OVSA Last Regular Season Meeting May 2, 2010 Thank you to VP Tracy Lawson for running this meeting as President Jeff and Nancy were in Buffalo for the calling hours for Nancy’s Dad who passed away April 29

Meeting was called to order at 11:10 am. Treasurer Gail reported that the groomer barn rent has been paid for the next year. The balance of the groomer purchased this winter has also been paid off so OVSA is debt free. Gail is also heading up the ticket/money end of our steak/shrimp raffle so please turn in any ticket monies to her. Thank you to Gail for once again undertaking this large task and keeping us on the fiscally responsible well groomed trail.

Trail Coordinator Mike Black said help is needed for Wyoming County mapping for our new maps. Areas needing help are Perry, Warsaw, Bliss. Area packages are available and Mike will take care of Bliss so it’s Perry and Warsaw that need the volunteers.

Our annual landowner chicken barbeque appreciation picnic will be held July 25

Jack Rase, Mike Black, Gail and Tracy Lawson, Dave Montgomery and Tay Shiner attended the annual NYSSA Forum in Syracuse on April 16-18 and reported on what they heard during the seminars they attended and believe me these keep you busy all day.

They reported that there is more money in the trail fund but exact figures weren’t available. Parks and Rec spoke about funding and no monies have been taken so far but the possibility remains.

Legislators did speak about the NYS billion dollar snowmobile industry and NYSSA President Mike Fischer said that insurance fees couldn’t be paid if a million dollars were taken out of the fund for each of the next 5 years. Trail insurance is the backbone of our trail system and the reason we have been able to keep our trail system up and running successfully.

VP Tracy explained the Trail Defender status and the extra monies it generates which pays for legal fees to keep trails open and bridge allowances. A member that joins online can access this choice through the drop down tab when choosing the type of membership they want. Single, Family, Trail Defender. It certainly is well worth the extra dollars to protect our industry from the many that wish to shut us down.

Discussion was once again entertained on our fall money raiser and the idea of a Daily Numbers Raffle. Each ticket would be $20 and a choice of gun or cash. Our list of guns hasn’t been approved of yet and we have several vendor quotes. Dates and details need to be worked out further. Our steak/shrimp raffle will be held June 12

th. th at the Warsaw Firemen’s Park from noon on. Volunteers are needed for the usual serving and cleanup. You know the drill if you’ve helped with this event. If you don’t we wouldn’t mind having you stop in and see what the fun is about. Working with club members is a great way to make new friends. th at the Perry Firemen’s building in the Perry Park. Please come and help us at this as it takes about 25-30 members to pull this event off as we cook everything and sell a lot of floor raffle tickets. Thank you Tay as Secretary Deb is taking care of Pete who is very ill. President Jeff Fitch

Our safety seminar had a full enrollment of 40 and we want to thank Jay and Glenn for heading this up and our instructors for taking the time for this important function of OVSA in it’s promotion of safe snowmobiling. Thank you to Dennis Murphy for the generous use of his shop and discounts on sledding merchandise.

Our annual steak/shrimp raffle was discussed with various members looking into area facilities and dates in the May-June range for consideration. By next meeting we want to have our location and date decided so we can have tickets on hand for members. We only have a limited supply and many of our supporters look forward to them each year and the excellent dinner provided. It’s a fun day in which to work together and help raise funds to allow us to make possible the projects to keep our equipment and trails in first rate shape. Tracy, Preston, Kirk and Kaz went up to Montreal to check out a 1996 BR 160 groomer with 2200 hours and a new drag offered for $40,000. A deposit on this machine was placed after viewing it and we will take delivery of this machine very shortly. The increased size of this groomer over our current little BR60 should make grooming even more efficient in the Perry, Pavilion and Silver Springs portion of our system. Mike Black has been on the lookout for a quality machine for months and we thank him for his diligence in this matter. We also are very thankful for the guys who work on the groomers and keep them in shape for us. Mike also mentioned Shredd and Ragan’s Sledfest annual charity ride to benefit The Variety Club on January 30th starting from The Hearth in Chaffee. Registration to ride is $30 and will pass through the Bliss area. If anyone would like to help with registering riders at the Bliss Hotel as they come in that would be greatly appreciated. OVSA personnel would be at the Hotel from 12-4-5pm.  We also will put together some chinese auction baskets so if anyone has some ideas for this please don’t hesitate to email or call.    For more information on this fun event please go to www.wedg.com and click on the banner for Sledfest 2010.  Remember to be considerate of our landowner’s fields and whether they have enough snow to ride on or not. We wait patiently all year to be able to have some good fun and sometimes patience is hard to practice when the cold and snow are here.

One last item to mention is our 1992 Polaris 4 by 6 Big Boss 250 wheeler. The rear 4 wheels drive but the 2 stroke engine is set up and appears to have a bad bearing. Brakes could use some work but there are new parts in the drivetrain and suspension. We will be opening up sealed bids at our next meeting on this item. Bring your bid to the meeting or mail it to OVSA PO Box 84 Warsaw, NY 14569 if you are interested.

Meeting adjourned at 11:40 and a special thank you to VP Tracy and Treasurer Gail for doing double duty while Jeff and Nancy were away.  Respectfully submitted by Deb Smith Secretary and Jeff Fitch President.

President Jeff Fitch called the meeting to order at 11:10am and welcomed everyone to our Christmas meeting.

Secretary Deb Smith read off the minutes from last month and they were approved.

Treasurer Gail Lawson had handouts on the tables of her treasurer’s report. Gail also mentioned that we now have the NYSSA Super Raffle tickets which go for $5 each and our club gets to keep $2.50 of each one sold. You may get some of these tickets by contacting Gail 585 476 5701.09

Letchworth State Park Officers Mike and Mike were on hand to give night riding stickers to anyone that presented them with a registration and insurance card. This sticker information is done for safety reasons when riding after dark in the park. The phone number to contact the officers is 585 658 4692.

Park manager Roland Beck was there to explain the new route out to Portageville and that the sledding hill would be open this year with a food vendor on hand on the weekends when there is sliding. That is good news on both accounts for us. OVSA wishes to thank Roland and the Park Officers for being friends of snowmobiling and working with us.

Jay Zintel and Glenn O’Connor reported on our next safety course on Saturday December 19^th at RNE Precision Machine in Gainesville by the RR tracks from 8-4pm. Lunch to be provided by us.  OVSA would like to thank Jay Zintel, Glenn O’Connor, Tom and Jane Gebel, Chris O’Connor, Dennis Murphy, Keith and Vince Wolcott, Guss (railroad safety) for taking the time to help instruct these classes. This is a very valuable part of OVSA’s outreach to the public. Our first course was maxed out at 40 so the need was seen for a 2^nd class. Again our thanks to all involved and my apologies if I didn’t mention your name.

Trail Coordinator Mike Black discussed markings for trails and that work would begin on groomers this week. Mike said to be sure when marking road crossings that the Corridor (ex. C4) sign be affixed to the back of the post when crossing so everyone is positive of the trail they are traveling as they cross the road and continue onward. Mike spoke of the large amount of work that has been done to the Rancher’s Choice trail over in Orangeville. Thanks to all involved with that project. The pictures on our website show the work that has been done there. A possible re-route of the Warsaw trail at Merchant/Oatka Road was discussed and is being pursued by Rich McDermott, Tim Rosenberg and Jeff Fitch. This is a valuable connection corridor for people coming from Warsaw/Attica area to Letchworth Park and other points.

Right after the meeting the Sportsmens Club will be putting on a great buffet for us. $5 for members and $10 for guests. Jim Hays, Keith Wolcott and staff do an excellent job for us each time. Thank you to them for hosting our meetings and putting on great buffets.

Trail Coordinator Mike Black brought up the fact that our older wheeler (1992) died so we discussed it’s replacement further at the board meeting. A vote was taken to replace it with a 2009 leftover Polaris 6 wheeler at 2009 pricing rather than a 2010 model for $1700 more. Our other Polaris 6 wheeler has been an excellent performer for us so we decided to stick with the same model for familiarity of use and servicing. Many people work in the background of this club creating and clearing trails, obtaining permissions, building bridges, marking trails, fixing wheelers and groomers and OVSA wishes to thank them for making it possible for all of us to enjoy this WNY winter season. Our season opens up December 23^rd so we’re praying for snow and all trails to be ready to go.

Thank you to all members and we wish you a very Merry Christmas with your families and a safe snowmobiling season. Check out our new website at www.oatkavalley.org

Secretary Deb Smith,  Jeff Fitch  President

Secretary Deb Smith read the minutes from the last meeting and they were accepted. Treasurer Gail Lawson reported on our gun raffle held last month in North Java. We made $6200. Many thanks go out to our members for supporting this and helping at the raffle, Bill and Leanne Parmerter for organizing the event and Gail Lawson for keeping track of the monies. Everyone pitching in sure makes a big difference at our events. President Jeff handed out cards for the website GoRideNY.com which he had received in the mail. This website keeps track of snowfall depths in NYS and has many other features such as a classified page for items for sale.
President Jeff spoke to Roland Beck from Letchworth Park and the sliding area is still open as of this writing and Roland is helping to get a trail out the Portageville exit of the park utilizing sides of the park roads. More details of this will be coming and it’s good news to be able to connect with our trails in the Portageville area. Safety course coordinator Glenn O’Connor reported that we have filled all the spaces available for the course to be taught on Saturday November 7th at the Warsaw Fire Hall. This is an important function of OVSA and we thank Glenn and our other instructors for providing this valuable public service.
Frank Malone from Mack’s Restaurant on East Lake Rd. came to the meeting requesting a trail be marked to his place of business on Silver Lake. Bruce Largey and Lynn Miller are undertaking getting permission and marking this new trail. Many people speak very highly of the place and snowmobiling is a destination oriented sport so a
quality place to stop is always welcome. Keith Wolcott has us well outfitted with new long sleeve tees, hats, sweatshirts so get your new OVSA gear for the season.
Jay Zintel announced that the annual Pink Ribbon Ride for Cancer will be held in Old Forge in February and registration spots are going fast. You can find more information on this very worth cause at pinkribbonriders.com
At our December meeting we will have our Christmas buffet catered by the Sportsmens Club and the Letworth Park officers will be there to offer your night riding stickers. Remember to bring your registration and insurance card to get this. Sergeant of Arms Jack Rase conducted the annual election of officers and board members. All the current officers accepted the nomination of another one year term of office and were voted in as such. New members were also added to the board as others retired off. A special thanks to long time board members Jane and Tom Gebel for their input over the years.
OVSA will also be updating our website to make it much easier for club administrators to post newsletters and information. There is a lot of trail work going on right now and anyone can help out with it in their area or if a fellow club member needs help in an adjacent area. We work hard to maintain the best groomed and marked trails in NYS. We have a lot of miles and it takes a big effort to accomplish this. It certainly is nice when we hear from others outside our area how much they like riding our trails because of the quality. This also helps our local businesses too. Thanks for stepping up and making this possible, if everyone looked to the other guy or gal to do this we would be in sorry shape. Fortunately that’s not the case for us. OVSA strives to be the best. See you out in the field and at our next meeting on December 6th.

Respectively submitted Deb Smith Secretary Jeff Fitch President

Trail coordinator Mike Black reported that the Railroads will prosecute anyone found using the tracks for a trail. This is extremely dangerous to say the least. Another item that shouldn’t have to be mentioned is that it is ILLEGAL to chase wildlife on a snowmobile. There was a recent incident in the Portageville area that could have closed part of the trail to us because of an irate landowner after witnessing the chasing of deer off the trail. This is just common sense everyone. Remember that our system exists totally at the whim of a couple of hundred landowners. We are also continuing to work on the Varysburg trail which should be marked this coming Monday afternoon with volunteers working with 4-H Camp manager Sean Tiede. Dave Montgomery and Gordon Brown have been working to make this happen. We will work at getting all permissions taken care of for this trail this coming summer so next winter we will be able to jump out of the gate and mark everything we need to. This trail also helps out our business friends in downtown Varysburg who have been so helpful to our Club. Perry has a rather large groomer contingent that is doing a great job. A couple of them were asked by Mike Black to come over and run the Tucker for that section of the trail so that we can spread out the workforce. OVSA trails have been great wherever I’ve ridden this winter. Mike, Tracy and Gail Lawson and President Jeff attended the western regional meeting of NYSSA at BW’s in Pavilion on January 10th. Many items were discussed and it was good to give feedback to those at the top we work with to make this sport better every year. Things just don’t seem to get easier in this world and it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people to make sure we can continue to enjoy this sport, my personal favorite.

Board member Jay Zintel is an organizer in the Pink Ribbon Ride for breast cancer in northern NY at the end of this month. We are proud to have him represent us and the board voted to give him $100 to take as a donation. It was good to see a full helmet rack at the meeting as many members rode their sleds. Now that’s the way to attend a snowmobile meeting. I know we are in the minority about our love for the kind of snow and cold weather we’ve had but that’s why we live here. Where else would we rather be?

Trail coordinator Mike Black reported on trail conditions and mentioned that we maintain 134 miles of trail. The total in the county is 260 miles so you can see how many we are responsible for. If you would like to groom give Mike a call and he can direct you. So far we’ve had 3 new guys volunteer in the Perry area and I’m sure more have in other areas. Thanks to all who take the time to make our trails the best with grooming and maintenance. New trail maps are available either at the meetings, local merchants or through the mail. Because it costs $1.26 to mail each map please send $6.50 when ordering through the OVSA mailbox.

President Jeff spoke with Roland Beck at Letchworth State Park and was informed as to the reason that the Trailside Lodge had been closed. As you can probably guess it’s due to budget shortfalls within the state and desire for each Park to cut out a certain amount of their operating budgets. This is unfortunate as many young people use the tube sliding area as well as cross country skiers and snowmobilers warming up in the Lodge. There will be pressure to reopen this up next year.

This past Saturday January 10th Mike Black, Gail and Tracy Lawson and President Jeff attended the western region NYSSA meeting held at BW’s in Pavilion. There were many topics and committee meetings and Mike attended the morning session as well as the afternoon with us. Communication between NYSSA and the Clubs was emphasized and it is remarkable the amount of work that is done at that level on our behalf. I was glad to be able to attend a meeting that important so close to our system where we can voice our concerns directly.

OVSA member Jay Zintel is active in the Pink Ribbon Riders events that raise funds for cancer patients. Jay will be participating in the big ride up North in February and if you would like to donate please make a check out to Pink Ribbon Riders and mail it to Jay Zintel, PO Box 122 Silver Springs, NY 14550. Thank you Jay for your time and efforts in this very worthy matter and for all who can donate.

I made a mistake in previously stating the website address for Bliss, it should be www.blissnewyork.com. My apologies to all as I like everyone in Bliss. Now that we have great riding conditions please be careful in your sledding operations. I came upon several accidents this past Sunday afternoon January 11th. One was right near my house on Suckerbrook Road where the sledder blew through the stop ahead and roadside stop sign, flew over the road and landed upside down off the trail. A broken leg was the result but it could have been much worse had a car/truck been traveling the road at that moment. All trail markings were in place and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon at 3pm. No one has a good explanation as to why it happened but the rider is a member of a club in Rochester and probably didn’t know our trails that well. All the riders I spoke to on the trails Sunday were not OVSA members. They come here because we have the snow and awesome trails. Please note the conditions where you ride. Are the stop ahead and stop signs all in place? I and others have replaced a number of them already this year to make our trails as safe as possible. If you note signs missing please contact the person in that area who handles that trail section and offer to help them to fix it quickly. The officers remarked to me last Sunday that all the signs were in place and the trail was correct. Let’s keep all of our 134 miles that way. Mike Black also has a brand new shipment of stop signs available. Thanks to all our members for all you do on our Club’s behalf. Personally I’m having a lot of fun this winter. Next meeting is Sunday February 1st at 11am…

Respectfully submitted Deb Smith, Secretary and Jeff Fitch, President