On Aug. 8, 2004, the Jamaica Selectboard and the Windham County Sheriff's Department prevented the Pathfinders Motorcycle Club from holding their Red Fox Turkey Run, a 100-mile ride on the public dirt roads of the West River Valley.
The action led to a ruling from Vermont's Attorney General who found that the board and the sheriff's department acted improperly.
The two sides finally reached a settlement that had the town and sheriff paying $600,000 to the motorcycle club which is based in Bethany, Conn.
Now DiFrancesco and his riders are planning to return to Windham County, but they're going to stay away from Jamaica this time.
DiFrancesco has been talking to Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark, and to the town managers in Westminster and Putney about holding a ride, possibly this summer.
The club is trying to plan the event so there are no surprises, and DiFrancesco wants to make sure everyone knows what is going on.
"What happened in the past is history," DiFrancesco said in a phone interview this week. "We're trying to be proactive with the local towns and get off on the right foot."
The Pathfinders Motorcycle Club is made up of riders in their 40s and 50s, DiFrancesco said, and he wants to run the event this summer as a fundraiser for a local organization.
The group has been looking at maps and a route has not yet been established but he said they are considering riding in the towns of Westminster and Putney.
"This whole thing was spearheaded by a couple of people who had their own agenda and wanted to shut us down," DiFrancesco said. "It was a huge misunderstanding."
Sheriff Clark, who was not in charge when the department had its run in with the motorcycle club, said he is trying to work with the towns and the club to make the proposed event as smooth as possible.
Clark is not endorsing the ride, but he said if everyone is clear on what is going to happen and the club is able to raise money for a local group, then it could be a success.
"I think this could be a benefit for the community," Clark said. "If they can put an event together with the support of the towns it could be a benefit to the whole valley."
While the riders do plan on spending most of their time on public roads, they will have to access some of the roads on public land and Clark said he is going to help DiFrancesco track down the landowners and make sure the public officials know exactly what is going to happen.
"We don't want to push this," said Clark. "This is in the very early stages but we want to organize this with the support of the community."
Putney Town Manager Chris Ryan and Sonia Alexander, the town manager in Westminster, both said they have had an initial contact with DiFrancesco and would welcome him at a selectboard meeting to explain his plans for the ride.
DiFrancesco said he is looking forward to coming up to Vermont to make his case.
"We have a long history and now that we have the settlement we want to move on. We want this resurrected" he said. "It's a gorgeous area up there and we're going to do things a little differently this time."
Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 279.