Wales Tales - April 2010

Here we are with another great winter riding season behind us. However, excitement is growing for our club as we anticipate the delivery of our new groomer from UTV. Read more about this below. The trails are closed and the general membership meetings are over now until September.

Before we start the Summer activities though, think about helping out with a couple of club activities coming up soon; Earth Day cleanup on 4/24 and the Greene Township cleanup on 5/1 & 5/2. Details for these activities are also below.


Membership Meeting: On Thursday, March 25th, the membership meeting was held at the Greene Township Building. There were 7 Directors and 7 members present. There was a lot of discussion on how well our new Ski-Doo Skandic work sled worked out for us this past season. It saw a lot of action and was able to keep up well.

As of the 3/25 membership meeting, we had received the contract Grant Agreement for our new trail groomer and we were waiting for the letter of approval.
See an update on the new groomer under the Special Meeting heading below.

Steve Hair accepted the nomination as our club President and at the board meeting the remaining board positions were determined. The new Board Officers are:

President- Steve Hair
Vice President- Ken Zambrzycki
Chairman of the Board- Mark Sonney
Treasurer- Randy Slomski
Secretary- Lance Dunn
Corresponding Secretary- Tim Bowers
Trail Boss- Randy Nowakowski
Trail Assistants- Zack Barnett and Travis Clabbatz


Special Board Meeting: On Wednesday, April 7th, Board members met to discuss progress Kent Kessler reported had occurred with our new groomer grant process. Kent explained that he had obtained an updated quotation on the groomer and detailed the timeline of events that would allow us to take delivery of the groomer this summer. Upon hearing Kent’s presentation to the Board members present, the Board made plans to submit the order for our new groomer from UTV and at this point, we are expecting delivery of the equipment at the end of July 2010.

Kent has been working on our club’s behalf to get this groomer for years now, so if you see Kent, be sure to offer your Thanks. Thanks Kent for all of your hard work!


Sunshine Person: Please note that Mary Ann Matasowski is our sunshine person. If you know of any of our members that have fallen ill, please contact Mary Ann at (814) 825-2067.

Trail Closing: We had a great turnout for the closing of the trails on March 27th.
The workers put in a great effort pulling markers and placing everything into storage.

Ken Zambrzycki would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all that helped.


Next Meeting: There are no scheduled general membership meetings from now until September. So, enjoy the Summer and stay safe.

The board will continue to meet and plan work on trail improvements. These trail projects will include any necessary trail work to accommodate the size of our new groomer. Since we will be in need of some willing workers later this year, please respond if called upon to help.


Coming events to keep in mind:

1) We will help celebrate this year’s Earth Day on Saturday, April 24th. Our involvement shows the communities how much our club appreciates the area that we enjoy so much during the wintertime. We do this by removing the trash from along a couple of local roadways. We will pick up trash along Wales road from Station road to Route 8 and on Knoyle road from Kuhl road to Wales road.

All members planning to give a helping hand to the cleanup should plan on meeting at 9:00am at the Greene Township Building on Tate road on April 24th. We will need drivers and trash pickers. Gloves and safety vests will be provided.

Please contact Fred Morris at 899-6307 if you need further information or want to sign up to help at the Earth Day cleanup.


2) We will also help at the Greene Township Spring cleanup on May 1st and 2nd from 9am till 2pm each day. As you may or may not know, Greene Township makes our meeting room at the township building available to us at no cost. Not having to pay rental fees, allows these funds to be used for trail improvements.

To show our appreciation to the township, we work with the township Supervisors and area residents to help process their recyclables. The time spent goes fast and is really appreciated!

Please contact Steve Hair (725-9313) to sign up and give a hand on one or both days of this year’s Greene Township cleanup.


Thanks for being a Wales club member! Talk to you again in the September newsletter.

Have a great summer!
T. Bowers