Newsletter
January/February 2010 Newsletter
NOTICE: Swanton/Highgate Trails Closed
Due to a recent conversation with one of our landowners in Highgate and the fact he has a lot of illegal riding, we are officially closing all of the trails in that area. We will work to expand trails out of this area towards Franklin but the ATV trails are closed until further notice!
VASA Annual Meeting Held
VASA held their Annual Meeting on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at the Canadian Club in Barre.
It proved to be an interesting meeting as we had three of the Democratic candidates for Governor; Susan Bartlett, Doug Racine and Peter Shumlin, Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources Jonathon Wood and local Representative Paul Poirier from Barre as guest speakers.
We discussed the proposed rule change regarding ATV's on state land with the candidates and Secretary and received their viewpoints and feelings on the situation.
Elections for VASA President and Secretary were also held. The new VASA President is Bruce Durkee from the Westshire ATV Club and the new Secretary is Tracy Durkee from Westshire (Bruce's daughter in law). Congratulations to the both of them!
NCAA VP Nominations & More
During our February 2nd NCAA monthly meeting we will take nominations for our Vice President position. Rusty Getty is our current Vice President. Also, if anyone is interested in our Treasurer position we can take nominations for this as well. Currently Claire Willette, Secretary holds both positions.
We will also be looking to fill newly formed non-officer positions. We would like people to be "Members at Large". We want some fresh faces and ideas on our Board separate from the Coordinators as they already have enough to do.
These people will help with the decision making process on the Board level, obtain tax maps and be assigned duties as needed. We are looking for people in Franklin, Chittenden and Grand Isle counties. We need only one representative from each town and any more than that per town would be drawn out of a hat. The term for this position would be one year from March to March. Anyone interested in the position needs to be at the March monthly meeting.
We will be discussing this topic further at the February 2nd monthly meeting.
New Hampshire Reciprocity Changes for 2010
For those of you who routinely ride in New Hampshire or even those who ride every now and again need to know of some upcoming changes regarding reciprocity between NH and VT.
Beginning this Spring, New Hampshire and Vermont will not recognize each others ATV registration. This means before you ride in New Hampshire you must register your ATV with NH. The cost is estimated between $75-80 per machine.
You will no longer be able to go over and just ride trails! They will have law enforcement on the trails checking for proper registration and you will receive hefty fines for not following the new laws.
If you plan to take a trip across the border, please call ahead (probably at least a month ahead) and find out if you need to register in advance and plan accordingly.
We will keep you posted as information becomes available.
Appreciation Dinner Coming
Our annual Appreciation Dinner is scheduled for Saturday, February 27, 2010. It will be held at the American Legion Hall on Parah Drive in St. Albans beginning at 5:00pm.
We will have a homemade spaghetti dinner with all the fixings. Munchies will be available before dinner as well. The cost is $10 per person with anyone under 16 free.
If you sign up for your 2010 VASA membership on or before the dinner you will get your dinner for free!
This is not just for NCAA members, bring the family or friends and join us for a fun filled evening.
There will be raffle items, awards and more...
2010 Memberships Available Soon!
At the VASA Annual Meeting I picked up supplies for the 2010 membership season.
I am in the process of putting together the member packets and hope to have them out to our points of sales in the next couple of weeks. Please see the revised list of businesses that will have memberships available:
All Seasons Sports Center-St. Albans
Champlain Valley Equip-St. Albans
L & L Sales and Service-Bakersfield
Land Air-Essex Junction
Milton Rental and Sales-Milton
North Country Cycle-Swanton
Roadside Marine-Williston
Senesac Yamaha-St. Albans
Vermont Home and Marine
-Claire Willette, Secretary
ATV Safety Course Coming in the Spring!
VASA volunteers are currently going through training on an approved ATV safety course that will be offered at a reasonable cost beginning this Spring.
This will be a classroom style training. More information will be available in the coming months. So stay tuned!
Trail Patrol Renewal
For those of our Trail Patrollers and anyone interested in becoming a patroller, we will not be holding our annual training. Instead, please contact Dan Boulet for sign up materials.
Trail Update
Some of our trails are open for winter riding but not all.
MONTGOMERY is CLOSED due to the large amount of snow and steep terrain.
SWANTON/HIGHGATE is CLOSED until further notice due to the non-renewal of landowner permission in that area.
Enosburg and Milton are OPEN but not maintained so please ride carefully on these trails as they are icy.
Let us know if you come across any issues on the trails. Thanks!
-Brian Willette
Proposed rule change for ATV's on State Land Update
For those of you who could not attend the VASA Annual Meeting on January 9th here is an update on a very important issue that we all need to help support and do everything in our power to help with.
-ATV's are not allowed on state land properties currently.
-There is a lot of opposition to this rule and the fight has just begun.
-The Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Jonathon Wood is pushing forward the decision to support up to three trial trails using portions of state land.
-The proposed rule change issue has been submitted to the Legislature for their review.
-We all need to contact our Legislators and let them know we want them to support the proposed rule change.
-Sign a petition to allow the compromise of the three trail trial and to give the VASA clubs the chance to prove they are capable of maintaining state land trails.
Please visit the VASA website to stay up to date on the issue. Their website is www.vtvasa.org.
2010 Out of State Ride Update
We were planning a trip to West Virginia later this year but we are now looking to head back to Maine for an extended weekend as it is a beautiful place to ride and much closer to travel. We will look to go back to W. Virginia in 2011.
We are looking to go to Maine on June 25-July 1 so if you are interested in joining us let me know ASAP so I can make sure our lodging is sufficient as well as your machine must be registered in Maine prior to riding trails there. We will be staying at the Pine Grove Lodge near Bingham, Maine (www.pinegrovelodge.com). -Claire
From the President
Well here we are again when I wish all of you a Happy New Year! Seems they keep coming quicker. I hope you all had a great holiday season, and Santa was good to you. Anyone find a new wheeler under the tree?
We spent Saturday January 9th in Barre at the VASA annual meeting in a new venue this year. The Canadian Club was a great place for this year*s meeting to be held. It gave me the feel of being in a cross between a hunting lodge and a favorite camp. The place had a real friendly kind of atmosphere.
Much of the day focused on the guest speakers, Senators Susan Bartlett, Doug Racine and Peter Shumlin. Also on hand were Representative Paul Poirier and Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wood. There was a huge emphasis put on ANR*s proposed rule to allow a process for which ATVs would be allowed on state land. We heard some good, and some not so good, like when Senator Shumlin came right out and said, * I don*t support the new rule.* You could have heard a pin drop.
Another negative we heard had to do with a conversation between Jonathan Wood and Representative Poirier pertaining to some legislation that might possibly ban the use of ATVs on frozen bodies of water. I thought our Vice President Rusty Getty*s head was going to explode. As an avid ice fisherman, Rusty was not happy to be hearing this, and neither were many others. Can you imagine what that will do to ice fishing?
The day did have a sad note however, for many of us associated with VASA. Saturday was the last day I sat on VASA*s Executive Board with our own Claire Willette. We*ve all known for several months that Claire was not going to seek re-election as VASA Secretary, and it was time for her to take a well deserved break from it. I will miss our rides to and from Barre together, discussing ATV issues and plans. It offered us some time to talk over NCAA issues while making the best use of our commute.
The next time you see Claire, thank her for her four plus years of service to VASA. She sat on an Executive Board that over the course of the past few years has made some monumental strides in the Vermont ATV community. Thanks again Claire!!
As always this time of year, there are a lot of things brewing. We*re working on getting the 2010 schedule together and planning the upcoming NCAA Appreciation Dinner to name a couple. We are also working on laying groundwork for more trail expansion this year. We are in hopes of finalizing the link with the Green Mountain ATV Club in Lamoille County, and of course, putting together some really great club rides. If you would like to get involved and help with the planning of your club*s events, please let us know.
We will also be planning trail work dates and Trail Patrol initiation dates. We always need help on both these fronts, so stay tuned and come on out and get active with the NCAA. We always have a good time, even if we*re out working. A bad day on the trail is still way better than a great day at work. Not that there are ever any bad days on the trail, because there really aren*t.
If you want to get involved in any part of planning future events, or if you have any input on what you*d like to see the club do, please get in touch with one of us. We can use all the help we can get and we*re always looking for new ideas.
One last note: A while back we sent out several emails asking you to contact the Senators that may weigh heavy on the state land issue. If you have contacted them, thank you. If you have not, please take a couple minutes and let them know you support ATVs on our Vermont state lands. Believe me when I say that every voice and every email count. It is critical that these people know where we stand on this incredibly important matter. It only takes a couple minutes to send an email. We need your support now more than ever before. If this rule does not go through, we may not get this chance again. The anti-ATV crowd is getting ready for a battle. Let*s not let them win!
Hope to see you at a future meeting and on the trails this season. Until then, enjoy the New Year and if you are riding, be careful. We*ve already had too many accidents on trails this season. Ride Safe! *
PR Coordinator Changes
We would like to thank Steve Leedy for being our PR Coordinator for the past few years. I am hopeful he will be involved with the club on a different level.
Our new PR Coordinator is Marty Koldyk. He is ready to market the NCAA so any ideas can be sent his way. You can contact him at 238-2782 or email: unca.marty@yahoo.com.
Westford town road meeting coming up
In the near future the town of Westford will be holding a meeting to discuss a class 4 road off of Osgood Hill to determine its status of trail or throw it back to the landowners. This old road could be a great way to connect the area with neighboring towns. As well as any old road that is legal trail or class 4 is sad to lose. So please be aware of this meeting and for any of our members in Westford, please try to attend and voice the fact that it should be left open for recreation. We are not looking for specific ATV use of this area yet, but we all should try to keep up on any legal trail or class 4 road that may be taken off our town maps.
We will post further information on our website as the information becomes available. You can also check out the towns website at: www.westfordvt.us
VASA Apparel
The VASA office routinely does apparel orders for t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc. If anyone is interested in obtaining these items you can let us know or contact the VASA office directly at www.vtvasa.org. We are going to try and get a few of their t-shirts to have at future monthly meetings as well.
Liberty Mutual Insurance
We are going to invite Krystal Sterling from Liberty Mutual Insurance to our March 2, 2010 monthly meeting. She is going to let members know what she can offer for home, auto, ATV, RV insurance.
Please come and join us for her presentation and maybe she can save you some $$ on your insurance.
NCAA Merchandise Available
We have a good stock of t-shirts, sweatshirts, fleece, etc. If anyone is interested in getting NCAA merchandise, let Claire know-849-6729 or email to: secretary@ncaa-inc.com and we can get it to you.
New prices are as follows:
Hats-$10
T-shirts-$15
Sweatshirts-$28
Fleece-$35
Events Coordinator Wanted
We are looking for someone who would like to help us out with our event set up, etc. If you are interested contact one of the Board members for more information. Thank you!
Next NCAA Monthly Meeting
The next monthly meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 2, 2010. The meeting starts at 7:00pm and is held at the American Legion Hall, 100 Parah Drive, St. Albans.
Parah Drive is located in Franklin Park West across from Paquin Ford off Route 7.
Trail Expansion Update
By Rusty Getty, Vice President
Happy New Year everyone, hope you had a safe and Happy Holiday.
We hope to make 2010 a trail expansion year. We have a few things in the works. We are working on hooking up with the club from Lamoille county this year. Brian and I went to the Enosburg select board meeting to follow up on a letter Claire had sent about the fee they charge to ride on the roads and how to work around it so VASA members would be able to ride. The selectboard decided to waive the fee for current VASA members, so make sure you are up to date with the 2010 membership or you will get a ticket if you are stopped.
There are two land owner*s in Richford that we are going to be talking with to see if we can expand our trails.
If anyone has info on the Hempyard Road that leads out of the pit in Highgate, we heard that it*s blocked. If that*s the case it will be hard for us to get to Franklin.
Any info on landowners or towns that may open their roads, please pass the info on so we can follow it up.
On a side note the Agency of Natural Resources has gone to bat for all VASA members to try and open up a trial trail across state land, this will be huge if it happens.
Thanks and have a safe, full summer of riding.
NCAA Website
Members please register and log on to our website www.ncaa-inc.com to check out the new site if you have not done so yet. We post a lot of information on the site so everyone can be kept up to date on issues.
You as the member can post topics, start discussions or use the classified section to sell something. This is what we have the forums for, so information can be shared. If you do post an item please be aware that there is an approval process before the post will be active just so we can keep out the inappropriate content.
Calendar of Events
February 2, 2010-NCAA monthly meeting, 7:00pm at the American Legion in St. Albans.
February 8, 2010-VASA monthly meeting, 6:30pm at the VASA office in South Barre.
February 27, 2010-NCAA Appreciation Dinner.
March 2, 2010-NCAA monthly meeting, 7:00pm at the American Legion in St. Albans.
March 8, 2010-VASA monthly meeting, 6:30pm at the VASA office in South Barre.
April 6, 2010-NCAA monthly meeting, 7:00pm at the American Legion in St. Albans.
April 25, 2010-Maple Festival parade.
Contact Information
Board of Directors
Steve Carlin, President
363-9523 (cell) or email to: themadcatter1@aol.com
Rusty Getty, Vice President
309-8419 (cell) or email to: outlander800@comcast.net
Claire Willette, Secretary/Treasurer
849-6729 or email to: secretary@ncaa-inc.com
Coordinators:
Joe Larose, Ride Coordinator
272-2555 (cell) or email to: joel19795@yahoo.com
Dan Boulet, Trail Patrol Captain
318-7076 (cell)
Marty Koldyk, PR Coordinator
238-2782 or email to: unca.marty@yahoo.com
Brian Willette, Trail Coordinator
849-6729 or email to: briclair@hughes.net
Greg Cadieux, Parade Coordinator
309-0780 or email to: g_cadieux@hotmail.com
North Country ATV Association, Inc.
968 Ellsworth Road
Fairfax, Vermont 05454
802-849-6729
Thank you landowners!
If you have any issues, please feel free to contact us to discuss.**