KNOX — The town may consider passing a law to quell noise and dust caused by gatherings of all-terrain-vehicle riders.

In September, a Thompson’s Lake Road resident, Timothy Thompson, told the Knox Town Board about the sounds of motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles racing on a property adjacent to his. He showed a video on which the sounds of the machines were audible even inside his house.

Thompson also complained about the dust kicked up next door.
"I’ve got grandchildren coming up and I can’t have that because they’ve got allergies," Thompson said.

Since then, Supervisor Michael Hammond said at a town-board meeting Tuesday night, the town has received several similar complaints from the Thompson’s Lake area and also near Witter Road.

It’s unclear whether or not the ATV gatherings are competitive, Hammond said.

In the fall, the town declined to provide The Enterprise with the names of the property owners where the gatherings were taking place. The town’s zoning administrator was dispatched to investigate. The town does not regulate the use of ATV’s on private property, town attorney John Dorfman said at the time, but it does have a noise ordinance.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the town board voted unanimously to charge the planning board with investigating the possibility of adding ATV and dirtbike regulations to the town’s laws or zoning ordinance.

Hammond said he has researched how other municipalities have handled the situation, including Clifton Park, Kingston, Queensbury, and Rensselaer County. He is handing his research over to the planning board.
"We’ll take a look at how other communities have handled this kind of thing and see if it’s something we would want to do," Hammond said.
"We’ve already started on it," said planning board Chairman Robert Price. "It can start as a local law and morph into something on the zoning ordinance."

The planning board is to report back to the town board with recommendations.

Other business

In other business at the Feb. 14 meeting, the Knox Town Board:

—Appointed Carol Barber as the planning and zoning secretary. Barber was recommended by Price and zoning board Chairman Earl Barcomb;

—Announced that the Albany County Health Department will host a rabies clinic at the Berne Highway Garage on March 18. Owners of dogs, cats, or ferrets can get their pets inoculated for a $5 donation;

—Voted unanimously to purchase a new International truck off of state contract for $146,668.87. The truck is an identical model to the truck purchased last year for the transfer station, said highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury.
"This way, all of our parts are going to stay the same from truck to truck," Salisbury said.

Salisbury said the truck will replace a 1990 truck, which will become a reserve truck.

The purchase is subject to a permissive referendum, Hammond said. That means residents are allowed to petition for a town-wide vote on the purchase;

—Discussed updating the town’s road specifications to match the state’s. The board unanimously voted to charge the planning board with the task;

—Voted unanimously to allow the town’s youth committee to purchase goal posts, nets, corner posts, and benches for the new soccer field for no more than $3,000;

—Heard a report from animal control officer John Norray. Norray said he answered 208 calls in 2005, forty more than the previous year.
Also, Norray said, "Just in case you had any doubts, there is a mountain lion up here. I had a call on it;" and

—Heard from Price that Dennis Colliton is resigning from the planning board for personal reasons.