9199-R2_MSA_October2025_Newsletter

MSA Club News

From The Executive Board

CENTRAL REGION Our RTP grant work to replace two bridges continues. Our volunteers have been working hard to prime the steel bridge frames, cut trees to make room for the wider bridge abutments and begin demo of the old bridges. We also received a donation of 12 yards of 1-1/2” stone for the abutment foundation thanks to Scott and Hallowell Construction in Belgrade. We have been breaking in our new Polaris Ranger with some trail work trimming trees and bush hogging. The machine will be wired for lights and drag control and be ready for grooming when the snow arrives. We hope to get out a couple times in Octo ber to clean up the trails. So far, we have not identified any significant issues to address. We will again publish the regional C4 map and those will be available from participating clubs and at the Rome Town Hall. Our meet ings are the second Tuesday of the month Sep tember to April, 7:00PM at the Rome Town Hall. All are welcome. Hello again…. As we transition from early fall to getting ready to welcome late fall, we welcome the count-down for cold weather and hopefully lots and lots of snow! Our trails are looking great this year, brush cleared, bridge repairs and a new bridge has been completed. Talking to landowners for permission for use and not abuse of their land. This may be an early reminder to respect the trails you ride, a landowner has given permission for us to use it, not abuse it. That means staying on the trails, not ripping through someone’s fields. Many fields have winter crops under that snow and compacting the snow kills the crops. Brady, Josh and Matt were busy this past week spreading gravel preparing for a new concrete pad outside our equipment building. Busy making sure our equipment is ready to go. It is that time! We are starting to send out membership renewals for the new season so be on the lookout for those applications com ing in the mail if they haven’t already. Joining our club helps us financially to maintain our equipment, keep our club and club house up and running. Our monthly meetings have begun. The meetings are held at 6:30p.m. the second Thursday of each month from Oct – April. Our kitchen is open at 5:30p.m. pre meeting meal for food and drink purchase. During riding season our kitchen is open every week end for food and drink purchases. Hours are 10am-4pm when it’s fit to ride. MSA 2025 Super raffle tickets are now available, Tickets are $2/each or 6/$10.00 Drawing is on Thursday 12.11.2025. You can purchase by coming to the club or contacting Matt Charrier on the Sno-Devils Snowmobile club’s Facebook page. SNO-DEVILS sc Saint Albans, ME selling a lot of super raffle tickets at Fryeburg Fair, as I sit and write this, make a lot of $$ over there. There have been quite a few cookouts and functions at our clubs and the wife and I have had the pleasure to attend a couple of them. Oxford is still struggling with how to get a route through town as a landowner has shut down the bridge over the Little Androscoggin, there is a dedicated group down there and I expect we will make it one way or another. On the good news side the problems in Newry have been solved and ITS 82 is a go. The drought is scary, pray we don’t have any Forest Fires, with the lack of water this summer, maybe we will get lucky and have snow like we haven’t seen in years. So until next time, stay safe and get out helping on trails. God bless, Jerry Major ROME RUFF RIDERS Rome, ME

We have club tee shirts, hooded sweat shirts and ball caps for sale, available at the clubhouse. Now, next order of business is to get our snow dance warrior Cooper on that snow dance of his! Our officer’s election is held in Oct. Cur rent Officers: President: Brady Snowman, Vice President: Matt Charrier, Treasure: Mark Hansen, Trail Master: Josh Lord, Secretary: Bonnie Jepson. RIPLEY TRAIL RIDERS Ripley, ME The Ripley Trail Riders Snowmobile Club had another successful season and we’re anx iously awaiting the 2025 snowmobiling sea son. We have 63 MSA, 7 associate and 10 business members who support the effort to keep our 27 miles of trails open to the public. We are once again thankful to the real heroes of our sport, the 70 landowners who grant us permission to cross their property with our trails. There can be no snowmobile club with out their generosity. To express our apprecia tion, we will treat the landowners to a dinner at the Ripley town hall in October. Our annual fundraising auction was con ducted on September 21, 2025. It was a great success and will help fund club improvements and support for our trail maintenance activi ties. We wish to thank everyone who donated auction items and those who came to make purchases (and a special thank you to Al Swett for once again coming out to show-off the MSA auction offerings). A major improvement to our club’s garage was completed over the summer and we have several trail improvement projects planned before the snow flies. Club members always step up to do the bulk of the work. The key to the success of our club is its’ membership. With that in mind we want to honor one of our original members who passed away this year. Bob Sambito helped get our club started during the formative years. He was always present for the monthly club meetings and was the first one to arrive to help with trail maintenance, trail grooming, and attending, and sometimes hosting, club functions (I especially remember one awesome February ‘breakfast on the trail’ event). Plus, he was great at keeping the club garage organized and clean. Bob embodied the very definition of a perfect club member. We will miss you, Bob. We send our condolences to your family and friends. Hello fellow Snowmobilers! I have taken on the post of our club reporter. I hope I can do as well as my predecessor, Cathy Horne. Our Chicken BBQ on Labor Day weekend was a great success. We had a great crowd and sold out of chicken. Many thanks to the MSA for coming in with a display of sleds and trailers to help sell raffle tickets. Sales were very good. Respectfully submitted, Don Gower, Secretary LEXINGTON HIGHLANDERS sc Lexington Twp, ME

Jerry Major, Cell: 207-838-0892 137 Morrill Rd, Norway ME 04268 mrfun101jem@gmail.com W ell there isn’t a lot to report here in Western region. I am sure they are

The Club also had a vendor booth at the New Portland Lions Club Agricultural Fair September 11 th -14 th . Beautiful weather and increased attendance made for great raffle ticket sales. Again, thanks to the MSA for helping with the booth. Trail work started this month on Saturday mornings at 9am. This will change to Sun days at 9am during hunting season. We have a lot of work to do and your help is greatly appreciated. Speaking of hunting season, we will be hosting a Hunters Breakfast each Saturday beginning with Youth Hunting Day on Octo ber 25 and continuing through the month of November. We will be serving from 5am to 9am. Our club house will be open on the week ends during snow season. We will be selling non ethanol gas. Thanksgiving Friends and Family will return again this year. It will be held a 2pm on Thursday, November 27, 2025. Happy fall and hope to see you at the Snow mobile Show in Augusta! Katie Grant COSTAL REGION WISCASSET SNO-GOERS Wiscasset, ME Greetings to all from the Wiscasset Sno-Goers, Welcome to the first installment of Wiscas set Sno-Goer news! Let’s face it, no one is more surprised that I still have this gig than me. Season is early and elections up-coming so we’ll see if I hold onto this job for another season. We do have to start out with a bit of somber news. Earlier this summer, we unexpectedly lost our long time Sno-goer and Treasurer Bob Marcus. Bob’s attention to detail while man aging the club’s finances as well as his humor at meetings will certainly be missed. Wishing Bob bright sunny February Days and fresh tracks on groomed trails every ride.

MSA Club News

Deadlines for club news is the 25 th of the month prior to the publications. Please submit articles to editor@mesnow.com

NORTHERN REGION

BENEDICTA SNOW GANG Benedicta, ME

Hi Gang, To start off with, let’s hope we get more snow than we have had rain, because I believe we have had less than one inch of rain in three months!! If we get that kind of snow, we will be walking!! I really don’t have much going on this month to report on. The groomer garage is all closed in and the overhead doors should be on soon. Our first club meeting was well attended, with a lot of good information shared. Our membership is up over thirty already, so sled ders are starting to stir. Both of our club raffles are going well. Tickets are available from any club officer. Trails are being opened up at this time, but limited due to the high fire danger. Just one spark from a saw or a machine could be really bad. Use caution and your heads out there. Please go to www.benedictasnowgang.com or to The Benedicta Snowgang on Facebook for all the info. you will need on the club and our activities. Remember:::: Heads down, Orange on ~~~~ IT’S HUNTING SEASON!! Jim Splan, Reporter @ Large P.S~ Backstrap Baby!! P.SS ~ The Redsox rule!! P.SSS ~ You rock Bryce!! P.SSS~ Thank your landowners!! MOLUNKUS VALLEY SNO-DRIFTERS Sherman, ME Greetings from MVSD! October is here we have been very busy working on preparations for the upcoming season .... we are Blessed we have many Vol unteers to get the jobs done :) as I write this the leaves are peak and so beautiful! Memberships are coming in great. By the time you read this the 1st meeting will be behind us ! The groomer garage is all insulated and wired the lights are bright and we are very proud as we should be lots of hard work to make this happen! Looking forward to new and bigger things happening at MVSD! KEEP UR EYES PEELED! MSA tickets are selling and club super raffle tickets are to! Your support helps things hap pen @ MVSD! Appreciate each and every one of you! If interested in tickets message us! The club where there are no Strangers only friends you haven’t met! That’s all folks! Keep on Keeping ON! Deb Long {club Pres} :)

On to some lighter and exciting news. The Sno-goers is excited to add an awesome piece of equipment to the Trail maintenance fleet. In addition to the existing Bearcat groomers, we have just completed the purchase of a Kawasaki Side by Side completely equipped with tracks and even an enclosure. This piece of equipment, officially named “Wiscasset Sno-Goers Trail Support Vehicle… WSTSV” will be a great addition to the trail mainte nance fleet. That’s right, I write the articles so I name the equipment. Special thanks to Harry’s Motorsports in Presque Isle for com pleting the deal and outfitting the new rig….

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