9269-R1_MSA_February2026_Newsletter

From The Executive Board

Scholarship Fund Committee

MSA Lobbyist / Capitol Report

David Watson • 207-205-1558 412 Roberts Ridge Rd, E Waterboro, ME 04030 Dwatson6841@gmail.com H ow about all the snow across the state?? Mother nature must like us again, Clubs in the Coastal Region are out packing and grooming the trails. It’s great to see all your dedication to our sport giving us great trails to ride. Thank you to all coastal clubs. Have you joined the MSA trails app yet? If you go to MSA webpage it will show you how to download your trail system. With that you can navigate the trails right from your phone. It even highlights gas and restaurants. If you haven’t done, please do so. Did I mention it’s free? Yup free so what are you waiting for? Enjoy your trails ride safe Ride right and keep on dancing . I’m going to end by saying that the third week in February is school vacation week, a time when many people visit Aroostook County to ride our amazing trails. If you’re in the area that week riding just keep in mind that you’re not the only one on the trails. You’ll probably encounter riders of all different ages and from all over the United States here enjoy ing the same thing you are. Let’s be cautious and respectful of one another, ride within our means, and stay on our side of the trail. Just remember one of those sleds you pass could belong to someone riding for their very first time. I hope everyone has a great riding sea son and remember to always ride right, ride safe and ride sober. Until next time!!! Nick should have been sent out to the recipients as they started their second semester. This also serves as a reminder that applica tions for this year’s awards need to be post marked by April 1 st . We are hearing there are many delays in the postal service, so we STRONGLY SUGGEST you do the paper work NOW. You can also access the applica tion online and submit it that way. PLEASE make sure ALL required documents are in cluded with the application. It has been asked in the past how the ap plications are awarded. When an applicant accesses the paperwork they will see a score sheet to use as a guideline. This is the same score sheet all Scholarship Fund members use to rate every applicant. Then the nine score sheets are tallied and averaged with the high est scores receiving the scholarships. The Scholarship Fund Committee will award three $1500 scholarships this year based on those average scores. For details on the scholarship fund and the application process, you can check out the MSA website. The Fund Committee encour ages everyone to apply and re-apply. It is the goal of the Fund to assist in furthering edu cational opportunities for all MSA members. of the meeting, they were excited to join the association and become our newest member club. Be sure to check out their Antique Win ter Bash, held on February 15 th from 10 am - 2 pm at their club house on 10 Paradis Ave. They will be serving ployes, pulled pork, hot dogs and baked beans. There will be a 50/50 drawing along with raffle prizes. Be sure to follow the Frenchville Snowmobile Club on Facebook for more information. This year’s Northern Region Showcase Ride & Dinner meeting is on Saturday, March 14 th , hosted by the Gateway Snowmobile Club in Van Buren. The ride will begin at 9:30 am. Everyone should meet at their four-corner intersection on ITS 105 where the large spon sor board is located. From there the ride will head north with a lunch stop and then loop back into town on the club trails. For those needing a place to unload your sleds, a park-and-ride is available at the bottom of Popular St, next to the water district building. In the evening the meeting will be held at the Van Buren Com munity Center with social hour beginning at 5, dinner at 6 and the meeting starting at 7. A Zoom option may be available for those who can’t attend in person. Please RSVP with Liz in the MSA office or with the Gateway Snow mobile Club if you plan to attend so they can get a headcount for the meal. The club will be putting out a social media post with more information in the coming days.

Matt Stedman 207-557-1921 (call or text) PO Box 621, Ashland ME 04732 Stedman.matt@jdirving.com

James Cote MSA Lobbyist I t has been a busy month working on funding sources for our snowmobile clubs. Lets start by talking about the Maine Trails Program grant. Round #1 awards have been announced and are available on the state of Maine website: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/ parks/grants/maine-trails-program.shtml There are 4 of us at MSA who are signed up to be Maine Trails Program ambassadors, willing to help others through the grant pro cess, so we are on calls with the Maine Trails Coalition and the State of Maine almost monthly to listen & provide feedback on the process. Round #2 applications should be announced soon but DO NOT wait for this to get your club(s) ready. Round #2 will have some changes & updates from round #1, but the core of the grant is the same so you can use round #1 guidance to prepare ahead of the round #2 application release. Please do not pass up a chance to get a project in. This grant works great for bridge rebuilds/replacements or a segment of your trail that has fallen into disrepair. Second item that has been keeping us busy is the MSA funding bill LD1547 to close the $3 million funding gap between the clubs’ expenses and current funding. The bill started as a funding request from the sales tax gen erated by snowmobiles. Last session that got referred to the ACF committee and held over to this winters’ session. The snowmobile pro gram has not had any increase since 2021, and

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

the Eastern Region do. In January I held a regional meeting at the Eastern Maine Snowmobile Club. The atten dance was great with many clubs in atten dance. The nightly door prize went to the Charleston Stump Jumpers SC. My thanks to Brent Spaulding for conducting a mini trail signing section and for promoting the MSA Trails app. Also, thanks to Mike Grass who was uploading info into the trails app as the meeting was going on. I enjoy regional meet ings as they are less formal and people have a chance to speak to other clubs. By the time you read this there will have been fun events that have taken place in this region. If the weather cooperated there was another regional meeting in Dennysville on Feb. 5 th . The club offered to do a baked chicken dinner for those in attendance. On Feb. 7th there was an Eastern Region Show case ride held in the Millinocket, Medway, Jo-Mary area. Thanks Charlie Huntington for being one of the ride leaders. There was a groomer Rodeo at the East Branch Snow Rovers, and the Feb. Directors meeting was held at the Northern Timber Cruisers. It was also winter carnival week in Millinocket area and I am sure there were many other events around the region. Look for updates/ pictures from these events in the March paper as they haven’t happened as I write this. It doesn’t seem possible that there are only a couple months left in this season. Time sure flies by. Clubs- get your nominations in for the contests that are awarded at the annual meeting in April. Scholarship applicants- get those applications in now. Everyone try not to wait until the last minute because the postal service is slow and your nominations/applica tions may not make it in time. That’s it for this month. Be safe and enjoy the riding everyone. Support the clubs and the MSA. Until March, Eileen We hope this will help clubs substantially if passed. We also understand that no single change will solve all the club’s funding con cerns and we will continue to listen and gather feedback and advocate for you in Augusta! Matt Stedman and James Cote, MSA Lobbyist you all know your clubs’ expenses have been climbing every year. Over the summer we knew we had to make some language changes to ensure we could move forward for more funding and switched gears to an early and in-season split fee regis tration format, which would go into effect for the ‘27/’28 season if it ultimately passes. One that respects the family &/or budget minded rider by keeping current price structure for those who purchase by December 15th but increases it December 16th (by inflation rate from 2020-2026) to $70 for residents and $150 for non-residents. The increase will be split between the trail fund and capital equip ment grants that feed our clubs. We also asked for general fund money, but that was not in the cards this session. This change has the potential to increase the funding to the program around $1 million. We have a unanimous “ought to pass” vote out of committee in the last week of January and now wait for the final language review and votes in the house & senate. We still have a ways to go in this process, but things are looking positive right now.

B y the time you read this it is hoped that the Scholarship Fund Committee has worked through some slight challenges that were dis covered in late Nov., early Dec. Also, by this time, the scholarships awarded in April 2025

Northern Region VP

Nick Morrill, 207-554-0074 406 Main Street, Stockholm ME 04783 landscaper9791@gmail.com H ello, Once again from the Northern Region. As I sit and write this article, the Patriots have punched their ticket back to the Super Bowl and high school basketball tournaments are only a few weeks away. Snowmobiling is in full swing throughout The County. While the snowpack varies from north to south and east to west there is riding available through out the region. If we could get a solid eight inch storm with no wind, the fields in the cen tral and eastern portions of the area would be in really good shape so please keep doing your snow dances. Club houses have been active holding week end breakfasts, afternoon lunches and evening dinners, which is great to see. If you’re riding or visiting The County be sure to support one of these events. I’d like to give a shoutout to Caribou Snowmobile Club for another suc cessful radar run event supporting their schol arship, North Star Motorsports for another fun and exciting Star City 100 and Tame the Track Tour for a great race event. A big MSA welcome to the Frenchville Snowmobile Club. I recently attended one of their club meetings and talked to them about the new MSA Trails App and about the MSA as a whole and what to do on a daily bases to support our clubs and members. At the end

Eastern Region VP

Eileen Lafland 207-843-7813 PO Box 733, Holden ME 04429 L.andE.lafland525476@gmail.com A s usual Mother Nature and Ole Man Win ter seem to be having a power control issue. We get snow, it rains and we lose the snow, it turns bitterly cold and windy, then it snows again but only light fluffy stuff and so on it goes. I am writing this near the end of January and in the last four days it has snowed, froze, thawed, snowed again and then turned extremely cold with wind chills well below zero. Okay you two it is time to give us what we want and need: decent temperatures and snow that is easy to pack and groom!! Eastern region clubs are doing what they can with what they have. I know there is rid ing and grooming going on in many parts of the region and other places where they are still in the wait mode. Hopefully by the time you are reading this all parts of the region and the state have great riding conditions. In the meantime, clubs are holding meetings, serving suppers and breakfasts, planning fund-raising events and submitting memberships! I have said it before and will say it again and again- I can’t be more proud of the work the clubs in

Coastal Region VP

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