SALEM -- With the prime season for off-road vehicles approaching, town leaders are questioning whether they need to expand enforcement measures to deal with complaints of speeding or noise.

"A lot of it is going to depend on any grant funding that's available," said Police Chief Paul Donovan. "I don't have the personnel and we can't handle it on a full-time basis."

For the past year, Salem police have relied on a $15,000 grant from the state Fish and Game Department to pay officers eight hours of overtime to work in four-hour shifts on weekends for off-road enforcement.

The officers patrol in police cruisers along areas like Arlington Pond, where off-highway recreational vehicle riders gravitate once ice forms across Salem's largest body of water .

But selectmen asked Donovan and Town Manager Marcia Leighninger this week to look into a variety of options that range from seeking more grant money to enlisting state Fish and Game officials to asking volunteers to patrol the town more often.

"I'm going to be working with the police chief to find the most cost-effective method," said Leighninger in an interview yesterday. She wants to review a range of possibilities from state grant money to tapping local snowmobile clubs for patrolling Salem.

The state grant that Salem now uses to patrol the area only allows for patrolling OHRVs -- essentially two- or four-wheeled vehicles -- but not snowmobiles, according to police Capt. Robert Tine.

Selectman Chairman James Holland said he'd like to see Chief Donovan team up with neighboring communities like Windham to develop some type of joint task force to tackle improved enforcement.

"It doesn't seem to be a plague," said Holland of those either speeding or driving recklessly on OHRVs. "There are a few people giving it a bad name." "In other areas like Massachusetts, they've basically limited their resources to OHRV users, and those people have jumped the border and come to New Hampshire," Holland added. "So now unfortunately the enforcement aspect hasn't grown as rapidly as the popularity of the sport. I think it's gotten out of hand, and I don't think Fish and Game ever expected it to get this big."

Holland, also a Republican state representative, said he's also talking with state officials about organizing a law enforcement-based patrol team. "Personally I'd like to establish some sort of regional response team that could assist local towns. It could be a composition of any law enforcement agency that can enforce OHRV laws on the books," said Holland.

Salem is among more than 30 communities around the state drawing from $300,000 in the state Fish & Game budget to pay local police officers overtime to enforce OHRV laws, said Timothy Acerno, a major with Fish and Game in Concord.

Acerno said since the grant money became available two years ago, enforcement has increased in many communities. Acerno also acknowledged that the popularity of the sport has been growing faster than first anticipated by officials, but it hasn't outpaced enforcement efforts.

And while Acerno said Fish and Game is willing to team up with local police departments to deal with enforcement issues, Fish and Game officers are faced with covering a wide area. Fish and Game Officer David Walsh, for instance, covers Salem along with seven other communities including Windham, Nashua and Hudson.

"The trouble is, the Fish and Game is stretched thin," said Selectman Stephanie Micklon, noting people living around Arlington Pond often complain during the winter about speeders or noise at night. Micklon said she's hoping this year the town will be able to garner the support of local OHRV or snowmobile clubs to help with keeping speeds low.

Enforcement at the county's largest OHRV trail, which stretches from Route 107 in Fremont to Route 28 in Derry and is known as the Rockingham Trail, shows how Fish and Game's grant program has improved enforcement, according to Acerno.

Fish and Game officers have been working alongside police officers, where on weekends upwards of 200 riders are stopped by patrols, he said. Fremont Police Chief Neal Janvrin also won approval from selectmen there to set aside funds from police-issued fines for buying the department its own OHRV equipment, Acerno said.

Selectman Everett McBride said he doesn't believe Salem will be able to lure Fish and Game officials to town every weekend. "But we should talk to them," McBride said. "I think (the Police Department) is going to need the equipment. Maybe they could rent the equipment for six months and save money. I don't know, but there's a couple of options we can look into." Selectman Richard Gregory said he believes enforcement should begin in the neighborhoods where the problems arise. He said if Salem were to eliminate the majority of "out-of-towners" using OHRVs in Salem, the town would have fewer problems.

The board dealt some out-of-town OHRV users a blow last year when Salem banned trucks or cars from parking on Arlington Pond when it freezes over. Gregory would also like to see nonresidents using OHRVs banned from parking on town streets.

"Out-of-town people come in with machines, and those people we don't know. With the people who live on the lake, everybody knows who the bad boys are," said Gregory. But Gregory believes the enforcement issue isn't a top priority for residents in comparison to traffic enforcement.

"We don't have the resources to put out officers to go and follow the guys, and I think the citizens at large are more concerned with speeding on their streets than a snowmobile speeding on Arlington Pond," Gregory said.