HOOKSETT Town councilors are sending a letter to the state supporting trails for all-terrain vehicles in Bear Brook State Park, a move that troubles neighboring Allenstown.

The council voted Wednesday, May 28, to support plans to expand the state's ATV trails.

The expansion includes plans by the state Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED) to bring ATVs to the park year-round.

Currently, the park is open to the vehicles only when snow is on the ground. The expansion would open 20 miles of trails to the four-wheeled vehicles.

The letter, addressed to DRED Commissioner George Bald, makes no reference to the state park, but gives general support to the creation of ATV trails in the state.

But Hooksett's support for ATVs is the opposite of what Allenstown's selectmen have been urging for more than six months. Allenstown Selectmen Chairman Sandra McKenney expressed disappointment with the vote, which she had expected to support her position.

"This letter definitely hurts Allenstown," she said. "I was very disappointed in Hooksett's turnaround. This is not the support we were looking for."

With 51 percent of Allenstown taken up by the park, asking taxpayers to pay for the extra police protection the ATV trails will require will be difficult, she said.

"We're a poor town," she said. "We can't afford to educate our children and this is a recreational thing we'll have to police with our own money. We have our own recreation department and I would like our own money to go there."

A small part of the park juts into the northeastern section of Hooksett.

One Hooksett councilor said the letter was a balancing act, designed to not offend Allenstown by not mentioning the park by name and not offend ATV supporters, who showed up in large numbers in both of May's council meetings.

As a way of balancing the letter, it praises the Hooksett ATV club for its clean-up of a four-mile section of Chester Turnpike it opened to ATVs in 2001, but also urges the department to adhere to state laws governing new trails.

State ATV club president Rick Lacourse told councilors May 14 that many riders are trained in CPR and can save lives if they come across hikers having heart attacks or other medical problems.

"I can gather 50 people in an area and cover the trails a lot faster than anybody else," he said. "The sport is only dangerous to the person on the machine."

The department is in the middle of a two-month review of setbacks from wildlife, structures and wetlands that will be required for the trails.

Meanwhile, Allenstown selectmen have written to the department several times since a meeting with Bald in January urging him to abandon plans for the expansion.

Despite Hooksett's support for the plan, they are vowing to continue to make the case against the trails.

A committee of Allenstown residents met with Bald on May 19 to express concerns in a meeting McKenney said was helpful.

If the trail expansion is approved, two ATVs donated to the town last year will be used to help police the new trails, she said.

McKenney said selectmen will continue to stress the costs of the new trails to the town, despite Hooksett's support.

"Financially, it's a burden to the town of Allenstown," she said.