Intercity ATV route would require highway slowdown

Things are getting serious about allowing ATV travel in city streets in Grand Coulee.

And a new twist was added at Grand Coulee’s council meeting a week ago.

An idea surfaced to allow all-terrain vehicles to travel between Grand Coulee and Electric City.

Part of the idea would be to slow traffic from 45 mph down to 35 mph, the speed that ATVs can travel.

It all started several weeks ago when Grand Coulee resident Bill Moore attended the council meeting and brought up the idea of ATV travel in the city. Moore and several others appeared at the most recent council session to push the idea along.

This time it took a different twist.

Grand Coulee is looking at taking Electric City’s ATV ordinance and using it as a pattern.

Electric City’s ATV ordinance has been in existence for over a year with no known bad results, but it doesn’t allow for travel on the highway. ATVs can travel on Electric City streets under certain conditions, though you seldom see one.

It would take the Department of Transportation and the city of Electric City, to agree before that change could be made, but getting others to agree to trimming the speed limit from 45 to 35 mph along the stretch from Coulee Playland to the Four Corners intersection with Highway 174 might be another matter.

The change from 45 mph to 35 mph is something motorists could well have something to say about. Motorists already complain about cutting their speed from 45 to 30 mph on the three-lane highway from Federal Avenue to the Bureau of Reclamation headquarters.

The Bureau of Reclamation has stated that change was due to the new fire station being built at the end of B Street.

Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend said that he had questioned the DOT about changing the speed limit from Four Corners to Electric City, and his impression was that it wouldn’t be a problem.

ATVs would have to be street ready, with lights, signals and license, in order to travel on Grand Coulee streets.

Grand Coulee Police Chief John Tufts said this week that he didn’t see any problem with the change in speed.