E-Ville Riders Snowmobile Club |
Members of E-Ville Riders
The following is a copy of the letter that I sent to the Department of Conservation, Bureau of Park and Lands, stating the clubs objections as was suggested by some of our members.
Sincerely,
Mike King, President
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E-Ville Riders Snowmobile Club Elliottsville Twp. Maine
January 29, 2008 Karen B. Morgan Dept of Conservation Bureau of Parks and Lands Snowmobile Program 22 State House Station Augusta, ME 04330-0022
Dear Karen, As president of the E-Ville Riders Snowmobile Club, I am concerned, along with my members, about the proposed bill for snowmobile registration. It is my understanding that if this bill is passed, as is, that small clubs such as ours will be forced by the state to join the Maine Snowmobile Association. We have nothing against the MSA organization but it should be an individual club’s decision to join or not. We feel this decision should not be mandated by the state. Our club is barely getting by with the funds we have now. The fee to join our club for an individual or family membership is $20 per year. If we are mandated to join the MSA, we would be required to submit $12 per member to them. This mandate would penalize the club by us loosing 60% of our working funds. You can see that does not leave much for operating expenses. For us to recuperate those working funds, we would need to sign up an additional 39 new members just to break even. Membership is growing but at a slow rate due to several constraints, we must deal with. First is the very limited population in Elliottsville Twp.. Additionally, our trails became landlocked due to the large land purchases in Elliottsville by Roxanne Quimby. This action blocked our main access to the ITS trail and to the town of Monson where we purchased gas and other merchandise and services. Now, our closest access to an ITS trail is 20 miles away, depending upon the safety of crossing Onawa Lake. Presently, any financial support from businesses ( restaurants, B & B’s, stores, gas stations and garages, etc.) is almost non-existent because there are no businesses in Elliottsville Twp. and the lack of access to any others, anywhere else.
The effects of this proposed bill, as is, could be devastating to the existence of our club, with the present economy, the price of gasoline, an increase in snowmobile registration fee and an increase in membership dues to offset the $12 MSA membership fee. Most importantly, by us joining the MSA would not have any impact on the efficiency and development of our snowmobile club. We currently follow all state guidelines and have been very successful in developing. By working with the local land owners, (some of who have given permission for snowmobile use for the first time) in a short time, we developed 42 miles of groomed and maintained trails. We also developed an innovative web page, www.E-VilleMaine.com , to share information and promote safety among our members and other snowmobilers to enhance snowmobiling in the state of Maine, now and for future generations. We feel that the state could use a system similar to the insurance cards used to register a motor vehicle. As all clubs are incorporated to receive trail maintenance grants and other grants the state provides, we feel that this is the same agent as a town official would use to register a motor vehicle. Our concern is giving money to the MSA that we should be using on our trails. We are a small club but we do an enormous job and believe that the state should notice the dedication and hard work of our members and this is true for all small clubs in the state.
Sincerely,
Michael King, President E-Ville Riders Snowmobile Club 1520 Elliottsville Rd Elliottsville Twp. Maine 04443
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