The leaves have begun to pop and the weather reports have the first mention of the s-word. Another sign of the changing seasons is the start-up of the Thunder Chicken’s monthly meetings. Once again we would like to express our gratitude to our hosts, Caesar’s Fare restaurant in South Barre. Our meetings are scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month as follows:

Our meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. and refreshments are provided. For those members wishing to ride in once the season begins, Caesar’s Fare is located on Trail 14F in South Barre. We hope
to see you there.

If you were born after July 1983 and are over 12 years of age, you must be certified in order to operate a snowmobile on the VAST trail system. In order facilitate the certification process the Barre Town Thunder Chickens, in conjunction with our neighboring club, the Sno-Bees of Barre will once again be putting on a safety course. The date for the course this year is December 1^st and it will be held again at the Barre Town Elementary School. Pre-registration is required as enrollment is limited to the first 40 students. Please contact Dave Rouleau for registration at 802-371-1279 or by emailing Safetycourse@BarreTownThunderChickens.com.

The safety course runs from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and lunch will be provided. Parents are welcomed to attend.

Landowner Spotlight

This month we’d like to put the spotlight on the Rock of Ages Corporation. Through the years Rock of Ages has been a loyal supporter of our club and snowmobiling in general. Property manager Alan Garceau is always willing work with us to make sure that the trails running on their property are in top shape and often suggests ideas for improvements. Our latest project involved cutting a new section of trail and constructing a new bridge (see pictures) in order to avoid a section that had been vulnerable to washouts during heavy rains. Alan was generous with his time and experience and proved to be a valuable asset with this project. Once again the Barre Town Thunder Chickens would like to thank the Rock of Ages Corporation for all they do for snowmobiling in Central Vermont.

Our dedicated core group of volunteers has been gathering every Saturday morning for the last several weeks to work on the trails. We have been lucky enough (knock on wood) to avoid any major trail relocation projects this year, so the majority of the work being done has been brush hogging and the clearing of downed trees. There has been quite a bit of excavator work needed to replace and repair culverts and washouts, but considering some of the damage around us, we have been very lucky. If you would like to lend a hand, please contact Jon Joslin at (802) 476-9709.

A picture of the nearly completed bridge project, adjacent to the Barre Town bike path in Graniteville.

Every project needs supervisors.

. As most of you have probably already heard, VAST will be introducing a new TMA structure this year. In addition to the new classes of TMA’s such as antique, classic, family and the 5 day passes, there will be a discount provided for "early-bird" purchases. If you purchase your TMA prior to December 15^th, you will pay $65 + county and club dues for a resident TMA and $95 + county and club dues for a non-resident TMA after December 15^th the prices jump up to $90 and $130 respectively. I urge all of you to take advantage of this opportunity to save a little money and support the sport of snowmobiling. For a complete rundown of the new TMA structure please go to the TMA description web page.

  Annual Raffle
Our annual fundraising raffle was held on Friday, November 2^nd, 2007 at the Canadian Club in Barre. This year in a new twist, we offered the lucky winner their choice of a 2007 Polaris 450 4X4, a 2008 Polaris 550 LX snowmobile or $5000 in cash. This year’s winner was Jim Lacourse. Congratulations Jim! We would like to thank everyone who helped make the raffle a success once again and for the 99 other ticket holders, better luck next year.
 

Annual Christmas Party

The date for the annual Holiday Gathering has been tentatively set for Wednesday Dec. 5th; we may have to go with Thursday Dec 6th based on the availability of the church hall. We will send out a final notification as soon as it is confirmed. We are trying to have it a week earlier this year in order to avoid conflicts with school winter concerts and such. Once again this year Santa will be paying our party a visit complete with gifts for the children. Janelle Anderson has volunteered to be Santa’s assistant again this year. Thanks in advance Janelle. As the party date will come up quickly - please get your child's name/age/sex to Janelle (aussiesinvt@verizon.net ) so that she has time to get the information to Santa. For the adults, there will be a Yankee Swap ($10-$15 range gift). Please bring dish/dessert for the pot luck.

Trail Projects

Our dedicated volunteers are signing and marking the trails in the final stages of preparing our system for the upcoming season. If you would like to lend a hand please contact Jon Joslin at (802) 476-9709.

Trail sponsorships are available. If your business is interested in putting its name in front of thousands of faces every winter while helping provide some of the best trails in Central Vermont, contact Greg Isabelle at 802-476-0280.

Officers/Directors 2007-2008

President – David Rouleau

Vice President – Mark Reaves

Treasurer – Steven Arguin

Secretary/Membership – Donna Keene

Trail Master – Jon Joslin

Groomer – Vinny Covino

Gary Klinefelter
Steve Malnati
Doug Anderson

George Hunt
 Kevin Collins
Nathan Hunt

Trail Sponsorship – Greg Isabelle
Website Coordinator – Patti Covino                                         

 Click Here to view - October 2007 Newsletter