Town of St. Germain Passes New ATV Ordinance!
April 2016.
Beginning in the year 2016, your ATV club worked very hard to get the Town of St. Germain to listen to our plea to open the town roads for ATV travel. The town let us present our route proposals, and after all that work, work that began many years ago, the objective was finally reached in April of 2016. The town drafted an ordinance and held various town meetings on the subject, after which the town chairman signed the new ordinance into law.With this action the club was now in a position to start placing signs throughout the town marking the major routes where ATV/UTVs could now ride. Here is a link to view a copy of that signed document.
http://www.townofstgermain.org/Ordinances/ord_chptr_30_atv-utv_routes.pdf
Three Clubs Join Together to Raffle a UTV
April 2016
The St. Germain ATV Club, joined forces with the Dusty Loons, and the Lakeland ATV clubs to purchase a UTV and trailer. It would be raffled off as the clubs major fundraiser. Each Monday from Memorial Day through Labor Day, your club volunteers manned a booth at the St. Germain Flea Market selling tickets, signing up new club members, and selling club t-shirts. One major debt we had was to pay for all of our signs, and raffle proceeds certainly helped. The winner of the UTV raffle was Missy Peterson of Bloomer, WI. We are going to do this type of raffle again next year. More details for our 2017 raffle will be announced once they are finalized. See it in the following video.https://www.facebook.com/revgeist/videos/1148976255125589/
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| Dedicated club member collects donations for the Fourth of July fireworks, while below Bill and Bo sell raffle tickets. |
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| Making sure everything is OK! |
St. Germain ATV Trails Open in Record Time
May 1, 2016
With the new ordinance in place, your club's executives, along with the help of the Landover, and Lakeland ATV clubs, and many other volunteers, a plan of action to locate all of the underground facilities along the proposed routes, place sign posts into the ground, and attach the information signs, which we had purchased through Vilas County, with the help of their representative Dale Mayo.
Once that was done, and all of the county forest roads we intended on using were marked and inspected, we were ready to open the trails for ATV/UTV traffic. With everyone's help and determination your club achieved this accomplishment record time.
Disaster Hits! Club Makes a Bottled Water Donation
June 21st, 2016
In the beginning of June, our neighbors to the north, in the area around Bayfield, WI experienced some pretty horrific rain storms. This flooding and damage, severely affected their access to clean drinking water. Your ATV club joined with other ATV clubs in our area, and we donated three full pallets of water to that cause. Our contribution and effort was led by club president Mike Musiedlak, and many other volunteers.
St. Germain 4th of July Parade
July 2, 2016
The St. Germain ATV Club Inc. participated in the annual St. Germain 4th of July Independence Day Celebrations. The club put together a float for entry into the parade. Collections of food were received, and given to the Vilas County Food Pantry. Candy was distributed to the children along the parade route by ATV club members. A fun time was had by all. The climax of the day were the fireworks that evening. Everyone had a great time.
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| Mike Musiedlak ATV club President was chosen as the Grand Marshall |
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| Here Mike proudly sits being recognized for all his hard work on behalf of the club. |
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| Club members prominently march leading our club. Director Shelly Blair is on the right. |
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| Front view of the Raffle UTV |
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| Children really enjoyed receiving candy from all the floats! |
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| Every year these American Legions Riders lead the parade. |
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| Club Members enjoying their ride in the parade |
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| Our raffle UTV and Trailer |
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As we rode the parade route.The Culmination of the Day were the FIREWORKS!!!!!!Three Lakes ATV/UTV EventJuly 23, 2016
Many club members participated in an ATV/UTV obstacle course event in the town of Three Lakes. Club members had a lot of fun competing in the obstacle course. Here are two short videos of their experience.
Our own Bill Schmidt, one of your Board members makes an attempt to go through the obstacle course.
https://www.facebook.com/St.GermainATVUTVCommunity/videos/1149735588403225/
Here is a female club member as she tackles the mud pit with encouragement from Mia Swanson-Heike who took the video!
Eagle River Speedway ParticipationAugust 2016
During the summer, the St. Germain ATV club was invited to participate with a presence at the Friday Night Races at the Eagle River Speedway. We brought our raffle UTV, sold tickets, and helped out wherever we were asked.
Eagle River ATV World ChampionshipsAugust 21, 2016
The St. Germain ATV Club Inc. hosted a table with club information, t-shirts for sale and membership applications. The raffle UTV was there too. Some of the members brought their ATVs and UTVs and participated in an inter club race. Bill Schmidt, Brock Sanders, and others raced as our representatives, and won a total of $600 worth of "FLY Bucks", which they donated back to the club. These were then used as prizes for our upcoming Scavenger Stampede. Here is a link to a video of one of our riders, and others at the track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9U5PUIMYo
https://www.facebook.com/St.GermainATVUTVCommunity/videos/1165473186829465/ New Connecting Trail Allows Access to Downtown Businesses!August, 2016
There
needed to be a way to get from the end of Birchwood Drive in St.
Germain to the Community Center parking lot. Once there, we needed to get
across Hwy 70 allowing us access to the downtown area. Working with the
Town of St. Germain, and the State of Wisconsin, we received permission
to cross State Highway 155 at the end of Birchwood drive, and Highway 70 near the
end of Cemetery Road. To achieve this we purchased lengths of split rail
fence, and posts to be placed along the edge of the Community Center parking lot and the edge of the soccer field, and PVC pipe to sink in the ground
for fence placement. These fences would be removed for the winter. We
also had to purchase and install two culvert pipes to allow the water to flow
adjacent to the highway. Then we back filled the ditches, and covered the
culverts. There were a few low spots that needed filling which was provided by the Town of St. Germain.
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St. Germain ATV Club Scavenger Stampede!
September, 2016
The St. Germain Chamber of Commerce invited your ATV club to organize, and plan an event to be put on at the same time as the St. Germain Colorama event. Some said we couldn't do it, because we didn't have enough time to pull it off. But those folks underestimated the talent and dedication of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the members contained within your club. We put together a team, had a few meetings, made a few assignments, and we were off. We had about a month to do it in. Everyone did their job, and when the time came for us to succeed, we had great success and made a few dollars too.There were 76 entrants to the first event. Next year we hope to have many more. We had clues for the participants to follow. We had raffle baskets put together, and we even served Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches. With these talented members in our club there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We are definitely going to do it again next year. We're sure it will be bigger and better. More importantly it will be a lot of fun!
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| Waiting for the winning results. |
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| Live music and Italian Beef sandwiches and refreshments after a long trail ride looking for "clues". |
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| There's Trolls in the Swamps! |
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Frank Beaton places Sasquatch out in the forest. |
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| Actors who were stationed throughout the course. From L to R Frank Beaton, Linda Pecka, Adam Levan, Stacy Schnack |
Progress in the Town of Cloverland
October 2016
Christmas Parade in St. Germain
November 26th, 2016
On November 26th the Saint Germain ATV Club Inc. decorated a float and proudly drove it along the parade route. Volunteer Dave Brosseit used his UTV to pull the float while many other volunteers passed out candy to the kids, while others wheeled shopping carts to collect food for the local food pantry. The club also donated an additional $200.00 to feed the hungry.
Town of St. Germain Land Purchase
November 29th, 2016
The Town of St. Germain completed its study of the possible land purchase from the State of Wisconsin. The main issue was funding. The Finance Committee Chairman investigated and found the funds to complete the purchase. These funds will not come from the property taxes, but will come from the Room Tax revenues. This land is located between the end of Forest Lane, and State Highway 155. At the Town board meeting held in November, the electors voted 29 to 0 to purchase the land from the State of Wisconsin. Once this purchase is fully transferred to the Town and deed completed, we can begin planning an ATV trail across that land. This will make complete, the connection we desperately needed from the East side of St. Germain to the West side of town. The initial plan is to use the existing snowmobile trail already there, providing it meets the various requirement for an ATV trail. This means very little expense would be required to make this happen.Sailor Lake Club Ride
Director Bill Schmidt and wife Kathy at Sailor Lake
Director Brock Sanders and Linda Pecka at Sailor Lake
The local ATV clubs were asked by the Nicolet National Forest managers to participate in a free week-end at the Sailor Lake Campground. They were looking for ATV and UTV riders to ride their trails, camp in their campground so they could take promotional videos and photos to promote the area. Of course we obliged them with a very large showing of representatives from our club. There were so many riders that they had to be slit up into many different groups. Here is a video of what it was like to ride those trails. There was great riding, and the stopover to grab a bite to eat was enjoyed by all. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmR4Xfwh9Xs
Eagle River Cranberry Festival October 2, 2016
We transported the raffle UTV to the Eagle River Cranberry Festival, set up our booth and sold tickets, and signed up new members. It was a very successful day. Here is a photo of one of our volunteers, Jeff Heeler as he makes a sale.
Vandals Continue to Wreak Havoc on Some Trails
Since the trails have opened, the St. Germain ATV Club Inc. has not been immune to some of the pitfalls that invade other ATV Clubs. When your club places a route sign along the trail, that sign costs the club about $60.00 per placement.Many clubs, including yours, have been the victim of some of this vandalism. Recently, on the last day of the trails opening, October 31st, we were informed that some riders of our trails, that some signs were defaced by use of a shot gun. In other instances we have received calls all throughout the summer of route signs missing. We have reported all of these instances to the Vilas County Sheriff, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who are actively investigating these reports.
We have not said much publicly, allowing those law enforcement investigations to proceed without interference, but we thought you should know where some of your clubs funds will be spent. Below are some photos of what we deal with in two specific sections of trail. Many man hours and work is done to replace these, only to have them vandalized again. If you should see ANYONE tampering with, or vandalizing any signage please report it to the Vilas County Sheriff. The fine, if caught and convicted, is $320 PER SIGN!
If you look close, this sign has been shot up by someone with a shot gun. As has the others below.
Even though these signs are on the St. Germain Trail System, this affects ALL the clubs. How? Because when those club's riders enter into our trail system from theirs, there are no directions on where to go. In some instances they cannot tell if the intersecting roads are rideable, as they are no longer marked.
The split rail fence we installed along the parking lot had five sections missing when we went to remove them for the winter. We will be replacing those in the spring of 2017. A police report was made out on this theft too.
Current Membership Numbers As of Year End 2016
The year 2016 saw much growth in our club membership, both business and regular members. As of years end, we have more than 100 regular members and close to 50 business members. Along with those numbers come many more volunteer hours available to help your club out with many different functions.Your Board of Director's is going to place into effect a yearly membership start date, where the membership date will run from May 1st each year through the following year. So no matter when you join the club, your membership will expire on April 30th of the year following your joining. This change will greatly help the club with budgets, and membership processing, where we can do it once a year instead of all throughout the year.
You can join anytime during the year, and that processing is easy, but keeping track of membership expiration's, and mailing out notifications when due, is very difficult. This way we can do our mailings at one time. We hope you understand as we make this transition. Look for notifications to be mailed sometime in March of 2017.
Future Trail Plans Ross Lake Road
In May of 2017 we will be opening Ross Lake Road as an ATV /UTV Route. This is the road that intersects with County Highway "C" just North of the St. Germain Golf Course. When this route opens, riders will be able to go all the way from Big St. Germain Drive at State Highway 155, to downtown Woodruff. We are working on making the Ross Lake Road connection happen in concert with the Lakeland ATV Club. This connection will begin in Woodruff, go through Arbor Vitae, and end at County Road "C" in St. Germain. We hope to have a ribbon cutting ceremony with this opening, in the spring of 2017. Meanwhile, we will be working over the winter with the Town of St. Germain and the State of Wisconsin to cross State Highway 155 onto the new land that the electors of the Town of St Germain voted to purchase from the State of Wisconsin Forestry Department.Once that purchase is finalized with the state, we will be planning with the town to jointly use of the current snowmobile trail, which will give us access to cross state highway 155, and get us onto Big St. Germain Drive to continue westward.
When all of this is complete you'll be able to go from Woodruff to Michigan. But we're not done yet. There is a stretch of land fifty feet wide that goes from Half Mile Road south to the edge of the St. Germain soccer field, and it intersects with the trail that is used to cross Hwy 70 getting into the downtown area of St. Germain. This trail is not developed yet, but we are working hard with the St. Germain committee on silent sports to utilize their FAT tire bike trail, which currently is in place now, traversing 28 acres of adjacent land to the 50 ft strip. We will be widening that trail, and it will be in use for the same months that our ATV trails are open. Otherwise, in the winter, it will be a FAT tire bike trail, and ATV use will not be allowed during that time.
And last but not least, we still have not gained accessibility to Old Rte 70, to get to the Sugar Camp and Oneida County Trails. This requires us to go through the town of Cloverland. We are currently putting in a lot of thought, and planning, on how we are going to do that, and not use any more of the Birchwood Drive roadway past the Snipe Trail at Birchwood Drive. We are working with the town to get this accomplished. As soon as we have more substantial information, we will let all of our members. know. Keep in mind that it is not as simple as naming a trail. When we identify a trail, sometimes it requires many man hours of skid loader work, gravel fill, tree and brush clearing, etc.
Sometimes equipment to do this kind of work is donated, and a lot of times it is not. We have to rent the machinery. This is where the majority of your dues and our fundraising funds are spent.
