Wales Tales - October  2006

 

What’s been happening? Let’s bring you up to speed.

On Saturday, September the 23rd the Club’s annual picnic was held. This year it was chaired by Bob Johnson and held at his residence in North East (among the sweet smell of ripe grapes). Bob and his family were gracious hoists. Rain was a potential issue but it held off during the picnic. There was a lot of good food, a lot of snowmobile stories (some small, some big) and a good time had by all that attended. A big "thank you" goes out to Bob for all his hard work in planning and pulling off such a great event for us.

On Thursday night, September the 28th the first membership meeting of the new season was held at the Greene Township Building. It was not very well attended as usual for a first meeting, but we have to get started some where. The main points discussed were:

Club’s current financial position due to unexpected expenses for the groomer (more on this later)

Your President set a goal for an increase in membership by 20%.

Report by Jerry Johnson on changes in the grooming in the ANF (see our website for details).

Trail report and trial work schedule by Ken Zambrzycki.

Changes for this year’s donation effort for the area Food Pantry.

 

During the bridge work in Kirsh valley in mid September, the Yanmar’s radiator had a leak and slowly lost its coolant that overheated the engine. Both the radiator and engine had to be rebuilt. This was unexpected and could potentially cost several thousand dollars to repair. But as usual, Dan Postlewaite put his talents and skills to the problem. Basically single handed he arranged the repairs (with a lot of his own time and labor). It is great to report that the Yanmar is back in business and better than ever. While the engine was out, the worn clutch assembly was replaced as well. All this was completed at only two thirds of the initial estimate. While the Yanmar was laid up for the engine work, Dan took the time to further improve the Yanmar groomer’s cab. The Plexiglas window’s in the cab’s doors where replaced with tempered glass. In addition, they have been fitted with a sliding panel that will allow for better air ventilation. Thanks Dan.

The club’s operation is just holding its own. We would like the club’s funds to be a little better. As proven with the Yanmar, we don’t know what might happen with any of our trail equipment. So, what’s the plan? We are going to have a great membership drive. Our president would like to see a 20 % increase in new members. If you know or ride with someone that is not a snowmobile club member, ask them to join Wales! The membership renewals are due now and the renewal drive will close the end of November. To date, only 10 members have responded to our early renewal request. That’s only 7% of our membership. That means there are still a lot of you out there that need to take a moment and make a decision. Please fill out the attached application if you haven’t already without delay. Fifty some miles of snowmobile trails do not happen on there own. If you like wide and flat trails, it takes the organization of a club and money for equipment and material. Without us, you will be riding roads and rough trails!

Memberships make up approximately half of the club’s funding. The balance is achieved from the funds raised by our annual Poker Run in late January (unavailable last year due to no snow). We hope this will not be a repeated this year. Since Dan did such a few job on the weather for this year’s picnic, he has been placed in charge of ample snow for the Poker Run. With snow and good support from you, our membership, the Poker Run should place us back in a good financial position. Mark your calendars now - January 27th - for a great ride & fund raiser.

Two trail projects remain to be finished; the Dyer Road reroute and the new connector from the east end of the gas line to Dutch Road. Trail maintenance (brush hogging and limb pruning) has begun. On September 30th, 13 workers spent their Saturday making the trails more passable. Sunday October 1st there were only two diehards, Ken Zanbrzycki and Dan Postlewaite, that tolled in the cold rain to continue the trail clearing effort.

In past years, the club has supported the Food Pantry operating out of the Greene Township Building. Membership contributions along with the club’s donation go a long ways in helping those in need. Each dollar given is able to buy $17 worth of food. In addition, the total amount is doubled with matching gifts. To enable more members to participate and increase our total contribution, we will be asking and accepting your donations at each of the next three meetings (October thru December). Please consider contributing to this very worthwhile effort.

Don’t forget the next membership meeting will be Thursday, October 26th at 8:00pm at the Greene Township Building.