President: Mark Destito – 336-1727 Vice President: Dennis Hesse – 337-5373 Secretary: Millie Piersall – 336-5089 Treasurer: Dave Peer – 336-0593 Email: indytraks@twcny.rr.com Website: www.trailbusters.net Spring 2007
LAST MEETING OF SEASON: 10 April 2007 - Lee Town Hall - 7:30 PM
Another snowmobile season is
coming to an end. Although it looked
like we would never get any snow, when it finally came in late January, we were
given some of the best riding in many years.
Many of us were still able to rack up the miles by taking advantage of every
available minute.
First, we want to thank all of
you who joined the Trailbusters this season.
So many new members signed up so late in the season, this may be the
only newsletter you receive this season.
However, all the newsletters are posted on the club website, www.trailbusters.net.
This past year has seen our
club membership more than double. We
had more members volunteer with club work and a cooperative working relationship
was developed. We strengthened our
grooming program by training more groomer operators and developed grooming schedules
under the direction of John Beggs, Groomer Coordinator. Factors beyond our control, such as weather
conditions and many equipment breakdowns often prevented adhering to schedules. These schedule interruptions upset us as
much as they did you. Also, at times a groomed
trail would get trashed in no time due to traffic, weather/snow conditions, and
terrain underneath. To those riders who understood this and appreciated our
efforts, who communicated favorable comments to us, verbally or through internet
message boards, we thank you for that. On
the other hand, we also received negative comments, one via email by a non-club
member, another through an unsigned letter supposedly sent by some members, who
seem to think we never groomed the trails.
They stated “they cannot seem to volunteer their time………..” It is said if you’re not part of the
solution, then you are part of the problem.
Since these people did not identify themselves we cannot reply to their
accusations. Why be such cowards, what
are you afraid of?
Both groomers are over 20
years old and getting worn out, thus the breakdowns and down time. We plan to apply for a grant to purchase a
new groomer but even if approved, we wouldn’t have the money until the
2008-2009 season. We had many expensive
parts wear out and had an unfortunate accident where a branch broke a
windshield. Replacement cost was
$1,798. The insurance policy has a
$1,000 deductible, so you can see our cost here. We were fortunate to have a person who installed it free of charge. Unexpected groomer parts were over $5,000,
not including normal maintenance such as oil changes, anti-freeze, etc. Also, just
today our club received the first trail funding payment. We also learned that funding has been cut
this year by 53 % due to snowmobilers registering their sleds late in the
season, awaiting the arrival of snow.
The trail funding is based on registrations received by 31 December. A majority of the snowmobile registrations
occurred after this date. In summary,
in spite of all the breakdowns, expenses and lack of funding, we believe the
club provided good trails most of the time.
Our sincere thanks are extended to all members who volunteered so much
of their time to the grooming program.
- TRAILBUSTERS WEBSITE: Hope you visited our website and read the
daily groomer reports, equipment breakdown reports, and other information. Be
sure to check it out during the off season, too, at www.trailbusters.net. More things will be added in the future and
it will be kept up to date
thanks to the superb efforts of member, Joe McCarthy.
- 2008 CLUB MEMBERSHIPS: Members who wish to renew their
memberships early can complete the enclosed application form and mail it
directly to the club anytime. When the
2008 vouchers are received from NYSSA, the voucher and club membership card
will then be sent to you. Email members
can print out a membership form from our website and mail it to the club. Online registrations with credit card
payments are also available on our website through NYSSA.
- NYSSA RAFFLE TICKETS: We still have NYSSA
raffle tickets to sell at $5.00 each.
The club gets to keep half of the total sales.
The top prizes are five
snowmobiles for a total of 54 prizes and cash. Raffle drawing date is 14
April 2007. We didn’t get a
very good response from members in our earlier solicitation. This is a great fundraiser for the club
without having to invest money in the prizes.
If only each member bought ONE
TICKET it would be a big help to offset expenses explained above and/or
purchase of a groomer. Send an email to
indytraks@twcny.rr.com,
or call any officer and we will get a ticket to you. RAFFLE DATE IS RIGHT
AROUND THE CORNER, DON’T HESITATE! (Mail recipients are being mailed one ticket). Please return stub &
money by 10 April 07.
- GAS RECEIPTS: Our thanks to all who deposited gas receipts from
snowmobile purchases at Stewart’s and Nice N’ Easy. We are in
the process of assembling the
necessary paperwork for the club to receive .08 cents for each gallon
purchased.
- LEE CENTER TRAIL/C4H:
The reroute to Lee Center from the town park was finally opened. Landowner permission wasn’t obtained until
snow had fallen so it was kind of difficult to put a trail through the woods
with about 3 feet of snow in there.
There were many logs and stumps buried in the snow making it impossible to
use the groomer to make a path. We had
one water hole that caused the trail to be closed a couple of times. We will have this problem fixed before next
season. We are hoping the club has less
trail reroutes and major bridge construction projects to contend with next
year, leaving more time to concentrate on trail and equipment maintenance.
- TRAIL CLEAN UP: Any members wishing to
help with trail clean up and other work to be done over the summer can call any
officer or email your name, phone number and the days you are available to indytraks@twcny.rr.com.
THANKS
FOR BEING A MEMBER – PLEASE COME BACK NEXT YEAR!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------