April 15, 2021 Meeting Minutes

NWVW April 15, 2021

Minutes of Meeting;  Meeting started at 6:06 PM.  

Officers present:  President, Cathy Keller; Vice President, Dennis Goyette; Trail Coordinator, Tim Joyal; Secretary, Summer Ladd. Members present:  Kyle Bonin; Gary Horton; Brian Douglas; Chad; Renee; Jeremy Poirier.

Cathy welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Tim started with trail updates.  The Bakersfield Selectboard is considering issuing a Town Permit sticker for their town roads.  They are also considering a charge for the stickers.  Discussion was held on how this would impact membership in our club.  It was agreed that it was time for VASA to step in and get TAD’s recognized as the only requirement for VASA trails and permitted roadways.  Some towns already have town stickers for riding their roads, but none charge for the sticker.  With an additional fee for riding roads on top of TAD’s and club dues it would become a burden for a lot of riders plus you would have to go to each town to fill out paperwork for the sticker if you wanted to ride in that town.  VASA should work on getting this legislated that the only fees would be the TAD and a club membership.  Tim also pointed out that this would create a “gray area” for policing trails.  

Kyle asked why Bakersfield trails were not showing on the Polaris Ride Command.  Tim explained that there had been some confusion at VASA about the Bakersfield Roads but that it was straightened out and Bakersfield would be up on Ride Command soon.  Tim then said that there have been no changes at VASA as far as the “street legal” proposals for ATV’s/UTV’s.  This is still in the discussion stages.

Under new business, Tim reported that Land Air is working with the Segway company for selling a hybrid SxS which would be an electric vehicle and has more noise reduction which has always been an issue for our sport.  

Cathy then asked if anyone ideas for a new club logo. Kyle will do up a drawing and Gary showed a mockup of his idea.  Gary will submit his drawing with some color suggestions.  We will vote on something soon.  Once we have the logo, Cathy will take pre-orders from people.  We expect to be able to get the logo on hats, t-shirts, hoodies, whatever people want.

May 1st is Green-Up Day.  We will have bags for people at the trailhead to go pick up trash & cans on the roads we ride, but not Witchcat Road or the 100acres.  We will meet back at the trailhead after and we will have the new trailer there and do burgers & beverages.  It was unanimously voted to have Cathy purchase food for the Green-up Day.  We will meet at 10:00am.

Other club events will happen depending on what happens with Covid.  The May 20th. meeting will again be virtual and we will start meeting at the trailhead beginning in June unless things change.  

We will be removing the picnic tables from the 100 acre woods as Rosalie has not given us permission to ride there this year.  Mr. Murphy, another landowner whose property is near Rt 109 would like a picnic table placed on his property so members can stop and take a break there.  Also, Brenda Churchill, who is with VT Jeep Assoc., lives on Bakersfield Road would like to cut a trail on her 10 acres and we have been invited to ride with the jeep people.  Kyle reported that Sheldon woods trail is open and they are trying to get more roads opened.

The bridge on East Bakersfield Road should be done by the spring of 2022.  Tim has a 35 ft. span that he has kept for the club for several years and would like to have it moved or repurposed.  Members voted to allow Tim to either repurpose or sell it, maybe another VASA club could use it.  Tim also has been storing (six) 6x6x12’ pressure tx’d lumber which Cathy will advertise on the club’s Facebook page and put money from the sale into the treasury.

Cathy then reported that the new trailer was purchased and the website fee of $192.85 has been paid leaving us with a checkbook balance of $18,748.11 and a savings account balance of $1,222.43.   It was suggested that we have a “meet & greet” event and it was voted to do this at our Green-up Day on May 1st.  

VASA is going back to in-person meetings and they will be held at the VASA office in Barre. Kyle then asked if the link for purchasing TAD’s could be posted on the website and Facebook. Cathy has done this.

There will be an executive board meeting before the next meeting.

Tim made a motion and Dennis seconded it to adjourn the meeting.  Meeting was adjourned at 6:50PM.

Summer Ladd, Secretary