You do not vote (other then with your pocket books), so I don't think the commisioners care if you call them or not. If they cared, they would have fixed this problem last August when people started warning them about it.
That's right folks. The guy in charge the past 2 years quit in August because the commissioners and the state parks and rec wouldn't help him. This was not a last minute issue, this is not equipment problems, this is not weather patterns, this is folks who just don't care.
The commissioners have a long history of giving lip service then taking the grooming moneys and spending it on something they do care about.
As for Wernex. he is about worthless IMO. State law says the state MUST give all the grooming money to the county, and then the county can do whatever they want with it. I worked up there for 2 years, and if you need a letter written, Wernex is your man. If you need anything else, the time never seems to be right for him to do anything.
One of Wernex's bosses is a guy at Parks and Rec named Troy. I called him in November, and he assured me the season would be great.
When all done, all of these folks work for Butch Otter. Butch Otter has relatives who ride up there who will be calling him in the coming week.
As for signs, In the state, the vast "normal" is clubs actually set the signs out and maintain them. McCall clubs don't seem to do that, and never have.
Is it the forest service's job to maintain signs on county and federal roads? Maybe yes, maybe no, but the real world says the forest service will get to it when they can, and there are a LOT of trail signs to maintain and only a teeny bit of one guy's life to get it done.
My suggestion has ALWAYS been for the grooming program to maintain the signs. Hire someone to sell stickers in the parking lots, fix signs, cut trees, cruise the trails, listen to riders's suggestions. Make it their job.
It is NOT a realistic option for a groomer operator to fix signs during their grooming runs. Trust me - this sounds like an easy solution, but it does not work.
If they won't pay for it, then find a volunteer to help the Forest Service get them out, and then maintain them. I bet teh Forest Service guy would be pretty agreeable about getting some help.
I would REALLY like the program to be successful. I would be totally willing to give thoughts and advice to whoever ends up running the program.
When all done, my opinion is it will take calls to the governor to make a fundamental change in how the system works.
The ISSA and the University of Idaho did a study of snowmobile's impact on the economy in Valley and Adams county. The number they came up with was 6.2 million dollars a year.
Again, not a penny goes to the local clubs nor to the commissioners. The club officers and commissioners are on fixed incomes, and are insulated from the effects of tourism.
McCall is different then any other program in the state. McCall is big money, big quantities of people, and big opportunity. McCall also has a BUNCH of tree hugging nature nazis locals who don't want snowmobilers.
On top of all that, McCall does not have a large population center to provide volunteers to help out, and the locals do want to protect their little bit of paradise.
This time the trails we rode were in great shape 