legalizing a trail for ATV/UTV vehicles takes the liability away from municipalities if an injury occurs.
The county commissioners have been interested in adding a trail dedicated to recreational vehicles, said commissioner J.R. Winck.
"Since it's not costing the local taxpayer money out of the general budget -- it's totally grant funded -- we wanted to see if that was feasible or not and what townships were open to it," he said.
There has been a significant amount of economic growth in towns that have embraced ATV/UTV trails, he said.
As the planning commission and the commissioners set up public meetings, Winck said they're not trying to make municipalities accept the proposition of embracing an ATV/UTV trail but to at least consider its benefits.
"Is it feasible and who's interested, and then can something happen," Winck asked. "You don't know until you ask the questions."
Clevenstine is unsure what the trail would look like in Bedford County, which is why the feasibility study is important.
If the study determines that an ATV/UTV trail is a feasible option for Bedford County, she said they'll apply for more grant funding to implement the plan.
Many people in the area already have their own recreational vehicles, she said, but a designated trail would give them some place to go with legal status, instead of using them only on private property or illegally on rural roads.
"We want to make sure we're protecting the areas and get more visitors into the county as well," she said.
Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.