ATVs have no place

To the editor:

I would like to respond to the story in the newspaper about ATV abuse in the city of Wasilla.

I take exception to the statement that a few irresponsible riders are the problem. All riders are the problem. Every ATV ridden by anyone contributes to the deterioration of the eyesore trails alongside every road in Wasilla. Kids will always be kids, and as soon as they are out of sight of their parents on these $6,000 to $8,000 toys, they will let them rip. They are kids. That’s what they do.

The few of us who take pride in our property and our city find it impossible to landscape anything. I don’t have a “Proud to be Valley Trash” sticker on my vehicles because I take offense at the charge. We need to clean up our city, plant grass, landscape it and keep the ATVs off of it, and change the perception that we’re “Proud to be Valley Trash.”

I can hear the gnashing of teeth already, “My only transportation. I use it to get to work, etc.”

The economy will survive without them.

There is not a city anywhere in the USA the size of Wasilla that condones this behavior.

The city council will ban them completely — as it should — when the number of children killed on them becomes intolerable. What is that number? Five? Ten? Twenty? Just tell me and I won’t waste my time, or yours, until that number is reached.

Robert Friesen

Wasilla