9269-R1_MSA_February2026_Newsletter

From The Executive Board Secretary’s Report - Shanna Towle Directors Meeting - At Norway Commons, Norway, Maine - January 24, 2026

President’s Comments: Thanks to all who came out. Please go around the room and say who you are and what club from. Gave short overview of agenda. Ex VP Comments: Matt sorry couldn’t make the trip. Thanks to Norway for hosting. Other things to address in the meeting later. VP Regional Reports: Western- Jerry been to lots of meeting & getting lots of input from clubs. Eastern- Eileen gave shout out to Ragged Riders thanks for being here. Gave shout out to several at the regional meeting. Going to have another regional meeting in Dennysville club. Shout to Charlie getting the ride together for the February meeting. Central- No one in attendance, personal things going on. Coastal- David said have trails open. Clubs are out getting trails good. Looking to get more snow this weekend. Wish could have been there, Tom said land owner issue but working with city & wardens to resolve. Northern- Nick not much going on right now. Pretty much all the county open for riding. Frenchville is now joining the MSA. March meeting in Van Buren hosted by Gateway SC Membership: Eileen looking at 41 clubs not sent in membership yet. Presently have 6,513 families, 1,555 businesses, making a total of 8,068. Looks like only 20 memberships down from last year at this time. By region: Central 1,154, Coastal 974, Eastern 2,012, Northern 1,770, Western 2,149. Memberships coming well. If not see paper please check in with office may have been lost in the mail. Contest deadline February 28, everyone has someone that could be nominated for something. Question about going digital to submit membership? Working on some of that, some clubs send in just a rolling spread sheet but need to indicated what needs to be added at the office please highlight or something. Director of Operations & Safety: Al not in attendance. Having personal things going on. Any trail reports send to editor@mesnow.com, Al did get posters and Maine Tourism donated to get them printed. Office has been busy and business as usual processing memberships. Scholarship: Barry funds were given in the treasurer’s report. Still working on moving one account to a better account, but more to follow. Questions on the application; where is the form, who’s eligible and what’s the deadline? Deadline is April 1, 2026 and the application is on the MSA website, there will be 3 scholarships awarded in April. snowmobiles. And ride slow and easy. While out on the trail, remember to allow enough room between you and your riding partners. The clubs are doing a great job with their signage. We’ve come a long way from the old days. Everyone seems to be on the same page, and our universal signage is get ting positive comments. We need to be aware of other sleds and people walking, cross-coun try skiing, and mountain biking on our ITS trails and other local trails as well. Be prepared with a first aid kit, survival kit, and fundamental items to protect yourself from any other incidents that may happen on the trail. Spare gas, an extra drive belt, a tool kit, duct tape, zip ties, a flashlight, food, and water. We’ve had one fatality, and that’s one too many. Our new safety signs will be available soon, thanks to the folks at the State of Maine Tour ism. They are sponsoring the program this year. A big thank you to them. When it only snows in certain areas, that means lots of traffic. Be aware of the other guy, check your mirrors often, make sure your lights work, and don’t distract yourself while playing with the buttons on your new sled. If you travel to a destination point, we want you to ride back as you came, with no bumps or bruises. Don’t turn into a statistic. Let me know if I can help. Be safe out there. AL

Trails: Brent talking about trails & app at once. Got stuff going on between inspections starting and the app. Do you have your groomer certification? Go to YouTube and take a test and get it to Joe’s office. App is opening up green, hopefully after the storm more, green to come. Development ITS 82 West out of Newry not an option there’s a bridge out & can’t get through (taken off the app map for this season), major reroute around the east side of Scoodic lake on ITS82/83 due to logging this season see article on the reroute. ITS89 through Oxford does not exist this year & probably going to be rerouted through West Paris next year. John Monk, Mike Grass & Brent been inundated with lots of data for the app. ALL updates email to trails@mesnow. com! Sections with reroute, new trail, etc. must be send in by club president or trail master or designee of the club (clubs need to be associated with the MSA to be on the app). File should be GPX format and can be done in the app. Polaris ride command will be getting our data updates weekly. Report the trip in 1 direction preferred in sections and name it. What about pictures? There are features in the app that have not been fully explored but this season is main concern to get the trails on the app, but small details like that will come later. Trail inspectors can send in any discrepancies when doing inspections. State inspectors have been out there and they have shared all their data as one giant file so MapGears is going to break it down to more manageable pieces, so it’s being worked out. As of Tuesday (Jan 20th) was just shy of 10,000 app downloads & of those 2,500 are paid subscriptions. Funding: Matt talk about MTP grant program (bond question 4) round 1 been awarded so work can start. Round 2 in the works looking to be available in February and deadline in June. Round 2 will have some changes in the application. Be thinking of project for trail rehabilitation or bridges. Any questions please reach out to one of the four ambassadors; Matt Stedman, Al Swett, Paul Kennedy or Shanna Towle. Question on round 1 about how some projects were covered. Some fall under trail head projects. Hospitality & Hall of Fame: Gail if anyone has someone in your club to nominate, please send in an application. Did send out some cards. Gave a joke. New Business: Funding/Legislation: LD1547 revised bill in work, asking for money from general fund, big ask to put more money on the trails, IF&W think the tiered early registration

could cause issues & giving push back, goal is to put increases to split 83% to trail fund and municipal grants then 17% going toward capital equipment grants. About 35% of people register early (prior to Dec 15) and 65% after. Summary LD1547 is a tiered increase in early registration with deadline of December 15th. First time ever asking for money from general fund. If committee strip 100% of appropriations with the ask for the $1 million from general fund.Asking for direction. Motion was made by Brent Spaulding to continue to move forward with registration increase proposal if the state strips the general fund ask and second by Dave Cogley. Discuss was had, motion passed to move forward with this. Announcements: • February 7 th showcase ride at Millinocket Timber Cruisers with the director’s meeting there that night. Leaving at 8:30am sharp. Will be riding over to Medway to the groomer rodeo to have lunch and then through the Jo Mary trails back to the Timber Cruisers clubhouse. • February 7 th Boghooters SC & Minot Moonshiners SC vintage sled ride leaving at 10am from Mechanic Falls park and ride with lunch at Minot Moonshiners clubhouse with sleds on display, lunch is by donation • February 14 th Pleasant Mountain SC Poker Rally & Chinese Auction 10-2pm • February 14 th Mexico Trailblaziers & Dixfield SC having annual blessing of the sleds being held in Dixfield at Mount View Campground. • February 15 th Antique snowmobile show, Lunch available $10 adults & $6 kids, more details on the Frenchville snowmobile club’s Facebook page. • End of February: 4 th annual SnowBowl in Caribou/Presque Isle area more info on line about this. • March 14 th showcase ride in Van Buren by Gateway SC with lunch in Grand Isle. That evening Director’s meeting in Van Buren on Chaplain Street at the community center (trail accessible), more details to come. Pot of Gold: Chris Gamache drew Valley Riders Snowmobile Club Bingham but not present so back in the pot. 50/50: winning #951996 and winner was David Cogley of $145. Adjourn the meeting at 8:44pm. While MSA does not directly deal with grants and funding, it does so indirectly through leg islation and education. The snowmobile clubs across this state along with landowners and the thousands of volunteers that put in their time greatly appreciate all the support they get from their members. REMINDER- In order to qualify for the an nual membership awards, memberships must be in the MSA office by March 31st!! This gives the office time to calculate the recipients and order the awards. Also, Reminder 2- The Annual contest awards deadlines are Feb. 28th. Please go on the MSA website, download the nomination form, fill it out and send it in. Include as much information as possible about the nominee so the committee gets the best picture possible about them. Membership numbers as of Jan 22 nd Family, 6,474, Business 1,529 for a total of 8,003 These numbers are close to last year at this time. Keep sending them in everyone! Totals by Region Central-1,016 Northern-1,456 Coastal-870

Shanna Towle, Secretary 207-341-1747 878 Main Steet, Palmyra, ME 04965 shannatowle@gmail.com

Attendees: In person: Mark Chinnock, President; Shanna Towle, Secretary; Lori Hemmerdinger, Treasurer; Anita Hakale, Terry Major, Jerry Major, Jim Champagne, Mark Bowers, Dean Dillingham, Kim Dillingham, Kim Hackett, Mike Ort, Shari Morse, Stan Morse, David Cogley, Troy Farr, Vickie Farr, Tom Huges, Tom Child, Donald Whittemore, John Monk, Melanie Monk, Brent Spaulding, Pam Spaulding, Marion Pinkham, Paul Gallant, Dan Trouant, Eileen Lafland, Debbora Theriault, Martin Mackenzie, David Smith, Andrew Smith, Mary Cortholl, Bob Cortholl, Andrew Merrill, Lou Annance, Barry Ryan, Gail Ryan, Rob Mowatt, Shane Poland, Jaime Mowatt, Christy Farr, Brad Weller, Lisa Clarke, Peter Stevenson, Marie Donatto, Brad Barker, Renee Bowers, Kimberly Martin, John Cardan, Linda Champagne, Stephen Hakala, Bob Flagg, Lynn Parsons, Chris Gamache Via Zoom: Matt Stedman, Ex VP; David Watson, Ed Brownell, Nick Morrill, Mike Grass Jr., Kevin Freeman, Tom England, Wild River Riders. Meeting called to order at 7:03pm by President Mark Chinnock. Salute to the flag. Secretary’s Report: Copies handed out to read, motion by Jerry Major to accept as written, second by Tom Hughs, no discussion or objections and approved. Treasurer’s Report: Read by assistant treasurer Barry Ryan, no issues and will be put on file at the office.

Safety Committee

From The Membership Corner

Alan Swett 207-872-7282 234 County Rd, Waterville ME 04901 snowtraveler@roadrunner.com W ell, folks, our January thaw is over, and hopefully a real Maine winter will appear! We started off in November and December, which were snowy and cold, but the Happy New Year month was not to our liking. As a result, we had a few serious accidents. We need to ride with caution; the first part of the season is traditionally a rough start to the sea son. Riders need to get reacquainted with their

Eileen Lafland 207-843-7813 PO Box 733, Holden ME 04429 L.andE.lafland525476@gmail.com

I t is amazing what cold weather and snow on the ground can do for memberships. Liz in the office and Eileen remotely have been enter ing memberships steadily. It is great to see that people still support the snowmobile clubs and MSA by sending in memberships. MSA is a strong believer in club support and doing what it can to promote snowmobiling in the state.

Western- 1,817 Eastern- 1,578

6

r y 2 0

r u a

2 6 l M a i ne S n o w m

e b

F

r

o b

i l e