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Complaints Piling Up About Snowmobile Riders this Winter

February 21, 2011 - Augusta - Snowmobile clubs in Somerset County are getting an unusually high number of complaints from landowners this winter about riders acting recklessly and traveling over off-limits property.

Club leaders are asking for snowmobilers to stay within roped-off areas, obey the posted signs, slow down, travel on the right side of the trail and stay sober -- especially during this holiday weekend and next week's school vacation when more people are expected on the trails.

Safety for the 85,000 to 100,000 snowmobilers in Maine each year is not the only issue. At stake is the survival of the trail system, which relies on private landowners.

Of the 14,000 miles of snowmobile trails that cover every county in Maine, 94 percent are on privately owned land, said Scott Ramsay, supervisor of the Off-Road Vehicle Division of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

When landowners revoke permission for snowmobiles to travel on their property, it hurts the larger system, requires clubs to reroute trails and could damage businesses that rely on snowmobilers.

With the plentiful snowfall this winter, the number of snowmobilers in Maine has risen, Ramsay said, and so have the complaints.

"We seem to be on the upswing of folks doing whatever it is they want to do without regard to what the landowner does or doesn't allow," he said.

He's received complaints from a timber company about snowmobilers getting in the way of logging trucks; from a business reporting that snowmobilers took down its signs prohibiting travel and then drove over the landscaping; and from a homeowner who said a snowmobiler with a loud exhaust was repeatedly traveling near his house between midnight and 3 a.m.

About 20 of the total 60 trail landowners in Madison have complained to Tom Moore, trailmaster of Abnaki Sno-Riders Club, so far this winter about snowmobilers cutting ropes, stealing signs, driving through cemeteries, cutting across sewer fields, and destroying small trees.

Last year he received about two complaints, he said.

"It's just getting to be so bad that I'm afraid we're going to lose trails in the area because of this," he said. He's heard of similar issues in Skowhegan, Norridgewock and Anson.

On Feb. 11, the day after Moore spoke, a 29-year-old Madison man was killed when his snowmobile struck a disabled groomer, marked with orange caution signs, on a trail in Madison. The incident remains under investigation.

"We all appreciate all our landowners for allowing us to cross their land. Without them, there's no us," said Estelle Carey, treasurer and membership coordinator of the Solon Snow Hawks Snowmobile Club.

Her husband, the club's trailmaster, Ken Carey, works with 92 landowners in Solon each year to ensure they keep the town's 40 miles of trails open. He and Todd Dixon, assistant trailmaster, plus several other volunteers, do all the trail maintenance and grooming for free.

Snowmobilers "ought to be showing us some respect. We're out there taking time away from our family, and we don't get a penny for doing it," Ken Carey said.

"We've relocated the trail so many times that we're running out of options," said Joe Albuit, director of the Solon club.

The majority of snowmobilers are attentive and drive carefully, but it's the few renegades that "spoil it for all the good ones," club safety officer Craig Brooks said.

Ramsay, of Parks and Lands, said more emphasis needs to be put on common courtesy while snowmobiling.

Paying a little more than $20 to become a member of one of the 290 clubs in Maine helps them pay 30 to 40 percent of their total costs. The state provides grants for the remainder of expenses.

Clubs are "in desperate need of volunteers and club members," said Steve Paskoski, vice president of the Solon club. "We're not getting any younger."

It takes $13,000 per year for the Solon club to maintain all its trails, Estelle Carey said. She sells turkey pies and puts donation cans in stores and on the trail to raise money. She also collects membership dues from 47 people.

Rance Pooler said he helped start the Solon club in the early 1970s when people groomed trails using a bed spring loaded with weights. Back then, snowmobiles' top speed was 25 mph. Now, some machines reach 100 mph.

The trails are for people to enjoy, Estelle Carey said.

"The beautiful snow in the trees -- it's gorgeous," she said. "The key thing is to educate some people. They've got to slow down. These aren't race tracks out there."


Erin Rhoda, Morning Sentinel, February 2011


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