SANDOWN -- On an otherwise quiet Wednesday afternoon, two teenagers rev their engines and cross from one private property onto the next on their ATVs.

Linda Ziakowski, a resident of Sandown for nearly 20 years, sighs as she points less than 100 feet from her front porch.

"There you go right there," she said. "There's your proof if you need it."

The ATVs are soon out of sight, but the sound of their noisy engines can be heard for several minutes afterward.

It's not just the noise that has bothered a group of four landowners for the past two decades. Residents on Fremont Road say they have spent time, money and energy trying to keep ATV drivers off their property. Their efforts have become exhausting and have had few results.

But police Chief Joe Gordon is optimistic that may soon change.

Gordon said violators are more likely to be caught and fined in months ahead. Next month, the Police Department will receive $2,900 from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Gordon said the department will use those funds, in part, to respond to landowner complaints.

Bill Lee, a farmer who owns 51/2 acres of land, said he and his wife have been awakened at 2 or 3 a.m., and found trucks with New Hampshire and Massachusetts license plates parked in their yard. On other occasions, snowmobilers have gotten stuck in the snow and called to the couple for help. At times, Lee said, he has helped them and loaned them tools, some of which were later returned broken.

"I'm through being nice," Lee said.

He estimated his family has spent more than $1,000 to repair damage caused by snowmobile and ATV riders.

In an effort to keep off-road vehicle operators from trespassing, the neighbors have purchased and posted signs, and built stonewalls and fences. But they said those barriers were destroyed within days.

Now Lee is worried that the next fence he will have to replace is the electric one around his horse pasture. he said nearly every day, when a snowmobile drives by, his horse is spooked and stretches the fence in an attempt to get out.

"If it keeps stretching, I'll have to replace not only the fence," Lee said, nodding toward his horse, "but he'll be wandering around out there somewhere, too."

Every couple of months the group tries to straighten fences, rebuild barriers and post new signs. They estimate they spend 50 hours a year on these tasks.

They said their complaints to Fish and Game and Sandown Police have resulted only in temporary solutions -- on those occasions when someone does respond.

Part of the problem, according to Ziakowski, is that enforcement officials have to catch violators before they can issue fines.

To make it easier to catch these violators, Sandown police bought two off-road vehicles last summer and trained the entire department in their use.

"I've only been out a few times to answer complaint calls and re-post signs myself," Gordon said. "At this point in time, the reason we haven't been able to respond to more calls is a funding issue. We try to answer the complaints, but also try to have the least amount of impact on expenditures for the citizens of the town."

Timothy Osacerno, who works in the enforcement division of the Fish and Game Department, said fines range from $500 to $1,200, depending on the level of the offense. Fines are even steeper for people who trespass on wetlands -- up to $10,000. There are wetlands along Fremont Road.

Chet Nicolaisen, a resident of Sandown for 30 years, said the increased funds aren't enough to even begin to solve the ongoing problem.

"But If funding is the problem," Nicolaisen said, "they could sit out on our property for one day and collect enough fines from them to fund response to our complaints for a year."