8924-R1_MSA_December2024_Newsletter

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Betsy Watson Directors Meeting - Eastern Maine Snowmobilers - Holden, Maine - November 19, 2024

you work with your local wardens to set up trail side snowmobile check. Reach out to them for an event that you might be having or for that trail side check. Eastern Region Vice-President: Eileen Lafland – We appreciate everyone coming. Volunteers are hard to find to get out and work on the trails. As the Eastern Region gets going we are going to have a regional meeting on 12/11/24 at the East Branch Sno-Rovers. We are going to try and get as many people there to talk about what we all are doing and what we need to do. I will be checking with some clubs that have zero members to see what is happening with them. Remember to get those memberships in. Northern Region Vice-President: Nick Morrill: - Up here in the north, the clubs are up and running, getting trail work dome now that farming season is over. Clubs are selling the Super Raffle tickets. Otherwise we are just waiting on Mother Nature and what she wants, fall or winter. Holding on until the cold weather comes. March 15 Northern Region Showcase ride will be held at the Benedicta Snowgang Snowmobile Club. Central Region Vice-President: Ron Nunes: I’m impressed will all of volunteers that we have had. We have been working on bridges, trails and signage. Western Region Vice-President: Jerry Major: Western Region Landowner’s Dinner in Leeds that is Brad Barkers Club and they have the most impressive food array and 32 landowners come to the meeting. There is a little problem on ITS 89 going to Oxford which one landowner shut us right down and there is quite a bit of work to go around it. Western Region Meeting is going to happen in January in Leeds. The clubs working on the trails. Coastal Region Vice-President: Matt Baron: Matt was out tonight. Mark – There is a deadline that I want to remind people of. December 1st for the Municipal & Snowmobile Safety education increases the operators understanding on how to operate your sled. Courses are available through our State IF&W division. You can find locations and dates in our MSA monthly newspaper. When you learn safe riding technique’s you’ll learn how to ride reasonably and respect the landowner’s property. Doing so will make you aware of hazards and how to avoid them. Snowmobile education classes can be done in person which I recommend online. You can avoid dangers on the trail when you learn how to operate your sled responsibility. Cer tain environments in certain parts of our State are different and you adjust for snow and ice conditions. Be aware of obstacles on the trail, if you have traveled down a trail in the early morning and come back later in the day be careful just because it was flat and smooth at 7am doesn’t mean at 3 in the afternoon its the same. maybe a wind or snowstorm has come through and there are now downed trees reetings from Brewer, The trails committee is in full swing. We are on a regular monthly meeting schedule and all of our inspection routes have been hashed out and assigned. Hopefully, some areas have received snow by now. It certainly won’t take much to improve on last year’s snowfall. I trust all of you have been doing your snow dance. While signs were again delayed this year, you should have received your orders by late Nov/early Dec. We are working with Joe Hig gin’s office to address sign orders and the late arrivals the past few years. Speaking of signage, there has been a com mon and ongoing issue that gets questioned frequently. It came up again at the trails workshop at the MSA snow show. The ques tion? Is there a way to differentiate ARROW SIGNS between ATV and snowmobile trails. Our signage program is based on a national standard and as such, an arrow is an arrow. G

Club grants. Director of Operations: All Swett – We are the top third destination in America for snowmobile riding. Raffle is doing really well. There are a few more tickets outback if you need any. The show was great, the attendance was down, but the show as a whole was wonderful. Question 4 went thru. The money should start going out in Jan. Safety signs are in the back so you can have some. Take them and put them up. Mark – Chris Garmarsh is the trail manager for Polaris with the Ride Command map program. His job is to make sure that riders have accurate trail information. The App is available, free for riders to use; the goal is to make it work with club maps. Put your business sponsors on it, charge them to be on the maps and pocket the money because it is free to clubs. The app is updateable. Safety: Al Swett – Safety is a big deal. I try to instill in the younger members (the youngest member at the meeting tonight is 22 and the oldest is 87). that safety is important. Wear that protective gear. Have a safety checks, they are very successfully. Scholarship Committee: Harvey Chesley: Focus on the agenda the savings account and the CD. We never had healthier finances we recently rolled over the CD to a new term so we are now getting approximately $200 a month in interest and that’s not the good news, the good news is the savings account is over $5,000 with any luck we can go a couple of years without touching the CD. Now that Thanksgiving vacation is upon us, a lot of students will be home and it’s a great time to have them look at that and start to fill out the application. Funding Committee: Matt Stedman – As Al and Mark both mentioned, Question 4 passed. So that $30 million spread out over 4 years is $7 and a half million per year. It splits up to 50% joint use, which is any 2 uses like snowmobiling and horseback riding or bicycle riding and walking; 25% motorized and 25% non-motorized. Another thing on funding, last and snowdrifts to contend with. December is a break in month hopefully we have snow enough to ride. Remember you have not been on your machine since last season if you did it last year at all. Riding in groups, getting unstuck, riding at night and hand signals are just a few things to rekindle your snowmobile thinking. Safe riding tips include watch for the signs, look out for animals, don’t leave your buddy behind, cross roads carefully either a main road or a woods road, the logging trucks have the right of way, don’t ride alone, don’t do drugs or drink alcohol when riding, respect our landowners and stay on the trail, drive under control and stay right, and here’s a big one know before you go, ice conditions vary foot by foot. We’ve lost to many snowmobil er’s account of thin ice. Lately with our warm winters the ice has not been good ice. Check over your trailers check for breaks on the frame work, lights, electrical plugs, wheels, tires, bearings, if your tires have I have heard many suggestions from “SNO” or “ATV” stickers to different colors. Well, we aren’t supposed to write on arrows, so the sticker idea is out. Production of an additional color arrow does not adhere to the national standard and would add cost as well as major effort to deploy. We have many areas where there are shared trails and then a split or cross ing between ATV and snowmobile trails, so what’s the solution? The fact is we already have the answer using our existing signage. We have snowmobile and ATV signs. The simple solution looks like the image on the next column to the right: I’m aware that putting up another sign requires another backer, another fastener, and more effort but it provides clarity to rid ers unfamiliar with the local trail system. Remember, a main focus of the Trail Commit tee is to ensure that riders can find their way easily and safely reach their destination. There

year they reviewed the gas tax split on users and how that comes out. It looks like into this year’s budget for Joe’s office, to put back into the trail program will increase $220 thousand out of gas tax for the snowmobile programs. We will be putting in a bill this session to increase funding for the trails fund and right now it looks like we are going to focus on sales tax of snowmobiles. Trail Committee: Brent Spalding: We had our first mapping dinner last week and the next four weeks we have more dinners planned to get our routes mapped out. There are major bridge projects, the ITS reroute that Less is involved in, a new bridge going in that was washed out last year; it’s happening. Logging operations not sure where they are going to be yet so some of the clubs don’t know where the trails are going to be. When the time comes the clubs will react and we will have a continuous system we can ride. Our job is to have a safe navigation to get you from A to B and have a good time. At the seminar at the Snowmobile show one question was asked about railing on bridges. I refer people to the Best Practices Manual. The manual tell you how to build a railing but not when it is required. After talking to Joe, there is no hard and fast rule about railing. Just use your common sense. If you have a bridge 40 FT high, you need a railing. Membership Committee: Eileen Lafland: Eileen read off the different regions and the totals for each region. Total members are 4059. Hall of Fame Chair: Gail Ryan: Sent cards to members for different reasons. Hospitality: Gail Ryan – Told us a wonderful joke. Matt: Social media conduct try – be positive; be professional; be courteous; provide timely and accurate information; timely posts; pictures. Just be careful posting things. 50/50 – Mike Whitten $148.00 Pot of Gold – Fox Glenn SC in Augusta. They were not present. Motion to adjourn – all in favor cracks buy new ones. And make sure your hitch is secure when you take off along with the safety pin. Clothing is important as well. You’ll be more comfortable with the right helmet, gloves, boots and base, mid and outer cloth ing. Waterproof, windproof are a must for Maine winters. We have many shared trails on our system be aware of cross country, bikers, snowshoe ing, horseback riders and walkers. Please remember we’re a class act outfit and yes I’m bragging! We have to take care of our landowners and supporting businesses. You volunteers make it happen I’m so proud to be part of this trail ride that makes our State a true destination snowmobile hot spot because of folks like you all. People from all over our country and Canada ride our system because of the passion you have for MSA snowmobiling! Thank you, Be safe out there! AL are several joint ATV/Snowmobile clubs that should already have both signs. For those areas that have independent clubs, reach out to each other and get it done. Also, signs can be obtained through the ATV or Snowmobile

S ecretary’s report Betsy Watson – Motion to accept by Ron Nunes and second by Troy Grass. No errors or omissions. Motion carried. The treasurer’s report was read and placed on file at the office. President’s (Mark Chinnock) opening comments: MSA has been busy. Even though the MSA snowmobile show is over (which was great), we went to the Epping Grass Drags in New Hampshire and the Snowmobile Expo in Mass representing snowmobiling in Maine. Thank you to the kitchen crew for such a wonderful meal. Executive Vice-President: Matt Stedman – We have great conversations about Maine snowmobiling and the clubs. Most of them that we talked to want to come back so thank you for doing such a great job catering to all the out of starters that come snowmobiling here in our State. Great work. Make sure that Betsy Watson, Secretary 207-205-1559 412 Roberts Ridge Rd, East Waterboro, ME 04030 watson.betsy29@gmail.com

Safety Committee

Alan Swett 207-872-7282 234 County Rd, Waterville ME 04901 snowtraveler@roadrunner.com

Trails Committee Chair Report

divisions of ACF in Augusta. Until next month…… Brent

Brent Spaulding, MSA Trails Chairman 207-944-7762 41 Madison Ave Brewer ME 04412 msatrailchair@gmail.com

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