Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette The Ontonagon County Road Commission hosts a public hearing on abandoning a portion of Caledonia Road to standing room-only attendance.

ONTONAGON COUNTY — The request to abandon a portion of Caledonia Road was denied by the County Road Commission Tuesday, keeping it open to ORV traffic.

The standing room-only meeting had people lined into the hall outside the small meeting room, many of them in opposition to the abandonment of section six of the road. Nine pages of signatures in opposition had also been submitted with County Road Commission engineer Michael Maloney estimating around 200 signatures total.

The Greenland Township Road serves as the main connector route from Wisconsin to Copper Harbor for ORVs and snowmobiles. Caledonia road connects the Pioneer Trail with the Bill Nichols Trail.

The commission cited the high level of opposition to the abandonment for denying the request and no commissioners made a motion to support for abandonment.

The request was made by landowner Emanuel Manos who said the section of the road was, in fact, his property. Manos raised concerns over safety as vehicles and ORVs closely interact on the road and pointed out that the Caledonia is not maintained.

“It’s not that I want to take any enjoyment away from anybody but with it going private and those two things don’t coexist anymore and they did coexist until the land was brought to the private ownership,” Manos said.

He indicated interest in opening up a small-scale mining operation which would make ORV operation on the road difficult, with trucks in the same area.

Manos pledged to find another route for off-road vehicles other than the road, working with GMO Threshold Timber, the DNR and MITrails to get an easement bypassing the road.

However, many locals in attendance don’t think a new trail could be found and expressed concerns over loss of tourism. Skip Schulz pointed to previous unsuccessful efforts to find an alternate route.

“We didn’t want to be on it (the road),” he said but other options could be short-term or limited.

Owner of the Adventure Mine, Matthew Portfleet sent a letter in opposition to the abandonment.

Though Portfleet expressed his sympathy at the challenges of a multi-use trail for landowners around Caledonia Road. Dealing with a similar scenario himself, he objected to the closure.

“As a business owner, the negative aspects caused and associated liability with the trail make supporting them a labor of love not an easy and rewarding proposition. However, I do not agree that closing the Caledonia Road to public access is the right answer. As a long established county road and crucial link for the trails network, the road is a public asset,” Portfleet said.

With the decision, the landowner could pursue a legal challenge over ownership of the contested stretch of road.

“That’s something that’s going to be determined down the road by a judge or a jury however far it goes,” said Maloney.

He said the one mile stretch of the road discussed on Tuesday is the county’s but some sections are contested.

“I expect we’ll be seeing everybody down the road,” he said.

Monos stated that his next steps would “become known,” but didn’t give any further details on what he would do.