Kensington makes town more snowmobile-safe

The town of Kensington is setting up a new snowmobile corridor in the downtown area giving snowmobilers access to local businesses, and at the same time addressing some recent safety issues.

In the past, snowmobiles have been allowed to travel along Victoria Street and Woodleigh Drive to get to the downtown business area.

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But Mayor Rowan Caseley says there have been some minor traffic incidents involving snowmobiles using those routes, and he said the recent realignment of the Tim Hortons drive-thru and increased traffic has increased the potential for incidents.

So the town is now permitting snowmobile access to the downtown, only through the former railyards area.

"The Confederation Trail of course goes right through the centre of town and it's very convenient," said Caseley.

"I know there is probably not many places where the Confederation Trail goes right through the town where they can actually access the downtown core. And so we didn't want to stop that. We were trying to find a safe solution to the problem. And we've found it."

Casely noted the routes used by snowmobilers in the past were not technically allowed under provincial rules.

He said this new route gives snowmobiles access to key services with the least amount of interaction with car and pedestrian traffic.

A couple of local business owners have agreed to allow snowmobilers to travel through their properties.

Caseley says the P.E.I. Snowmobile Association and the town are installing signs to let everyone know about the route.