New
Equipment:
We recently
added to our fleet of trail
maintenance vehicles, a Kubota RTV 1140 CPX four passenger utility
vehicle. The
24.8 horse power four wheel drive vehicle is used to support our year
round
trail work. We have equipped the Kubota RTV with the necessary
accessories
(hazard lights, directionals, flashing light and slow moving
sign) in
order to register it as a piece of construction
equipment. It is also registered with the NH Bureau of Trails as
a
trails maintenance vehicle similar to all our snow groomers.
The
Seven Lakes Snowmobile Club has
approximately 100+ miles of trails to maintain, with a large
percentage of the trails not accessible from town
roadways. When repairs are needed most of the materials were
transported on four wheelers or other personal vehicles. The
majority of
trail support volunteers are retired senior citizens, and this vehicle
allows
us to transport volunteers and equipment to the remote areas.
The
club also purchased a hydraulic four wheel
dump trailer to be used with the RTV. The trailer can haul fill
and building materials needed to repair the many bridges on our
trail
system and fill in holes to improve the trail surfaces. This new
equipment
has been a great asset in our ongoing trail work.
Yellowstone Park Petition:
Past
President and long time member, Bob
Lundgren has created a petition regarding the requirement of hiring a
guide
when snowmobiling in the park. Many of
us visited Yellowstone before this
requirement
and had no problem finding our way around.
The trails are actually wide roads, and the signage and map is
excellent. The enormous number of cars
and buses that tour the park each summer are not required to hire a
guide. There are environmental groups who
are
constantly working to ban or hinder snowmobilers. If
you would like to further the cause of
snowmobilers, please visit “www.change.org” and enter “Yellowstone”
in the browse/find box. You will be
given the opportunity to sign and comment on the petition.
Donations
We would
like to thank those of you who
generously donated ($3,500) to the Groomer Fund to purchase a new
groomer to be
used on the trails connecting the lakes.
We continue to work towards that goal.
Thank
you to those who donated $800 to Easter
Seals. Had membership not been down by 52%
(300 members) due to the lack of snow, we would have had the best year
ever.
Thank you to all who renewed their memberships,
with no snow guarantee. The club has
many annual expenses which must be paid, whether we groom or not. The largest being our $5,000 insurance bill. Thank you for your support.
General
Meeting:
The
Club’s Spring General Meeting will be held
on Saturday, March 24th 5:30pm at the Wakefield Public
Safety Building. Following
will be a pot luck supper at
6pm. A board of directors’ meeting will
take place prior at 4:30pm. RSVP to
Cathy Stump 522-6763 or cobrastump@live.com.
Fundraisers:
Preparation has started
for this year's fundraisers. We have
been asked by the track to be available to do other duties if needed.
As usual
we will sign up for the CLEANING duties. Also some may choose to
select
PARKING, USHERS, SECURITY and possibly HOSPITALITY. Even though you
select one
of these, does not mean that you will get it. It is the track's choice.
Dates
for the races are July 13, 14,15 and September 21, 22, 23.
We are also looking into working the GRASS
DRAGS in October. Further info when it becomes available.
If you are interested in
either event, or need more info,
please notify Chuck Waleik at: 603-522-6070 or cwaleik@roadrunner.com
President’s Message:
The last
time I rode our club trails was late
in the
season last year. Looking back, we had some great riding, some of
the
best I can recall in recent years. Fast forward to March of this
year; I
have not turned a track on our trails. Not that I would not like
to, but
we can thank Mother Nature for almost a snowless winter.
We were
totally prepared for another good snowmobiling season. Our member
volunteers worked very hard last summer and fall on several
major trail
projects. Our new trail maintenance vehicle and dump trailer
worked
out very well.
Our
next challenge will be to try to maintain the level of fundraising that
we have
become accustomed to at Loudon. We have been asked by the track
to expand
the type of work we can do.
Please
help with this. These monies help tremendously with our ability to
provide the
quality of trails that we have.
Hope you
can join us for our General Meeting and potluck supper on the 24th.
Lenh
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