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| Flagstaff Area ATV Club |
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| January Newsletter |
January Newsletter
1/14/07
| Presidents Notes |
The meeting was called to order at 10:00am. Don welcomed everyone and said that our usual forum would be shorter today due to our visit from Dan Mitchell, Executive Director of A.T.V. Maine, and Richard Barter President of A.T.V. Maine. We wanted to allow them plenty of time to speak this morning. Don touched on the subject of money for the Penobscott Nation and the Community Building for our meetings from April through December.
| Treasurers Notes |
Bob gave us the bank balance of the club. For more details on that please call or e-mail Bob Dennett.
| Membership Chairs Notes |
Our membership is the same as last month. Holding steady at 297.
| Trail Masters Notes |
On December 14th Dick built a 3-point hitch trailer and box scraper for trail work, (check out our web site for pictures of this). Sandy Isgro gave the club the plow blade that was used for this construction. Dick also picked up a 05 Grizzly for a back up work machine. December 30th Dick stopped into the Rangeley Arctic Cat dealer to show him our map. He was impressed and wants someone to see him in the spring so he can sign up as a sponsor. Dick is setting up meetings with the big landowners this month in hopes of getting more trails. January 8th Dick called the Penobscott Indian Nation and talked to Sparky Clark and he is in favor of the Carrabassett connection and wants us to get a letter from Bill Munzer and Larry Warren saying they are in favor of us using the same trail. January 9th Dick talked to Brian Bronson about the connection. January 10th Dick talked to Park and Lands about the Stratton Brook part of the trail (it doesn't look good). Called Plum Creek about using Stoney Brook or Caribou Valley Road. They are having an issue about Stoney and the fact that we would be crossing the Appalachian Trail on the Caribou Road. He asked that Dick get back to him next month. On January 13th in an effort to help local businesses in northern New Hampshire, the Perry Stream Land & Timber Company has opened miles of trails for winter A.T.V. Riders. The article was in the Union Leader Newspaper. If you would like to read it go to www.unionleader.comarticle.aspx?headline=ATV=trails=reopen. Also visit www.nhtrails.org/trailspages/ATVpages/atvhome.html under ATV Trails News and Updates.
| Notes from Richard Barter & Dan Mitchell |
President of A.T.V. Maine & Executive Director A.T.V. Maine
Richard has heard of businesses wanting the ATV clubs to reopen trails due to the dry winter we have been experiencing. They need this to help revenues that are missing at this time. The Department of Conservation says that the trails can remain open until there is groomable snow. Richard rode last weekend in the Newport area and the ground was frozen enough that it presented no problem. Riders must beware of mud and soft ground as this creates a lot more work for the clubs in the spring. If the dry winters continue it will create a longer season for ATV riders. The economy is going to need the revenue from the extended season. Richard met with snowmobilers last month to partnership about trails. Quebec has dual trails with snowmobiles and ATV's. Perhaps we will get to that same cooperation in the future. If clubs want to extend their season we need to control this from a local level and be very public about when trails are opened and closed. Using the temperature can work for some but would leave wiggle room for the riders to push it. Need to be extremely careful of soft ground. There have been big strides made in public attitude of ATV riders. Dan said that closing the trails according to temperatures has worked for the Black Mountain Club for the last 3 years. He also stated that more and more ATV and SMC are pairing up and working together. These clubs have more money and share expenses making the partnership even better. Dan interjected about the Caribou Pond Road and stated that it was a Maine Haul Road, which is 66' wide and good for all uses. He further explained the road systems and abbreviations for our clarification. This information will be shared more with our Trail Master after the meeting.
Dan spends a good amount of time at the State House lobbying for the ATV clubs in Maine. He would like to see a connection between Kingfield and Stratton via the Carriage Road and Stratton Brook Road. Dan is working on tying club trails together in the State of Maine. We could then have a map of through systems similar to the ITS system. It would be great to bring the southern clubs up our way through Rumford, Mexico,
Phillips, Strong and so on.
ATV Maine has contributed $234,000 into a trail project that Plum Creek is working on. Plum Creek has verbally agreed that we will be part of this project however they will not write it in until completion.
There will be a meeting at the end of February of all club leaders to plan on how to connect our club trails. Dan mentioned that it would be great to get business owners and landowners to write positive comments to the Department of Conservation about the ATV club and its contributions. Please send those comments to John Titus. This is something that you can do online. Dan is lobbying to get us more grant money also. As long as the trails are being excavated and improved we hope to gain another $500.00 added to grant money. Some of the bills that Dan is working on include but are not limited to the following:
1- Registration incentive: This would give club members a break in cost of registration.
2 - A Gas Tax Study: Presently our gas tax money is substantially lower than that of Snowmobiles and Boats. We would propose our dollars going directly into our trail systems, $600,000.
3 - Grant money to purchase 32,000 acres of land presently for sale for more ATV and Snowmobile trails, hunting, trapping and fishing. The cost is 3 million dollars.
4 - A bill to give more liability protection for ATV officers. New Hampshire has already passed a bill of this type.
Richard brought up the issue of raising the ATV Maine membership fees by $5.00. All clubs have not welcomed the increase of fees but the Flagstaff Club believed this to be reasonable by a show of hands. As we grow there are going to be more expenses involved. ATV Maine will be meeting at Ossipee Mountain in February. You can find directions on the web site, (atvmaine.org).
On May 19th there will be a hearing at Greenville High School about Plum Creek issues. There has also been conversation about CMP working with the ATV clubs running trails along their power lines heading north. A couple of items worth noting would be the trails would be restricted to 50” wide and there would be around $100,000 in trail work.
ATV Maine now has a Safety Officer, Kevin Ward. Kevin is in charge of safety courses and the ongoing message of keeping riders safe.
ATV Maine has Advisory Council who decides how our dollars are spent. ATV Maine is working on getting clubs event insurance and liability insurance at reduced rates. The annual meeting of ATV Maine will be in Bangor the third Saturday in April with elections for the upcoming year. It will be held at Jeff's Catering Center in Brewer
Richard and Dan thanked the club for inviting them.
Prior to wrapping up the meeting a motion was made to go ahead and pay the Penobscott Indian Nation $150.00 for our permit to work on those lands for our trail system. The motion was seconded and passed. A motion was also made to pay for the Community Building for our monthly meetings April through December at $10.00 per month. The motion was seconded and passed.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:40am.
There were 26 members present.