Despite this week’s snowfall, snowmobile trails in Waupaca and Shawano Counties are still closed.
The Shawano County Snowmobile Trails association says that while some of their snowmobile clubs may be out packing and conditioning their trails with the new snow, all trails in Shawano county remain closed. While the cold weather is helping freeze lakes and river, the association says there is still many places that have open water which means very thin ice may lie below the snow cover in some areas.
They’re also not welcome inside the city, Shawano Police Chief Dan Mauel says his department has received multiple complaints of snowmobiles riding around residential neighborhoods over the past couple days.
The city ordinance on snowmobiles states that it is “illegal to operate on city streets, alleys, parks, parking lots or any public lands or private lands or parking lots held open to the public in the city of Shawano.”
The only exception is an ordinance that does allow snowmobilers to operate snowmobile from residence or lodging establishment for the shortest distance necessary to a public snowmobile trail. But only if that trail is open.