14 members were present. The meeting was brought to order at 10:00 a.m. by President Edie Dunlap with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Presidents Report:  Edie Dunlap,  breezy1@tdstelme.net  

The members voted to donate $500.00 to the Lion’s Club for their Snack Pack Program, $100.00 to Sugarloaf Marathon and $100.00 for the “Upcycle the Bicycles” program to beautify the Town of Stratton. Sandi Isgro would love to have potting soil, flower seedlings, spray paint and baskets that she can use as planters to put on the bikes if anyone wants to drop any of these items off at the White Wolf.   These decorative planters outside local businesses would show our town’s unity in creating a cheerful welcoming feeling. 

  The Lions Club and ATV club are doing their Lobster Raffle again this year. The Lion’s Club is giving their proceeds to the Make A Wish foundation and asked if the ATV club would consider donating their money to the foundation as well.  It was voted to donate our proceeds of the ticket sales to the Make A Wish foundation as well. I have tickets for anyone that wants them for themselves or want to sell them.  You can call me at 431-0922 if you would like tickets.        

The municipal grant is finished and the total is $111,270.00. We usually ask for around $80,000 but had to add additional requests for $25,000 as our portion of repairs to Brochu Bridge and $8,000 for our share to build a new bridge that goes over the beaver dam at Kennebago. The grant was presented to the Selectman for their signature and mailed to the State ATV Program for their approval.

Dale and I went to the ATV Maine Banquet on April 23th which was well attended. Election of Officers were President: Real Deschaine, Vice President: John Raymond, Secretary: Cheryl Friedman and Treasurer: Sue Lanouette. The treasurer report stated they had $24,508.50 in their regular account and $69,345.62 in the Liability account. Last year we got the Liability Insurance for the club from them. It comes up for renewal in July for $500.00. The insurance agent they have is Bilodeau and they will do the liability for the mini excavator as well as the rest of the equipment we have. They also do property insurance for equipment. It was voted to swap our property coverage from Liberty over to Bilodeau instead of having 2 different insurance companies. 

Brian Bronson was at the meeting and gave out some information for clubs to bring back to their members. The resident increase in ATV registration fee goes 100% into the trail maintenance fund and 70% of the non-residents also goes to the trail maintenance fund with the remaining 30% going to the Warden Service for 3 ATV deputies for the summer. Last year there were between 82,000 and 85,000 ATV’s that were registered in Maine. There are 6,000 miles of combined ATV and Snowmobile Trails in Maine. In 2019 the state paid out 1 million dollars from the ATV maintenance fund to clubs for grants to fix their trails. In 2021 the state paid out 4 million dollars for the same. The Flagstaff club’s average cost for grading roads on our system is around $10,000, the price is usually $800 to $1,000 a mile. Any new or replacement bridges will now need to be 8’ wide and a weight capacity of 15,000 lbs. to allow the paper companies that own the land to be able to travel on them. 

We have ordered our new maps with a couple of revisions. There are three sections of trail that are designated as 20 mph. Hope that will help to cut down the speed on a few problem areas to keep the landowner from shutting down the trails. Added an insert for Rangeley’s access routes on the main road so riders would know where the start and ending points of the access route are. 

I have been in contact with The Red Onion in Rangeley and the date for the ride will be Saturday July 9th. It seemed to be the only weekend that there was not a parade or concert going on. We will have more information at the June meeting. I will make contact with Tim Pond Camps to see what day they would like us come into their camps. 

Family Fun Days will be June 25th. If anyone is willing to help with the Strawberry Shortcakes please let me know and would love to see lots of ATV’s in the parade. We had lap quilt that was donated to us last year to use as a fund raiser. That would be a good chance to sell tickets for it along with selling bottled water.  

 Vice President: Sandi Isgro, sandi.whitewolf@gmail.com

Sandi was not able to attend the meeting today but said she had nothing new to report on anything. 

Trail Master’s Account: Dale Dunlap, breezy1@tdstelme.net

Expenses:NAPA for grease – $34.71, Tractor Supply for chop saw blades – $31.62, R & R for fuel – $17.00, 

Tractor Supply for Nuts and Bolts – $6.31, Home Depot for orange cones – $10.53 

Treasurer’s Report: Gloria Smith, fredgloria@msn.com 

Deposits since last meeting were $1810.00 for Memberships, $685 for donations totaling $2495.00

Expenses were Amazon – $63.29 for ATV side mirrors, ATV Maine $1335.00 – ATV stickers and memberships, Rangeley Building Supply – $131.96 for combination lock for gate and plywood for Sandi to do an information sign that will be going down behind Flagstaff Fuel. 

Secretary’s Report: Diane Wyman  

Memberships this year to date is 55 regular Members and   16 Businesses members.

Membership collected to date is $2334.00 and donations are $1402.00

Trail Master’s Report: Dale Dunlap, breezy1@tdstelme.net         

 Fred and I went to check the ramp on the bridge behind Flagstaff Fuel. The nails/bolts are sticking up quite a bit. We are going to re-deck the ramp and if anyone would like to help please let us know.

The new bridge over the dam off from Kennebago Road is all done. This is the trail off from Canyon Trail that goes to the Bison Farm – Bigelow Fields.  Our shared cost for this bridge is $8,000. 

Fred and I have been checking the trails, most of the ones we have been on are drying up good – still wet in places. This week we will be up around Tim Pass and Sawyer Brook Trails. 

We will be meeting up with some of the members of the Penobscot Indian Tribe to look at their maps for a trail that may work for our club to be able to connect back up with Natanis Campground.  This is still in the early planning stages but hopefully we can work something out and then get the permission we need from them and AFM to complete the project. 

We are also looking at a trail for a connection around the Penobscot Land in Carrabassett to the Long Falls Dam Road in Lexington.  Lot of work to be done with it but it is something we will be working on this summer. 

The 50/50 was won by Jeff Babineau, and the door prize was won by Steve Durost who turned it back into the club, thank you.                                . 

Our next meeting will be Sunday, June 12th, 2022 at 10:00 am at the Stratton Community Building.