8595-R1_MSA_January2024_Newsletter

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Brad Barker 588 th Directors Meeting & Super Raffle - Augusta Civic Center - Augusta, Maine - December 12, 2023

to cross their property. My priorities are 100% MSA club support. If a club is all MSA I’ll be backing you all the way. If you’re not all MSA then you’re at the bottom of the list. Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock There are a lot of clubs tonight. It’s great. Nice job everybody. All the clubs have worked your tails off all month. Northern Region Vice-President: Matt Stedmen - Don’t want to spend a lot of time talking, had snow and then rain. We’ve been out putting up signs and working on getting the trails up and going. Hope to see a lot of you throughout the winter. Western Region Vice-President: Jerry Major: January 16 th meeting at the Norway Fire Station, on Danforth Street. Turkey potpie. 5 PM social, 6 PM dinner, 7 PM meeting! Central Region Vice-President: Jack Lord: Bingham is not all set. I apologize for misinformation. The railroad issue has not been solved. But the club has landowner permission from EVERY landowner for us to use. STACKS of permissions. ITS87 goes around the town, if you go straight you’ll go through town and then back to 87. Coastal Region Vice-President: Dave Watson: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!! Glad you’re all here. We had rain, and then washed away all our snow. Let’s get dancing again!! Eastern Region Vice-President: Eileen Lafland: Same as everyone. Most trails are 4 to 18 inches under water. Everyone is working hard hoping it gets cold fast or we’ll need pontoons! Executive Vice-President: Mark Chinnock: It’s good to see a lot of clubs posting pictures of young people working in the clubs. Safety Al Swett - When he goes to schools, he takes the displays and promotes safety. Helped IF&W with their safety course. ern and central regions were hit particularly hard. Entire bridges gone and severe washouts in many areas. Southern, northern, and east ern regions faired much better but still had to deal with downed trees, a few bridge resets, and culverts here and there. Clubs were out even though the Christmas holiday weekend to access and clear trails. Riders from out of state have offered heavy equipment, materials, and manpower to repair the worst destruction and most poorly timed event we have seen in a very long time. We have had some ice storms in recent memory but nothing like this. The efforts made by our loyal dedicated volunteers to reconnect our system has been nothing short of amazing! They have rallied to overcome like they always do! THANK YOU ALL! Despite all the time and effort spent, riders should expect detours this season where bridges cannot be replaced or major washouts cannot be repaired in time. Be vig ilant of signage and check locally when plan ning a trip. You may not be able to navigate your desired route. All for Now……… Brent

They want to get more involved with safety checks. The ice is NOT safe yet, two went in and one came out. DO NOT GO ON THE ICE YET!!! Membership Report: Eileen Lafland: I’m not going to give you totals tonight, but over the last week over 1,000 memberships have been entered into the system. The totals will come next month. Trail Committee Chair: Brent Spalding - Most of the regional meetings are done, going to meet tomorrow afternoon with Joe to revamp the inspection worksheet for points towards the signage. Funding: Matt Stedmen: still in the solicitation stage reaching out to clubs and members for feedback ideas for what to do to close the funding gap. So that we can fund you to 70% like the grants say we’ll do. We have 30-40 ideas right now. It would be nice to get an idea from at least half the clubs. Hopefully in January and February we will start looking at some of the ideas and working on some of them. Really wants more ideas. Steering Committee Chairman: John Monk - two things, abandoned and discontinued roads on the 6th. Usually go to the town to ask permission, GO TO THE LANDOWNERS. Make friends with the landowners. Going to try to get snowmobiles and atvs to get unfettered access to abandoned roads. Going to start looking for an executive director again. We would like to know what you thinking the responsibilities of an executive director should do. Hospitality - Gail Ryan - would like to know who has her last snowball! Read a joke. Chris Gamauch from Polaris Ride Command - If your club wants to get involved there are pamphlets on the back table. His job is to correct the trailmaps. Thanks for letting me come up. If there are ANY issues with the

trails and Ride Command please let me know so I can fix it. Scholarship Committee: Harvey Chesley - Barry Ryan stood in for Harvey. Good meal tonight. We are doing very well. There is an article in the December paper. Eileen and Lori did a great job. Hall of Fame Chair: Aleta Rioux no report. Old Business: Didn’t bring the sleds down because of all the rain. We purchased a new desk and good chair for the Office Manager, Brent has a new projector, Pine Tree camp ride in on February 2 nd . Anyone that wants to can come along. New Business: Mark Chinnock fixed the drum for the raffle. Off trail Riding - can we have a warden come in to explain the penalties to us? Pot of Gold - Big Valley Sno-Club, Island Falls PRESENT. Will have a $400. Check mailed. 50/50 Raffle-Mike Sikorski $275. SUPER RAFFLE TICKET Sales Lucky Dog - competition between the top three clubs in each region Central Region - Lexington Highlanders-$1,369, Anson-North Anson- $983, Town and Country Trail Riders-$753. Coastal Region- Southern Maine Sno Goers-$1,048, Ossipee Mountaineers-$561, Moonlight Sno-Skimmers-$522, and Saco Pathfinders-$522. Eastern Region-Wassookeag-$1,276, Moosehead Riders-$1,269. and Quad County-$1,118. Northern Region - Washburn-$1319, Caribou-$705, and Easton Trailbreakers-$384. Western Region- Fryeburg Area-$8077, Pleasant Mountain-$2634, and Bouncing Bogies $694. Pleasant Mt won the Lucky Dog Drawing $500. Meeting adjourned 7:50 safe on the trails to the High School and Mid dle School kids. We are planning now with the Greenville and Rangeley Schools. It’s a good time to visit with the students. IF&W has been teaching courses for both ATV’s and Snowmo biles. It is an all-day activity and at the end of the day, the kids and parents earn a certificate. Look for upcoming dates on their website I try to get to them when time is available. We have new Safety signs made of water proof material that were donated by Ham mond Lumber. Their generosity saved us lots of money, which is much appreciated. BIW will also be making new signs for us similar to what we gave out a while ago. Supporting business that make it happen! I will be bring these signs to the upcoming directors meetings and other events. Let me know if you would like some. With all the destruction of the trials, it is important to be safe out there. Wear your PPE to protect your eyes, hands, feet, hearing and other body parts. Watch out for the other guy. Be careful under foot. It’s going to freeze up soon, be careful of black ice. Speaking of ice. The lakes and ponds are not safe. We have not had enough cold weather for a freeze up. Wear the right gear when you ride new material make you very comfortable while rid ing layering is a must tops and bottoms, mid layers, windproof waterproof outer layers, a good pair of gloves and boots along with a good helmet will make your trip an enjoyable one. Safety necessities: most important a flash light, fire starter, spare batteries, extra sled key, spare belt, extra gas, small shovel and saw. How about a spare quart of oil? Hand warmers, tow strap, Leatherman, spare food and water, duct tape, a trip can start on a blue sky day but end in a snowstorm, be ready for the changing weather. Be safe out there AL

Brad Barker, Secretary 207-524-3301 155 Fish Street, Leeds ME 04263 barkerbrad155@gmail.com

S ecretary’s report accepted as corrected M/S/C. The treasurer’s report was read and placed on file at the office. President’s opening comments: MSA is 55 years strong with the same mission as when it started. Club members throughout Maine work locally, regionally and at the state level to promote snowmobiling in Maine as a safe, fun, family oriented winter sport. Over 2,100 businesses support the trails effort through their membership. Members of local clubs accept responsibility for trail clearing, bridge building, maintenance, signing and grooming that help to keep the Maine trail system open. One of the clubs’ most important duties is obtaining landowner permission for access, and maintaining contact with the generous people who allow snowmobile trails

Trails Committee Chair Report

Safety Committee

Alan Swett, 207-872-7282 234 County Rd, Waterville ME 04901 snowtraveler@roadrunner.com T he safety side of the MSA is idling along with stops at the North Anson Middle school with our friend John Nelson, Presi dent of the Club. In Medway a daylong event with The East Branch Snowmobile Club vol unteers, we spoke of the importance of being

Brent Spaulding, MSA Trails Chairman 207-944-7762 41 Madison Ave Brewer ME 04412 msatrailchair@gmail.com L ate December and into January has been an all hands on deck scenario to miti gate the wind/rain storm around Dec 18 th that wreaked havoc on our trail system. The west

MSA CLUBS:TO ORDER NEEDED ITS & JCT SIGNS

MSA MEMBERS CHANGE OF ADDRESS Let us know when your USPS mailing address has changed - so you won’t miss an issue of the Maine Snowmobiler Members Name: ________________________________________ Old Mailing Address: ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ NEW MAILING ADDRESS: ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Mail to: Maine Snowmobile Association, PO Box 80, Augusta, ME 04332 fax: 207-622-7669 or e-mail info to: editor@mesnow.com

Contact Mike Grass Sr. MSATrails Committee

252 Condon Rd • Plymouth, ME 04969 207-368-4914 home • 207-745-2745 cell Grasslands252@gmail.com TO ORDER CLUBTRAIL SIGNAGE Candice Pinkham DACF/Snowmobile Program 207-287-4957 Office • 207-878-8111 Fax Candice.M.Pinkham@maine.gov

6

r y 2 0

a

n u

2 4 l M a i n e S n o w m o b i

J a

l e r