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The Adirondack ATV Riders Club, Inc. Newsletter February 2008
By: Darlene Gonyeau, Public Relations Greetings to all members. It was one year ago this month that the last newsletter was completed. I find that I am opening this newsletter with the same statement as last. “It has been quite some time since a newsletter has been mailed out. I take full responsibility of that and I apologize to everyone. For those of you who know me know that I have way too many sticks in the fire and some things just keep getting pushed aside.” As you can see, not much has changed in my life in the past year. Still not enough hours in the day!
At this time last year, we were awaiting the results of the $10,000 Polaris Grant that was to be awarded nationwide in March 2007. The Adirondack ATV Riders Club again, was turned down. It is offered again this year with a deadline of March 1. Also, while searching on various websites, I have discovered Yamaha is also awarding grants with a deadline of February 29. I again, will submit grant applications to for both in hopes of securing money for the club to improve and upgrade our club facilities. Also, there has been money given to St. Lawrence County for trail development that The Adirondack ATV Club qualifies for. We can only continue to submit proposals and applications and hope someone will help us out.
Membership Renewals Memberships were due on January 1, 2008 and members will notice a slight increase in membership dues. The new memberships have increased to $50.00 for new family, $30.00 renewing family and $30.00 new Single, $20.00 renewing single membership. There will also be discounted rates for military memberships. Enclosed you will find a membership form with the new rates to be used in renewing or new memberships. The goal for 2008 is to double our memberships, get some new blood pumping and help to relieve some of the duties that a handful of members have been doing for the past several years. If all renewing members could recruit just one new membership we could meet the recruitment goal.
By-Law Changes Starting in 2008, there have been a few changes made to the clubs by-laws. Changes were made to the Board of Directors, Executive Committees, and Operation Managers. As mentioned earlier, changes were made to membership rates. Other changes made, were to the Camping, Hunting and the Sale of Firewood by-laws. To view the changes in the elective offices and rates, you may go the website www.adirondackatv.org and click on By-Laws or contact an officer to request a copy. Below you find a brief description of the other changes.
Camping Members: Camping for members only is free for 7 consecutive days. You must pull out all campers and tents before the 8th day. However, all members can pay an annual rate of $100.00 for the season and continue to occupy a site on club property. The season will start in the spring, weather permitting and end October 15. All equipment must be removed before the deadline or a charge of $20.00 per day will be enforced. Non Members: Non-members are welcome to camp at a fee of $8.00 per day, per person. If these non-members are a guest of a member, it is the responsibility of the member to collect the fee and turn it in to the Treasurer. If the non-member is not a guest of a member, it is their responsibility to contact an officer for permission and payment arrangements. Hunting/Fishing Sport shooting, huntin and fishing is authorized for members only. You must possess a valid NYS license and abide by all regulations and hunt during the posted seasons. The Adirondack ATV Club, Inc. is just that. We are an ATV Club first so all sportsmen must respect the riders and events of the ATV Club. No sport shooting, hunting or fishing will be allowed on event days or during the camping season.
Firewood Sales Firewood will be sold to members only. A cord will be sold at $10.00 payable to the Treasurer. You must obtain prior approval to cut wood and you are to cut only downed trees or trees that have been marked. The club will provide bundles of firewood for camping and will be sold at $2.00 per bundle.
Again, these changes can be viewed either on line or by requesting a hard copy from an officer.
2007 Recap/Rodeo News Although, the club sponsored only one event in 2007, enough money was raised to pay off the club land. Members, we are now all landowners!! The Annual ATV Rodeo still proves to be a success. A few days before the scheduled event, there were a few monkey wrenches thrown into the gears, but the show must go on and it did. Chris and JJ Hodkinson had volunteered their expertise to run the ATV drags races, but a sad and untimely death occurred to a toddler family member and would their family would have to attend a funeral that day. After hearing the news, our hearts and sympathy poured out to them and we grieved with them. They are such a big part of the success of this club in more ways than anyone could possibly know. Through their grief, they pulled together a team of friends to keep this event on schedule for Saturday. Eric and Hollee Lee headed the event along with several other volunteers. We send out a sincere thank you to them and all of their helpers that stepped in to assist. They did a suburb job.
Meanwhile, not due to a tragic event just bad timing the person who had volunteered to run the MX races backed out leaving us to scramble to find someone with knowledge to step in. At the last minute, Dan Kerr II volunteered for the job, which took place on Sunday. I myself, agreed to help out and found just how hard of a job it was to run the event smoothly. Through all that had happened in the few days prior, I found JJ Hodkinson standing beside me in the MX track infield telling me what I needed to do. By the end of the day, I was catching on and I am looking forward to 2008. Dan has also agreed to head up this event for the 12th Annual ATV Rodeo. This year was the first year in many we put the old cook shack to good use. No, we didn’t cook in it; instead it was strategically placed along the drag track in the middle of the vendors and used to sell T-shirts/hats/chairs, event registrations and the information headquarters. For those of us that have worked under popup tents for the past several years, the trailer made a nice place to display the shirts, file paperwork, collect registrations and fees, display trophies, and for the most was dust free!
As always, our vendors help contribute to the success of our events from donating items for our fundraising raffle to setting up displays. The vendors who attended the Rodeo were Nesco Fun For Sale, Fun Unlimited, Hall’s ATV and Caprara Brothers Honda. Thank you all for your participation and sacrifices.
2008 Raffle Ticket Sales This years raffle is similar to 2007 except for the top prize. It has been addressed and voted on that the top prize will be the winners choice between $2,500 cash or a 2008 Grizzly 80cc or a 2008 Raptor 80cc (both children’s machines). One of the most important issues regarding the future of this club is the next generation that will be stepping into our shoes. We can only hope that they will continue to contribute to what has already been accomplished and to take on the new challenges in the future. To offer a prize geared mostly toward children only seems fitting and will help promote this concept. It is always a pleasure to host the kid classes and they have a knack for capturing the spectators’ attention at the annual events. The club continues to provide ATV safety courses at club house annually, which is attended mostly by children. Members, lets set a record in 2008 in the sales and profit of our annual raffle fundraiser.
Elections Nominations for the Secretary and President positions will take place at the monthly meeting on March 12, 2008 at the clubhouse at 7:00 PM. If anyone would like to run for either of these positions, please come to the meeting or submit a letter of intent to be considered. Elections will be held on April 9, 2008 at the monthly meeting. The current Secretary is Diana Dancause who has held this position for several terms and she continues to do an excellent job. Diana has also accepted the position of Concession Coordinator for the 2008 season. Meanwhile, the President is Shelley Lynde, who has been at the helm for 2 years. Shelley also plays a huge part in the organization of the club events and has a list of jobs too long to mention. Both women have been key players in the operations of this club. This is an important meeting so please try to attend. Just a reminder that club meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month from January thru October, at the clubhouse starting at 7:00 PM.
Out of State Ride The out of state ride for 2008 will be in Buckhannan, WV. Again this year, member Gene Spencer has offered to head up the event. The ride has been set for the week of July 26th to August 1st in and around Buckhannon. Gene is from that area and has promised to offer an exciting ride with anything from safe road riding, to moderate skill riding, to aggressive riding. There was only a handful of members that went on the trip last year. The ones that did participate had a wonderful time, seen some awesome scenery and had some wild stories to tell. Anyone interested in taking part in the annual out of state ride must make their reservations before April 15, 2008. You will find a list of hotels that are in the area. They are as follows:
Gene has also advised there is the West Virginia State car show in town the same week so please make your reservations early. If you are interested in attending this ride, please contact Darlene Gonyeau 315-287-0780 after 5:00 PM or Gene Spencer 315-543-2507 after 5:00 PM.
Trail News As you may have heard NYS DEC has stated that Region 6, which is our region, is the only part of the state with legal ATV access on designated truck trails. It has come out of Albany that the DEC has a plan to close all truck trails to ATV’s. The reason for this is to catch up with the rest of the state that already has forbidden the use of this road for ATVaccess. When lawmakers hear the word ATV, immediately their thoughts turn to the submitted photos of rutted roads and destroyed water holes. ATV riders are in comparison to the Hell Angel’s on 4 wheels. Lawmakers refuse to look beyond the “redneck” image and see what ATV clubs actual do for their trails and local lands. All positive accomplishments such as maintained roads, insured private landowners, and marked and groomed trails seem to fall on deaf ears and blind eyes. In speaking with Bob Diehl, Lewis County Trail Coordinator, he feels that truck trails will be closed to ATV travel by spring of 2008. Lewis County has several roads that are currently heavily traveled that will be affected. They also have several townships that only have open DEC road for ATV use. Visit our website and you will see a link to maps of the open trails and roads and you can see that is will be a major blow to Lewis County.
Although Bob states the loss of the roads will hurt; the proposed trail system is progressing nicely. He states that Lewis County has had two new ATV clubs join the association. Both clubs are from the southern portion of the county, Boonville and West Leyden and they have been working to supply their landowners with insurance offered to Lewis County Clubs through NYSORVA. The Adirondack ATV Riders Club also purchases insurance from NYSORVA to cover our facility and the surrounding landowners’ private trails. Lewis County is working to open portions of their lands along with private landowners in hopes of tying together trails for a multi county, legalized trail system in upstate NY. Meanwhile St. Lawrence County and Jefferson County are also seeing some progress in their efforts. To all, your efforts do not go unnoticed by those of us who are members of an ATV club.
2008 Schedule of Events ~Adirondack ATV Riders Club~
~Other Area Events~
Officers President – Shelley Lynde – 659-8715 Vice President – Gene Spencer – 543-2507 Treasurer – Linda Walrath – 562-3264 Secretary – Diana Dancause – 562-3382 Public Relations – Darlene Gonyeau – 287-3937 Web Site Developer – JJ Hodkinson – 346-1686
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