MILLINOCKET, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- Police in Millinocket will be getting a new tool to help them keep an eye on all-terrain vehicle riders around town.
The department has been using an older model ATV to monitor traffic and riders. Officers use it to enforce laws on ATV trails that run from the town all the way out to Sebois.
The problem is the ATV doesn't have the proper suspension to run off road. The Maine Warden Service awarded the department a $7,400 grant to get a new one. The department did have to match that amount in order to receive it and that is where the Katahdin Area Rotary Club stepped in.
It offered to donate the match amount, which will now come at no cost to the town. Directors of the club say given the importance that ATVing plays to the region's economy, it seemed like the right thing to do.
"The multi use trail is going to open up all kind of possibilities and we just needed to jump on this," said Mike Lamson, who is the president of the rotary.
"It's huge," Millinocket town councilor John Raymond said of the donation, "we were working on some private funding and we still are...with this here, it puts the icing on the cake for us."
The rotary says it's also opening to supplying any other equipment that Millinocket police might need in order to monitor the trails.
NEWS CENTER