Topic: Brasher Falls Meeting

Present: 12 members

Penny Cronk, Doug Cronk, John Fowler, Dan Zurenda, Shawn Gallagher, George Kirby, Dale Kirby, Dan Simmons, Stan Miller, Mike Bellinger

The meeting was called to order at 6:25 with 12 members present.

Mike read an abbreviated summary of the last meeting’s minutes. No corrections or additions were made. Doug Cronk made a motion to accept the minutes, and Dan Simmons seconded it. MP

Treasure’s Report:

Membership:

 There are 105 current paid members, with 33 unpaid members, and 7 honorary members. We will wait one more month before dropping the unpaid members.

Communications:

Bob Diehl the new Lewis County Coordination touched base with us. Scott Burto, the Jefferson County Coordinator, sent a letter stating he is going to work on ATV trails in Washington Park and Winona area.

Old Business/ Committee Reports:

There is a new adopt a highway agreement, keeping it the same as previous years. Mike sent out a request to all areas, asking businesses to acquire helmets and vests to do the roadside cleanup. Doug Cronk volunteered to donate 20 vests for our club workers.

Ride Committee

July 29^th is Indian River / Lodge ATV cancer benefit ride to Theresa. There will be dinner and tent camping. August 5^th is the Pulaski parade. August 11^th is a moonlight ride at Tuggers. August 20^th is the All county ride on the Rivergate trail. August 26^th is the Lewis County ATV Expo at Flatrock; there is a $3-5 admission fee. August 31^st is a ride at Black River Valley. September 30^th is the last All County ride Marty’s Campground.

The Allegany trip was nice; the motel had legal trails right from the motel. The majority of the riders were very considerate, as always there were some inconsiderate people as well The cost to ride in the federal forest was $10 a day, or $35 all year. David Wells mentioned that there is a good place to ride just across the border into Canada, about a 4-½ hour drive. There needs to be a little research done to see if there are any issues with crossing the border.

Trail Report

The 3^rd bridge in Sandy Creek is partway complete. The decking and railings need to be finished, some of the ruts and wet spots still need some fill. There is also some trimming needed, as well as a couple of trees removed. Mike asked for a motion to be made procure fill for the wet areas in the park, using the $1,000 set aside for trail maintenance. Doug Cronk made the motion and Shawn Gallagher seconded it. In the future the club may want to look at some equipment to move and level fill for the trails.

Rivergate as a couple of wet holes to be tended to. Also the crossing at 81 needs concrete culverts in order to keep the trail open. It will be a yearlong project; they are working on a detour.

The Polaris grant results will be in during late August or early September. Mike is still working with dealers to put up display boards.

New Business:

Elections of Officers: Mike Bellinger was re elected as President. There were no other nominations for the remainder of the officers.  Shawn Gallagher made a motion to table the elections of VP, Treasure & Secretary until September, Doug Cronk seconded the motion. MP. Al Shultz from Adams has expressed an interest to help and a discussion was held to what position may best serve the Club. Mike will contact him before the next meeting. Dave Beyer will remain Vice President unless someone is willing to take it, Kevin and Stan would like to step down from their roles as Secretary and Treasurer.

Mike will have the clubs mail forwarded to him until October, when the topic of changing the clubs address can be discussed.

The next meeting will be August 13^th at Community Park. September’s meeting will be the 18^th.

The motion to adjourn was made by Doug Cronk and was seconded by Dan Simmons. MP

Date: 8/13/06

Topic: August Meeting, Sandy Creek Community Park, Cookout, Meeting & Ride

Present:  members

Mike & Debbie Bellinger, Ralph & Pat Miller, Stan Miller, Barry VanBrocklin, Kevin Helinger, Mary Simmons,

Meeting was called to order at 2:00.

Election of officers:

Al Shultz has volunteered to do the job of Treasurer, and would be wiling be take over for Stan. Having no other nominations Al was elected to treasure. Mike can make deposits as needed in Watertown and give Al the copies. Mike also opened the floor for anyone interested in becoming the Secretary or Vice, No one interested at this time.

Kevin had to leave for an Eagle Scout Ceremony so Mike took over recording the minutes.

Mike read an abbreviated summary of the Brasher Falls meeting. No corrections or additions were made. Stan made a motion to accept the minutes, and Barry MP seconded it

Treasure’s Report:

Balance from the last meeting was $3,881.93 in checking, and $47.37 in petty cash. Of that money $75 is lobby donations, and $160 is donations to the trail fund.

Stan was recording the new expenditures to pass along to Al to continue. There is a bill for Big M for groceries for the meeting at $63.52. There should be enough soda and some hot dogs and hamburgers for later work bees. Stan had another bill of $9.00 for trips to the post office. Mike has a bill for $15.60 for postage. Ralph made a motion to accept the new bills, and Pat, MP, seconded it.

Communications/ Old Business:

The club had applied for the Polaris Grant, the results came back and we did not get the grant. A few people in the area did receive the grant, and many groups applied. Previous news was that they would not be giving out equipment, but would give out funds that supported ATVing, education, and trails. They encouraged us to reapply for the October grant. If the club was interested in a Polaris ATV or Ranger they may be interested. Mike will redo the grant for October and list that if they wanted to donate a Ranger for trail work that would be appreciated, but if it was just a discount on a machine that would not be helpful for the club.

Mike received a letter from the Indian River club concerning the Rivergate trail. Currently it is one of the only legal ATV trails in the area. Our club and Indian River have been doing most of the trail work. Indian River has gotten a price quote for signage for the trail system. The cost for the signage is $489; they were looking for a $150 donation from each area clubs to help support this as well as many of the projects they have completed and future project that will need fill. The Rivergate is a multiuse trail system, but is primarily used for ATV’s. Ralph made the motion to make the $150 donation and Stan, MP, seconded it. Based on Indian River’s professional behavior while helping to search for a lost woman it looks like the roads will be opened back up.

Ralph brought up the possibility of having the next meeting at his place for a ride and bonfire. So the next meeting will be moved from September 18^th to the 23^rd, at Ralph’s place beginning at 3:00. There will be some munchies and a bonfire. Ralph also had to re-secure a post preventing vehicles from getting onto our trails. This has been a reoccurring problem; it was discussed if a cattle gate would help. However it was a consensus that people would just ride around it.

The tractor will need a new belt to get the hydraulics working correctly. It appears that the belt on it is wrong, and there has been some cobbing to get some things to work. Ralph brought up that he would like to look into purchasing a tarp to cover the tractor for the winter so it can be stored outside. Mike gave Ralph the go ahead to get whatever was needed to get the tractor repaired and tarp.

Mike talked with Faron about Community Park being our main work area, and possibly using the cabin for meeting room. It was earlier discussed about installing lights and using a generator to power them, since the minimum monthly charge for a power connection made installing power unrealistic. If the club purchased a generator, it should stay in the club’s possession and if needed by another group it could be signed out. A price for a decent generator would run between $500 to $1,000. The generator topic will be tabled until the next meeting. Mike may be able to get some of the materials donated for the wiring of the cabin.

Membership:

Mike has already deleted several members he has spoken to that had no intention of renewing. All the outstanding members have been contact by either mail or email several times. Currently there are 23 memberships that have not renewed. There was some discussion on why several of the members had not renewed. Current membership is 20 single memberships and 38 family memberships for a total of 117 members. With exception to Past president Ed McGrew all unpaid members are dropped, Ralph will contact Ed.

Mike has been doing a lot of the printing to cover the memberships and communication boards. So far he has worn out two printers of his own. Both printers were inkjets, and between the cost of the ink and the printer it will be cheaper in the long run to go to a laser printer. Estimated costs are between $300 and $350. The printer will be purchased by the club, and be club property to be used by the membership group. In October we will be looking at the membership application, many people have been confused with multiple dates and land usage permits. So we will try and come up with an application that will be more users friendly. That will mean printing a lot of applications to distribute to businesses. Mike has printed about 1,000 applications this year. Right now Staples wants $0.35 a page for copies. Al had some information about possibly looking into a copier instead of a printer. Will have some more info and prices by next meeting.

Trails:

The bridge in the park still need some lumber and another work detail to finish up. Ralph was going to look into getting the additional 2x4 from Jack Caster for donation. Ralph and Mike spoke with Roger about fill; there are still a few piles left to use up. Ralph also just picked up a set of drags to pull behind an ATV. Widricks also said they would help us out for equipment if needed. We also have some money in the trail fund to use on trails, since the Polaris grant didn’t go through the funds that were going to be applied towards that can be used. Winona has a dump cart to go behind their tractor, in the long run that may prove better than using lawn carts. Funds for fill and materials for the bridge have been approved so those checks can be written as needed and noted in the following minutes.

There is a County Association meeting Thursday 7:00pm at Gander Mountain, the county coordinators will be there with hopefully some new news on ATV trail systems.

There was work detail in Winona forest to clear an old ATV trail, Mike and Barry gave a hand clearing about 4 miles of trail. There may be a ride out of Winona before hunting season to get used to the area.

Highway Cleanup - Stan had gotten another two-year contract for the highway cleanup. It had been up for a while since people in the highway department moved around. Stan will continue acting as the cleanup coordinator, but outside of that he will be mainly a social member. The club will have to supply our own helmets and vests for the cleanup. Mike has several spare helmets, if we can pool together any extra helmets and get them together to use for cleanups. The club may also want to look into getting vests printed with our logo for the cleanups. Need to contact Doug Cronk for Status of donated vest’s, there will also be a cleanup for September.

Mike will invite some of the other club members to our next meeting for a get together.

Motion to Adjourn by Ralph Miller second by Debbie Bellinger 3:30