Snowmobilers take out loan to groom trails

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Feb. 19, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

The North Country Snowmobile Club is taking a risk and operating in the red, using a loa from a local bank to continue much-needed grooming on area snowmobiling trails.

Ross Lewis, trail coordinator for the snowmobiling club, asked the Beltrami County Board Tuesday for assistance to fund grooming efforts, which could last another four to five weeks. However, help was not offered from the County Board, which decided to revisit the matter at its next meeting.

Chairman Lee Coe had a previously scheduled meeting this week with state Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, and the board decided before it made a decision, Coe could ask the DFL leader if there was anything the Legislature would do about the problem.

Due to increased usage and wind damage sustained in both 1996 and 1997, the need for grooming has increased dramatically, Lewis wrote the board in a letter, while at the same time the club's grants to fund grooming have decreased.

Explaining the gloomy picture, Lewis told the board the club has already exhausted its 1997 state grant-in-aid funds used to groom the county's trails, and money earmarked for trail maintenance in 1997 has also been used. He said it has overspent the grant by about $4,000 already.

Grooming was suspended Feb. 2-10, but recognizing the hazards of snowmobile riders using unmarked ditches, private properties and public roadways instead of trails that are too rough, Lewis said the club secured a loan that has allowed to resume grooming.

"I realize the 1997 budget is already in place," Lewis' letter states, "but if there are any funds available to assist us at this time, it would certainly be well spent and appreciated."

The only source left that could provide support the club was the county's development dollars, County Administrator Greg Lewis said, but he wondered if it would be appropriate to allocate the money for snowmobiling trails.

"I think it is atrocious that we ask that (the snowmobiling clubs) groom more trails that are seeing more snowmobiles with less, while the DNR is collecting more money from them," Coe said. "There are more snowmobiles being purchased and more snowmobiling licenses being issued. It would be interesting to see where this money goes."

The issue will be revisited at the next board meeting.

"Anything helps ... a thousand ... five thousand," North Country's Lewis said. "Whatever we don't have to pay interest on will help."