http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141220/NEWS02/712209975
News Release — USDA
Dec. 19, 2014
Dec. 19, 2014
… New Sno-Cat Will Improve Trail Conditions And Help Local Businesses
NORTH SPRINGFIELD, VT, Dec 19, 2014 – During a news conference at the Route 106 North Market and Deli in North Springfield Friday, officials from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of the Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders (HMRR) showed off their new snowmobile trail groomer. A $77,000 USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) helped the club purchase the equipment to help the snowmobile club improve trail conditions in Southeastern Vermont.
“This new trail groomer will improve trail conditions which will increase the number of snowmobile trail users and lead to more business for the restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and stores like the Route 106 North Market and Deli along the trail network,” said USDA Rural Development State Director Ted Brady. “The snowmobile industry is critically important to the vitality of Vermont’s small businesses and our rural communities.”
The $77,000 grant was matched by $146,295 of the club’s own investment towards the purchase of a 2015 Tucker Model 200E Sno-Cat trail groomer. The new groomer was purchased from GetSno of Newport, Vermont.
The Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders are part of the Vermont Association of Snowmobile Travelers (VAST). Each winter a snow covered highway appears that goes through back country, spectacular mountains, and friendly villages. There are 128 clubs throughout the state that maintain over 5,000 miles of trails. Vermont sets the standard with well-marked trails with easy access to fuel stops, food and accommodations.
“We sold 23,000 VAST passes in 2014,” said VAST Executive Director, Cindy Locke. “The statewide system supports over 500 jobs and is estimated to generate $600 million yearly.”
Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders located in Windsor County is a key part of snowmobile travel in Southeastern Vermont. This RBEG Grant will support eleven permanent jobs, four short term jobs, six small businesses and create one new job. The impact of maintaining this portion of the trail as part of the greater trail system means that this grant also indirectly supports jobs in other parts of Vermont.
“I want to thank all the area land owners for giving their consent for use of the trails,” said HMRR Vice President, Barry Messier. “Their generosity provides winter recreation for Vermonters and tourists as well as supporting the local businesses.”
Hawk Mountain Ridge Rider President Dave Bibons noted that two of the club’s five groomer operators have become disabled in the last year.
“This is the first time Tucker Sno-Cat has modified a trail groomer with hand controls,” said Hawk Mountain Ridge Riders President Dave Bibons. “We are grateful to USDA Rural Development for their support for the purchase of this modified hand controlled groomer, which allows two of our dedicated operators to continue to work out on the trails, and makes it possible for our club to maintain our trails to the best standard.”
President Obama’s historic investments in rural America have made our rural communities stronger. Under his leadership, these investments in housing, community facilities, businesses and infrastructure have empowered rural America to continue leading the way – strengthening America’s economy, small towns and rural communities.
USDA, through its RD mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has an active portfolio of more than $206.2 billion in loans and loan guarantees. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural areas. For more information on Rural Development visit the Vermont/New Hampshire Rural Development website (www.rurdev.usda.gov/nh-vtHome.html) or contact USDA RD at (802) 828-6000.
Photo by Len Emery Tom Berry, left, of Sen. Patrick Leahy's office, and Ted Brady, the USDA's state director of rural development, show off the Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders' new $225,000 trail groomer. Published December 20, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Grant helps close Sno-Cat deal By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer NORTH SPRINGFIELD — The Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders got a big orange Christmas present Friday — a $225,000 snow-grooming machine, partly funded by a federal grant. A Rural Business Enterprise Grant of $77,000 was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s office of Rural Development. The competitive grant helped the snowmobile club to swing the purchase, which will allow it to keep its trails in good shape and attract more snowmobile visitors to the region, said Ted Brady, state director of USDA Rural Development. The vehicle is the second snow-grooming machine that federal funds have helped buy for Vermont snowmobile clubs, Brady said. The other was in the Northeast Kingdom town of Canaan. Another grant went to a New Hampshire snowmobile club, he said. “It’s really about jobs,” said Brady, standing in front of the Tucker Sno-Cat, built in Medford, Ore. “This new trail groomer will improve trail conditions which will increase the number of snowmobile trail users and lead to more business for the restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and stores like the Route 106 North Market and Deli,” Brady said Friday morning at a gathering in front of the store. The club traded in its 2008 Tucker snow groomer, and when coupled with the federal money, was able to buy a new machine and have it fitted with hand controls so that two of its handicapped members could continue with their snow-grooming responsibilities, said club vice president Barry Messer. He said the special controls, installed by Get-Sno Equipment, the Sno-Cat dealer in Newport, would be an enormous help to the club and its members. Messer said before the grant, the club always relied on used Tucker Sno-Cats. He said last winter his club maintained 46 miles of trails from South Reading to Rockingham, covering a total of 2,000 miles “at 6 miles an hour.” Brady and representatives from Vermont’s three-member congressional delegation got a hands-on view of the Sno-Cat and its unique controls. It was parked on a small snow bank outside the store, which is now on the Hawks Mountain Ridge Riders trail network. The club built a spur to connect the store with the trail, a major plus for the store and riders, according to Lisa Brandmeyer, owner of the Route 106 North Market and Deli. Brady said that the snowmobile industry is “critically important to the vitality of Vermont’s small businesses and our rural communities.” The economic benefits from snowmobilers are often felt most acutely in rural areas, which often don’t have the options of other parts of Vermont, he said. Messer said the club had 150 members, and he said the grant application was a “team effort.” “USDA made it happen,” he said. Messer’s son Jeff, who was paralyzed last year in an ATV accident, is one of the disabled groomers. He said the hand controls were great for him and another club member. He said the club had built a ramp so that he could get in and out of the machine in his wheelchair. “It’s new and more reliable,” said Jeff Messer, who recently moved to Rutland to work for Green Mountain Power. The Vermont Association of Snow Travelers, the statewide organization, has 23,000 dues-paying members, and says that snowmobiling represents 500 jobs in the state.
If it doesn't result from a government grant, it ain't news around here. What an absolute WASTE OF TAX DOLLARS! Once again we are fed with the pablum that it's all about jobs, which is purely B.S. Why are we as a nation $18 TRILLION IN DEBT? Because we can never stop inventing unsubstantiated justifications (lies) for why tax money needs to be spent on supercilious pet projects of advocated for by self-serving special interest groups. And the further irony? The federal government has been sounding the alarm for years about the detrimental effects of global warming and the warming/changing climate, which by that reasoning results in less snow. Yet, at the same time they shell out federal dollars for a snow cat. TO OBLIVION AND BEYOND....
ReplyDeleteIf you understand monetary sovereignty (which the US has), you would understand that even an actual $18 trillion dollar debt is no big deal; it's the interest payment on the debt which matters. As the US economy is hovering at the zero lower boundary, we are paying almost zip on interest.
ReplyDeleteSo, spending more state and federal funds in a ZLB situation is needed in order to escape the unemployment/risk of serious deflation situation that plagues us. As people earn wages, they pay taxes on the income, which reduces the need for borrowing, so the need for debt is diminished. Add to that the revision of the tax code to preserve the middle class (go ahead, call it socialism!), and you wind up out of debt.
Without the government grant providing a snow grooming machine, the Ridge Riders would just have another trail system declining into seediness, with tourist use falling off, tourist income declining and a further impoverishment in our economic situation.
Chuck, you are such a tool of left-wing propaganda and fallacies. America itself is "declining into seediness" in spite of years of deficit spending that's accumulated $18T in national debt. That is prima facie evidence and no amount of your whining and feeble theories or obtuse assertions can refute it. America is going bust and the left-wing idiocrats like yourself have driven us there.
DeleteBy the way, let's update your rant to ensure it reflects the contemporary state: As people earn [lower and lower] wages, [and] they pay [increased] taxes on the [reduced] income, [it increases] the need for borrowing [merely to sustain their present standard of living], so the debt [continues to skyrocket and finally results in total economic collapse]. Which also means that the sales of snowmobiles plummet, snowmobile clubs disappear, and the oh so well-groomed trails that the snow cat was wastefully acquired for lie dormant.
Sorry, 6:38, but it wasn't "years of deficit spending" that sucked Precision Valley out of Springfield and the majority of manufacturing out of the US; it was what's described in Hedrick Smith's book, "What Happened to the American Dream?"
DeleteYour rearrangement of my argument does raise some interesting sidelights you might want to look into: the increase of taxes on the lower 80% is indeed true; but why haven't they gone up for the top 5%, which has made 95% of the gains in income due to the productivity gains of the last 40-50 years? You are simply wrong about the debt skyrocketing-- believe it or not, Obama's policies have reduced it significantly-- and (this should make you happy) not by means I particularly appreciate.
In fact, focusing on the debt is a ploy to distract you from the tax advantages the wealthiest enjoy as a result of owning Congress.
Accept that you are not a millionaire who is temporarily embarrassed. You are are one of the 250 million who are no better off now than you were 40 years ago. If you can't understand that you will never, ever be a member of their club, you will keep being fooled by the misdirection. If that status doesn't hurt you personally, it is surely going to hurt your children. I think you would worry about that.
Drip, drip, drip, drip, Charlie… You’re like the proverbial leaky faucet – and about as annoying, too. Your narrow mind never fails to retreat into your literary world of select liberal propaganda and “blame America first” anecdotes while trying to distract from the culpability that your favorite left-wing politicians, union bosses, and so-called economists share in the economic malaise of Springfield and the State of Vermont. You are Johnny One-Note, always playing the tune of higher taxes, higher government spending, and increased government intervention, while you hypocritically urge those around you to subsequently misapply their free will in order to lower their own standards of living for the sake of accommodating the almighty state so that it might increase its support to your growing band of economic free-riders (you know, just forgo a cup of coffee here, or a tank of gas there and divert those funds to the government where they can be wasted in vain on extending the failed dream of a successful centrally planned economy).
ReplyDeleteDespite your false assertions otherwise, your radical left-wing ally in the White House along with a liberal Democrat Senate has increased the national debt dollar wise more than any of their predecessors. The debt increases over the Obama years have been astronomical:
• FY 2014 - $1.022 trillion
• FY 2013 - $672 billion.
• FY 2012 - $1.276 trillion.
• FY 2011 - $1.229 trillion.
• FY 2010 - $1.652 trillion.
• FY 2009 - $253 billion.
And even so, with the federal monetary faucets wide open, your leftist heroes Leahy, Sanders, and Welch have achieved precious little for this long suffering town and laggard state, proving again that more government can’t fill the vacuum of private enterprise that it has driven off through oppressive, interventionist, and costly laws, regulations, and policies. Yet, you just keep drinking the Kool Aid and obsessively advocating for a continuation of the same failed and increasingly radical left-wing agenda that has taken us deeper into the abyss. Such a foolish consistency is indeed the hobgoblin of little minds as Emerson correctly observed!
Chuckles, thanks for finally demonstrating that there is at least one "shovel ready" project left in America - your leftist compost!