ReTodd, to anwser a few questions, yes expensives have gone way up, our sled registrations have actually gone down, dont ask me why but they have, If I am correct, we were down about 2000 sleds reg last season, so we get less reg money and less gas tax money, the gas tax money is figured on how many sleds registered, X 125 gallons of gas per sled, X .22 cents, so when sled regs are down we loose a lot of gas tax money also. To Ericbigbore, If I am correct on this, it's the non motorized snoparks that went way up, we get none of that money, but I think for the first time , Out of staters ect can buy motorized snopark permits on line, that money we do get, Probably wont be a ton but its a start. As for the dry spell, yes some of the groomer operators did keep grooming, some did not, it was there call unfortunately. I'm not sticking up for them but they have a lot of money invested in equipment and they make nothing if it's parked, Most operators try and stretch it out the entire season, the baker area is one area that has been shorted for years. If we could just get more money in the system, they could technically get a "raise". They need it and deserve it. As for the groomer at gold creek, he is kind of a Hell'un, You have to have a Forest service permit to groom, he does not have one as far as I know. The forest service does have the contract to groom that area. If were up to me , Hey I'd let him up there anytime he wanted to. Yes technically the can issue him a ticket for running up there. WSSA does have legal coucil in Olympia, they are working on the license fee increase, I believe. Thoses gooba's down there cant figure out why we would want to raise our fee's, they just dont get it. I will find out more about this real soon. The snowmobile season has always been from dec thru march with a 16 week program, thats just the way it was set up years ago. This is an unusuall year to get snow this early. It would be nice to start early but than we would not have enough money to finish thru march, Hope that might explain a few things. It's all politics ya know, we do the best with what we have , for now anyways.
Thanks Dan and thanks again for your efforts. If there's anything else we can do to help those knuckleheads in Olympia understand where we are coming from, let us know.