PARIS — With just nine days to go, the X-tra Mile ATV Club is over budget and close to the July 15 deadline when the original Parsons Road path will be closed to the club.

For more than a month, club members have been adding sand and gravel to a 1.2 mile path connecting East Oxford Road with Parsons Road. The new trail, a former tote road, will take ATV riders far from the home of James and Paula Hakala, two Parsons Road residents who protested the use of ATVs near their home last year.

Now, thanks to David Shaw and a family member who owns an adjacent parcel, the club can connect to the Oxford trail system as well as its own loop. “Normally, to go through a mile of trail, you’re talking 25 to 30 landowners,” club trailmaster Cliff Goodwin said.

Last week, the Paris Board of Selectmen voted to allow the club two extra weeks from the original June 30 deadline to use most of Parsons Road while the club finishes the new trail. The Hakalas told the board in May they didn’t mind temporary use of the road.

Goodwin said the work, initially expected to cost about $1,000, has cost the club about $3,000 so far. “We thought there was a bottom to this,” he said Tuesday. “We walked it in February. It’s hard to know what’s under it when there’s 3 feet of snow on top of it.”

In addition, rainy weather throughout June has been “killing” their efforts. “We’re three weeks behind,” Goodwin said. “If we had a normal spring and summer, we’d be done by now.”

He said there is about 300-350 feet of mud left to fill in.

Goodwin said he and other club members have been working from 6 a.m. to noon or later, depending on the heat. He said the work crew varies. On hot days like Tuesday, some of the older volunteers stay in. Only X-tra Mile member Adam McElreavy was on hand Tuesday.

Gravel pits have donated material and even trucked it over, Goodwin said. They’ve shored up what was 3-foot-deep mud with gravel and sand. Goodwin said they tried wood chips, but they soaked up water and didn’t stabilize the trail.

The new trail follows the edge of Shaw’s field and enters across East Oxford Road from Cairns Farm Road, which the ATV club was already using.

The trail will mark the end of a long debate, which began last year when selectmen approved use of Parsons Road and East Oxford Road, among others, for ATV use. Selectmen rescinded use of those trails in January. The new, permanent route will use less than 300 yards of Parsons Road, which doesn’t require permission from selectmen.

Goodwin said rain and heat made the work has been much harder than expected. He said he told the crew of volunteers who helps maintain the trails, “When we finish this project, we’re taking a long break.”

treaves@sunjournal.com