Snowmobile club has new hope for season

DEER LAKE - The Junction Trail Blazers are going to have another annual general meeting.

The club held one a couple of weeks ago, but it was so poorly attended that its executive members were considering dissolving the organization.

Trail Blazers president Wilf Curlew said he met with a number of key players Wednesday along with members of the Town of Deer Lake's "hub" committee - which is trying to have the town officially designated as the hub of snowmobiling in the province.

Curlew said he left the meeting with some new possibilities for the club.

"The town may help out wit a bit of brush cutting and erecting some signage on the trails within the town," Curlew said. "Of course that's something that they'll talk about at a council meeting.

"But the hub committee made it clear the town doesn't have money to invest in our operations. But there may be some things they can help us out with. I also have a meeting set up with the Deer Lake Chamber of Commerce next week to talk about possibly get some corporate sponsors. Maybe then we could look at getting a paid employee to operate a groomer."

One of the key issues for the club is the lack of volunteer support. Curlew said he has only received calls from three people offering to volunteer since the news of the Trail Blazers' woes hit the airwaves.

"Honestly, we need a lot more volunteer help," Curlew said. "We're going to hold a second annual general meeting before the end of the month.

"Hopefully we can get enough volunteer support to get up and running again. We need people to get a social committee together, but really, we need volunteers for all areas."

Curlew said the club will accept help from anybody who's willing to donate some time. Meanwhile, Curlew said the business of selling trail stickers will get underway this week.

"We've got to get our trail sticker sales going for this season," he said. "We're planning to scale back on the number of places we're going to sell the trail passes. We're also planning to set up at local businesses on weekends to sell passes."

However, Curlew admitted that if the volunteer support doesn't come forward, the club could still fold before the season gets underway, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.
The most pressing question, for snowmobile users, is whether they'll be expected to buy trail passes if the club does dissolve and the trails aren't groomed this winter.