To all Members of the IF&W Committee:
Below is a letter that I received from Gary Lamb, Greenville Town Manager, concerning the future of snowmobile trail grooming in and around Greenville. Basically, the letter states that the current grooming entity, Greenville ITS Grooming Inc. (not a club) has decided to give up their efforts in Greenville.
This private contractor was receiving $74,000/year to groom the 75 miles of municipal trail that exist in the Greenville area. The $74,000 was a combination of $39,000 from Scott Ramsay’s office, $27,000 from the Town of Greenville’s tax payers and an additional $8000 from the local business community. Even with funding approaching $1000/mile the “lack of adequate funding” is the major reason behind their decision to end their grooming efforts.
The grooming industry in Maine is a “house of cards” and is ready to topple over due to a lack of adequate funding. The club at Ragged Lake in T2 R13 and the club in the Town of Bradford have both decided to give up their grooming efforts also. Lack of funding and volunteers is the reason in both cases.
Please keep this in mind when making your decisions on LD 268 and LD 1263. The industry needs more funds in order to survive! Please, don’t let the Snowmobile Industry in Maine die a slow death due to lack of funding when most snowmobilers are more than willing to pay more to ride our trails as long as any new fees go to the Snowmobile Trail Fund.
Sincerely,
Rick LeVasseur
President, Jo Mary Riders Snowmobile Club
Chairman, Maine Snowmobile Trail Fund Advisory Council
Good morning all
This email is to inform residents and business owners about a change in our snowmobile trail grooming program for next winter. John Waitkus decided this week that he no longer wishes to operate the grooming program. Greenville’s business and snowmobiling community owes a huge debt of gratitude to John and Lauri Waitkus for the work they have put into our grooming operation. They took it over when it badly needed new leadership and they greatly improved the program. When you see them in town in the future, make sure you thank them personally for their efforts.
As a result of the Waitkus’s decision, Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Club and the Town of Greenville will be discussing next steps on how best to fund and conduct grooming operations next winter…but we first need your input. The Club will be holding a general information meeting on Wed May 8th at 6:30pm in town hall for the public to attend and ask any questions and offer any comments on how we should proceed with future grooming. We especially need all businesses that benefit from snowmobiling to attend this meeting and participate in crafting solutions. Please attend if you have any comments pro or con that should be considered.
In the weeks to come, we probably will be reaching out and having a meeting with our grooming neighbors because we may need help next winter to reduce the 75 miles we have been grooming. We do not have a full sized groomer and we have no funds to buy or lease one, so major fund raising for such equipment will be needed. Moosehead Riders does have a Jeep groomer and drag that works well but we know we will need at least one full size more powerful groomer to do the job properly.
Please call me or stop by if you want to discuss in more detail and I will pass on your comments to Moosehead Riders officers. The Club will most likely be taking the lead role in running the grooming operation and Town staff will continue to provide administrative assistance and connections to Dept of Conservation annual funding.
Thank you…GL
Gary Lamb
Greenville Town Manager