The Sno-Eagles selected Rachele Drayna as the 1996-1997 Miss Sno-Eagle from 3 applicants. Congratulations to Rachele. She was crowned at the December Christmas party.
At the January 1996 meeting there was a long discussion with members and the Vilas County Sheriff’s Department regarding snowmobilers leaving the trails and riding over the potato fields. George Hallis and Dale Mayo explained how trail maintenance funding and supplemental funding works. The club now has 121 members.
In February the Board of Directors and membership approved Headwaters Trails assuming responsibility for maintaining the trails, signage, as well as grooming. Headwaters was the only organization that wanted to take the trail system over from Sno-Eagles. Headwaters Trails is leasing a new BR-160 from RMS Iron Mountain at a cost of $1,020 per week. Equipment breakdowns are hurting Headwaters. Headwaters Trails is receiving many complaints regarding bumpy trails around Eagle River. The Headwaters Club is looking at trading in the old Tucker and the Bombardier SV-252 for the BR-160 and a nearly new Tucker. The club found that tractors like our John Deere do not work well on our trail system.
The March meeting was a sad meeting for the Sno-Eagles as member Bob Tallar passed away. The club will make a $50 donation to St. Jude’s Hospital in his name. An election of officers and directors for the Sno-Eagles happened at the March 21 meeting. Jim Ayers was elected President, Jerry Tahtinen VP, Audrey Stearns Treasurer, Sue Ann Bergevin Secretary, and Scott Saunders, Gary Case, Elmer Jensen, and John Mors were elected Directors.
The April meeting reported the upcoming Spring Fling dinner in May and planning for summer activities. Headwaters Trails did trade in their two groomers for two newer groomers, giving them a loan balance of $82,000. The Sno-Eagles will give Headwaters the $27,000 the club has in CD’s to help fund groomers.
The annual July 4th parade, canoe trip and summer picnic were well attended and fun.
By September all map ads were sold and thank you to George Hallis and his committee for a great job.
The Annual Hayride was scheduled for October 11 departing from the groomer shed heading to the Buckatabon shelter.
The big news for the club in November was the Town of Lincoln approved the use of Adams Road for a snowmobile trail going north out of Eagle River.
The Christmas Dinner was scheduled for December 14 at the Hiawatha Supper Club. Directors meeting in December was held at the Copper Kettle. December 5 was the annual Snowmobile Safety School with 34 young snowmobilers attending.
The Sno-Eagles will continue to man and fund the snowmobile Trail Patrol as Headwaters cannot do this activity.