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ing almost every week as the MSA Steering Committee throughout the summer, making everyday decisions, paying bills etc. Working with the office staff getting ready and prepar- ing for the MSASnowmobile Show, the Super Raffle, the first edition of the MSA newspaper and the Epping Grass Drags, not to mention the MSA Golf Tournament (which was back in June and was a huge success). We’ve also been getting the new ITS Trail Map ready for print and all the components that go with that, and let’s not forget all the regional Trails Workshops and mapping meet- ings coming up throughout the Fall. So need- less to say there have been many people in the MSA office and on the Steering Committee that have been working very hard for the last several months to keep things going and keep us on task for what lays ahead. I say this with great pride, not for myself but for my peers because there are people, volunteers in these positions that put far more time and dedica- tion in than I myself do, so to all of these peo- ple we need to say Thank you. Ok, so back to Trails stuff. The Trails Com- mittee had its first meeting in August and by the time this newspaper comes out will have had its September meeting to rally the troops sort of speak and to contact clubs statewide to make any notable trail changes to insure the most accurate ITS map possible. We are also working on setting up a few regional workshops around the state, with one in the user is moving trails. Hopefully it will be set- tled by the time snow flies. V.P. Northern Region-Matt Stedman: Report relayed by AL-working on the grass drags in September. Bringing the super raffle sleds up for display. Safety Al Swett: Big demand for safety posters. Every fatality is one too many, we had six, six too many. Educate more peo- ple. Mike Sawyer just retired from IF&W Safety division, they are interviewing for his replacement. MSA Trails Committee: Mark Chinook: This year we are having a snowmobile show, missed it last year. Will have a MSA booth. Trail workshops are scheduled in the Carabas- sett and Shin pond area. Working on ITS trail maps, deadline of September 15, get it printed in time for the show. First trail meeting. Zoom is working well. C-4 maps are updated every year or so. (This is Central Lakes Region Kennebec County plus covers trails from Androscoggin River to the Kennebec River, Southern towns Sabattus and Richmond to the Northern towns Farmington, Mercer, and Norridgewock. Advertising on the back makes it a great map for $5.00.) Hospitality- Gail Ryan: No report. Membership Committee- Eileen Lafland: Look for the officer update form in the mem- bership packet, Can be all filled out online to make it easier, any questions call. Steering Committee Chairman-John Monk: Shared the sad news that Rebecca “Becky” Theriault passed away recently, wife of Tim Theriault -State Representative in the China area, who has been a great supporter of snow- mobiling and MSA. All the grant applications have been mailed so please check those P.O. boxes and get them right back to me. One change you will see this year is that the Club Grants and Municipal Grants have the same deadlines for applica- tions and reimbursement requests. The dead- line for applications is December 1st,2021. Hopefully this will help and be less confusing by having one set of deadlines for both trails’ grants. Items needed with your grant applica- tion are updated maps, project descriptions, list of landowners and a completed Trails in-Aid Grant Application with signatures. Any questions with the grant process, please send

Kingfield area as well as the Shin Pond area; I would also like to see one in the Newport and Oxford Hills Regions. We will also be hosting the annual Trails Workshop on Sat- urday morning October 23 rd . at the MSA Snowmobile Show in Augusta and I will have more details in next month’s paper. If anyone would like to hold a Trails Signage Workshop in their area feel free to reach out to me and we’ll see if we can make that happen. We are working on the new ITS Map as I said before and should have that in every- one’s hands by the first week in October. Something else we will be holding this fall is Regional mapping meetings where we the Trails Committee get together by Region, i.e., Western, Northern etc. and go over ITS Trail inspection routes and discuss this year’s focus, which I can tell you will be on Trail Signage once again this year. Two years ago we started a campaign on improving trail sig- nage and taking it up a notch. By educating ourselves on this we were able to give the trail riders a hopefully better experience by hav- ing well marked trails, and I have to say I like what I’ve seen and by and large the clubs have really stepped up to the challenge. Well Folks I think I’ll call it a day and say goodbye for now, and as always if anyone has any questions, comments or something of interest that they would like to share give me a call, text or email. Thank you, Mark. At a trails committee meeting, a sugges- tion was made to make the ITS signs reduce the emblem and make a space at the bot- tom for arrows, GPS coordinates, or other information. USDA grants awarded- one partial funding for a new large groomer. LD 280 “Increase in registrations”, will drastically increase the funding for snowmo- bile trail fund and capital equipment grant, this will enable our volunteers to improve how they can do their jobs more efficiently. (Signed by the governor 6/8/21) LD 944 “An act to simplify dual registra- tion of snowmobiles and ATV” This is two separate programs, we have worked very hard for our trail system. So MSA opposes this bill. ( Placed on legislative files. Dead) LD 1244 “An act to Extend Electronic Proof of Registration to All-terrain Vehicles, Snowmobiles and Watercraft (Signed by the governor 6/8/21) LD 1033 “An Act To Allow Sunday Hunt- ing on Private Property with the Written Per- mission of the Landowner” (Signed by the governor 7/9/2021) LD 1212 “An Act To Allow Sunday Hunt- ing North of U.S. Route 2 from the New Hampshire Border to Bangor, North of Route 9 from Bangor to the Canadian Border and within That Portion of the White Mountain National Forest inside the State” (Dead) LD1370 “An Act To Establish Trail until Rail Corridors” (Signed by the governor 6/15/21) LD1439 “An Act To Clarify All-terrain Vehicle Registration Requirements and Establish Regular Maintenance of Designated State-approved All-terrain Vehicle Trails” The deadline for Capital Equipment Grant Applications is still June 15th, 2022 for this coming round. We have great news on the Cap- ital Equipment Grant fund. Legislation passed LD280 that gives this program a much-needed increase in revenue. The Capital Equipment Grant fund started in 1998 and has not had an increase in funding for 21 years. You all know equipment can be incredibly expensive so hav- ing this additional money to help more clubs is a huge plus. I look forward to working out the details with the State of Maine Snowmobile me an e-mail or feel free to call. Joe.higgins@ maine.gov 207-287-4957

Trails Committee Chair Report

MSA CLUBS: To Order Needed ITS & JCT SIGNS

(Signed by the governor 6/15/21) Scholarship -Harvey Chesley: No report. Hall of Fame-Beth Bowie: Looking forward the representing MSA at the Epping Grass Drags. Need more people for members of Hall of Fame. Great season looking forward. Old Business: Super Raffle- Ordered 85k tickets and now have 3 cases left. Expect they will sell well at Cumberland and Fryeburg Fairs. Incredible. Rich Armstrong-Snowman Printing, Herman- one week turn around. Posters available. Snowmobile Show Update- Oct. 22,23 & 24 nearly full. Things are lining up for a great show. Membership Packets-Ready to ship. Newspaper Deadlines & Articles- Need more club news. Get it in and we will find room for it. New Business: Voted to raise lifetime mem- bership to $300. Have a whole pile of 2022 calendar’s. New Website: Working on a new design, what to use, what not to use. Advisory Council: working hard to spend the money where it is needed. Looking at rais- ing the Capital equipment grant cap of $200k, will take time to get it through the process. The projected funds for capital equipment grants will go from $430k to $860k. Club grants will increase to $200 per mile. September 12 Landowner appreciation Statewide cleanup day. 50/50 Ted Migaszek $85. Pot of Gold: Streaked Mountaineers unclaimed Advisory Council on some policy upgrades to the Capital Equipment Grant and will hope- fully have a process in place before the end of this year. A big thank you to the Maine Snow- mobile Association, IF&W committee and all who supported this bill. Can’t wait for the cooler weather and I hope to get out more on the trials this coming snow- mobile season. Look forward to seeing a lot of you at the Maine Snowmobile Show. Stay Healthy and Take Care. Joe Higgins State of Maine DACF Snowmobile Program Supervisor Contact Mike Grass Sr. MSA Trails Committee 252 Condon Rd, Plymouth, ME 04969 207-368-4914 home 207-745-2745 cell Grasslands252@gmail.com To Order Club Trail Signage Candice Pinkham, DACF/Snowmobile Program 207-287-4957 Office 207-878-8111 Fax Candice.M.Pinkham@maine.gov Meeting Adjourned 7:38 Respectively submitted, Brad Barker, Secretary

Mark Chinnock,Trails Committee Chair 207-754-9874 435 Poland Corner Rd, Poland ME 04274 napadude66@hotmail.com H ello Everyone, and so we begin another season. It definitely has been a roller- coaster of emotions being that it seems like just yesterday that I was rather sad saying goodbye to last season and now I sit here writ- ing this and am excited to say Hello to a new season! It has been an extremely hectic summer, not just personally but we have been meet- A t 6:35 PM President Mike Grass Jr. called the meeting to order. Secretary’s Report can be viewed on web page, no action taken. Treasurer’s report. Read and placed on file at the office. Dedicated account is the Super Raffle account- money from last season, Spe- cial Events account is the Virtual Sno-cross Race account. President’s Comments- Mike Grass Jr.: Wel- come to our first meeting of 2021-2022 sea- son. Thanked all, for their hard work for this meeting and the E-Board meeting last week. AL for coordinating the Super Raffle prizes, sleds, trailers. MSA things are very exciting. Executive Vice President-Al Swett: Mem- bership Packets-boxes put together and ready to go. Newspaper-incredible. Bank account-awesome. Working on getting MSA easy-up tents. Will make us look more pro- fessional. Super Raffle prizes- Polaris 850, Ski-doo 600, Artic Cat ZR 200, Nitro Trailer, and more incredible items. Big thank you for all the donations and discounted items. Snow- mobile show is coming along, mostly all the booths are filled. V.P. Eastern Region- Eileen Lafland: Mem- bership packets are going out. Working with landowners. Clubs are working. Thank you to Lori and Bob for all you do. V.P. Western Region- Jim Boyce: “Wild Summer !” Explained the recent challenges of the Carrabassett Valley trail system. Every- body is moving to Maine. Explained how landowner that pushed his patience too far with the end results. V.P. Coastal Region-Dave Watson: Things are quiet, and clubs are working on trails. V.P. Central Region- Jack Lord: Weyerhae- Little did I realize that when I came into the office this August 25th, 2021 that I would be asked to write a quick note for the MSA paper. It is 93 degrees, hot and humid. Think- ing about snow does help a little though. I’m sure you all have heard the older we get the faster the time goes, or is it the faster time goes the older we get?? Either way, summer has been extremely busy and here we are going into September and snowmobiling is on our minds. This is a great time to catch up with your landowners and get permission and thank them. A sincere thank you goes a long way. H ello Landowners & Club Members,

Director’s Meeting 566 Secretary’s Report - August 24, 2021

Snowmobile Grant Applications are in the Mail

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