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Date: 9/11/05 Topic: September Newsletter Present 22 Members & Guests: Mike Bellinger, Chester Vrooman, Kevin & Danielle Helinger, Stan Miller, Barry VanBrocklin, Robert Gamble, Ralph & Pat Miller, Mike Casler, Patrick Longo, J.B. Fowler, George Kirby, Dale Kirby, Vince & Kathy Agugliaro, Dan & Mary Simmons, Faron & Julie Cronk, Ed & Jennifer McGrew The September club meeting was held following our club’s ride at the Miller’s house. The ride started shortly after 2pm and took us through the trails at Community Park. We’ve been working on these trails this year, as well as the trails behind the Miller’s. In all there were at least 26 machines turning out for the ride. The weather was great, the trails not too dusty, and only a few machines got stuck in the mud. The meeting convened at 5:45. There were 22 members and guests present. Mike began the meeting with introductions since there were a few new members present. A sign-in sheet was passed around as everyone introduced themselves and gave a little background on whom they were and how long they’ve been riding. Announcements: The first item discussed was the upcoming meeting on the Wionna State Forest regarding the management plan that will be developed by the DEC. Currently there is no mention to ATV’s or ATV usage in it. It is very important to have a good turn out at this meeting so the DEC cannot overlook us ATV’ers. Faron has sent an email out to all the members about the meeting and explaining what it will be used for. The meeting will be held Monday, September 19th at the Mansville Elementary School from 5-8pm. Please come and show your support for the club, and where your club shirts. Minutes from Last Meeting: An abbreviated summary of the last meeting was read. There were a couple of corrections to make. The first correction was on the final treasure’s balance; it was actually $3,760.79, not $3,760.76 as noted. In addition, the Boylston town meeting was actually going to be August 23rd but has been postponed till October. A motion was made to accept the corrected minutes by Ralph, seconded by Chester, and passed. Treasure’s Report:
Motion was made to accept the treasure’s report by Dean Clark, seconded by Mike Caster, and passed. New Bills presented were: $34.64 to Kevin for postage and club tape recorder. $66.97 to Mike for nails. $12.95 to Mike for postage. $7.40 to Pat for postage. Faron made a motion to accept the new bills, seconded by Ralph, and passed. Communications: 1. Mike thanked all the members for being aware of the meeting that came up for Winnona Forest. 2. NYTRO’s merchandise website is www.corporatewarehouse.com. The warehouse number is 1364 and the password is NYTRO. 3. The all county ride put on by Jefferson County ATV club will be this coming Saturday the 17th at 10am. The start point will be at the car wash in Philly, with overflow in the plaza. The ride will be from Philly to Clayton, with an hour break for lunch, then the return trip. We will be riding the Rivergate trail. We will be looking for a great turnout. Also, please be aware that the ride will begin at 10am, so plan to be there in time to get unloaded and ready to go by 10am. 4. The Black River ATV is continuing its lawsuit with New York State. The lawsuit is concerning how NYS closes trails to ATV’s based on the damage they claim ATV’s have on the land. The Black River club is preparing a video on areas in the High Peaks where hikers have created 60’ wide trails. The State has had to use helicopters to lift trash out of the area due to the hikers in that area. Copies of the video will be passed out to clubs when finished. The ATV and snowmobile clubs, along with the mountain bikers really need to work together to get these trails open so we have the right to use this land. The Back River club will be doing additional fundraisers to finance the effort to move this lawsuit forward. 5. Mike & Ralph went to the Region 6 meeting and had some feedback to our club members. More areas in the state are getting organized. There is now a group in Long Island and another around the Albany area. It looks like the clubs will be forming like the snowmobile clubs in order to get some action out of the legislation in Albany. There was a special speaker at the meeting, Alex Urnest from NYSORVA. He brought some bad news concerning support from the manufacturers; they have stopped contributing to legislation to help the industry. The state raised the ATV registrations to $25, and ATV’ers will not be able access any of that money. It will likely go into the state’s general fund. Many people have mentioned registering their ATV’s out of state, however this is illegal. 6. On October 2nd NYTRO will have its annual meeting at the Holiday Inn in Syracuse. It will be an all day meeting beginning at 9am. They will discuss the bylaws and tax paperwork for the club. Mike, Faron, and one other board member will likely attend. Stan suggested having the club offer to pickup some of the expenses for the day, like mileage and lunch. The club decided it would offer up to $100 to cover mileage and lunch. Stan made the motion; it was seconded by Barry, and passed. 7. The Blue Ribbon Coalition is an organization for ATV’ers that works for legislation, primarily out west. Our club has previously joined the organization and our renewal is pending. The club decided to table the renewal until after the NYTRO meeting on the 2nd, so it can be discussed if NYTRO would like to pick up the membership on a state level and extended it to all the clubs. This is currently how the membership in the AMA is handled. 8. For some of the members that were not present at the last meeting, Mike reviewed that Trail Pass had made some changes since the club originally voted to go with Trail Pass. Trail Pass no longer offers clubs to opt out of the trail maintenance in lieu of paying for the insurance. Trailpass also has failed to provide any legal documentation of member clubs. At the last meeting the club decided to not pursue Trail Pass any further, and Trail Pass has since mailed a notice to the club stating it is currently not covered by their policy. Mike went on to mention that the Jefferson County ATV Assoc. recognizes that insurance is one of the biggest issues of the clubs and needs to be addressed. Committees Reports: Membership: There have been no changes in any of the delinquent memberships. Mike read a letter Dave sent out to 37 past and delinquent members encouraging them to consider coming back to the club.The club is still looking to put together a membership and newsletter committee. If anyone is interested, please let someone on the executive board know. Trails: A big thanks went out to everyone who has worked on the trails this year. Quite a bit of effort went into getting them ready to ride. One of the large hills on the gas line could use some dozer work to lessen the grade, or find another route around the steep hill. There is another bridge to put in on the Community Park Trail. In a couple of weeks, there may be another work detail to begin work on the other bridge. As we continue bridgework, if anyone has a contact for old telephone poles we will need some longer poles. The club wanted to thank Caster’s for the loads of lumber they have donated this year. Members should also start considering names from some of our trails to make giving directions and making maps easier.Cleanup: Stan will still be in charge of the roadside cleanups. There is one scheduled for this Thursday the 15th. Cleanup will begin at 5:00. We will meet at Ralph’s; if we get a good turnout it should go quickly. Pizza will be provided for dinner. Stan stressed how important it is to keep track of how much time members participate in work details and clean ups. This information may be needed at a later date to justify the benefit clubs offer from trail maintenance.Rides: The last ride was at Washington Park. We rode the Worth Loraine Lot; it is approx. 2,800 acres of county land. There are several trails through that area we can ride. Many of them could use some work and will likely be targets of future work details.Newsletter: The club is still looking for people who would like to be involved with the newsletter. We could use some help, especially on spelling and grammar. Mike is working with Greg to be able to post some information on the site, including pictures. We would also like to add ride summaries to the newsletter, if someone were interested in writing up the high and low points.Meetings through the fall and winter will be the second Wednesday of the month. The next meeting will be October 12th at 6:00pm in Adams Center. It will be at Beldingers restaurant. Note: Following the meeting Mike has found out that Beldingers are no longer renting out the back room unless there are paid reservations. Mike has reserved the Adam Legion for Monday October 10th at 6:00. Please plan on having the meeting start at 7:00, anyone wanting to discuss interest in being on a committee or look through some pictures to put on the website can come early. There was also a brief discussion on the content of the Website. There was some concern over listing the information of the treasurer’s report on the web. None of the club members objected to posting the full report on the website, and most felt that the information should remain available so members can view it. So the full newsletter will continue to be posted on the website. The meeting was adjourned at 7:00. Belated September Birthdays: October Birthdays: John Munson 3rd Taylor Miller 3rd William Atkinson 6th Doug Schwalm 6th Kristen Ploettner 6th Shirley Rossetti 7th Bill Harington 6th Debra Waite 7th Kevin Helinger 6th Aretha Manchester 8th Shania Leham 8th Dennis Zufelt 10th Armondo Paulino 9th Pat Miller 10th John Fowler 12th Lorraine Brych 13th Paige Hawkins 15th Jessica Ploettner 13th Ray Bouchard 16th DeAnna Clark 16th Herbert Miller 18th Ronald Jacobs 17th Jill VanHoesen 18th Newton Warner 21st Gaius Fox 25th Justin Cronk 22nd Edith Caster 26th Robert Cummings 25th Doug Cronk 28th Dan Simmons 26th James Gravelle 30th Jack Bettinger 30th Nancy Bouchard 31st Marie Pace ? ? NYTRO of NNY is a division of NYTRO inc. Member of Jeff. Cnty . ATV assoc. Member of Region 6 NYSORVA Member of Sandy Creek Community Park Charter member of the AMA
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