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WHAT'S NEW ARCHIVE
06-25-08: Here's a great article highlighting SMATVA's contribution to the trail, and how well it works as a multi-use trail - Appaloosa. 04-23-08: Winners from the last rally: 1. LARRY CABOT - $150.00, 2. HARRIETTE MOULTON - $100.00, 3. JOHN DESROCHES - $50.00, 4. LUKE KAIZER - HAT+SWEATER, 5. JOSH NAVID - HAT+SWEATER, 6. BOB CONRAD - GOLF SHIRT 01-23-08: Congratulations to SMATVA for being the top club in fundraiser ticket sales. We sold close to 1000 tickets, with the second place club selling not quite 600. A big thank you to all the club members who helped in attaining this position. Special mention to Donna McEachren, who sold almost half of these tickets. She was the second place seller from all the clubs in NS. 12-02-07: Info on ATV course rules - http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/ohv/whocanride.asp 11-21-07: Great new article on ATVing 11-21-07: View the new ATVANS poster 09-22-07: Off-road park proposal
We have a high quality pull behind ATV trailer available that is not offered anywhere else in the Atlantic Provinces.
Not only is it the best on the market, it is reasonably priced as well. Feel free to check it out on our web site. I think you will agree, we have an awesome accessory that any ATV enthusiast would be proud to show off.
We all went through the tunnel under the 103 and the overall consensus was it was cool and neat.
The trail and ramp was fine, although very rough and rocky. Winter usage will be preferred for most rallies. The day was beautiful, and the meal at the clubhouse was delicious. Thanks to Marion, Donna, Jimmy, Dave, Ray, and Ruby for organizing the meal and selling tickets. There may be more that helped that I am not aware of. Hats off to all of you. Ruby Dorey won the 50/50 draw. Lots of food left over so we will have a table set up at the next meeting for sandwiches. The kitchen may also be doing hotdogs and hamburgers. Natural Resources/Health Promotion and Protection
May 7, 2007 13:54 Off-highway vehicle users will soon have access to new trails and riding areas thanks to $700,000 worth of grants available through the off-highway vehicle infrastructure fund. The fund was created as part of the province's action plan to help make trails more accessible and enjoyable for responsible users. Each year when off-highway vehicle owners register vehicles, they contribute $40 toward the fund. Only those owners who contribute to the fund are permitted to use the trails. "Part of being a responsible off-highway vehicle user is to demonstrate a commitment to building safe and accessible places to ride," said Laurie Cranton, chair of the Off-highway Vehicle Ministerial Advisory Committee. "By investing in the infrastructure fund, owners are investing in the future acceptance and sustainability of the sport." The Off-highway Vehicle Ministerial Advisory Committee developed a process to assess funding applications and administer the off-highway vehicle fund infrastructure fund. Barry Barnet, Minister of Health Promotion and Protection, and David Morse, Minister of Natural Resources have accepted the advisory committee's recommendation on the process. The process allows funding applications to be received and analyzed by the advisory committee. Formal recommendations and funding amounts will then be submitted to both ministers for final approval. The Off-Highway Vehicle Ministerial Advisory Committee is represented by a cross-section of groups, including off-highway vehicle riders, landowners, the environment and the medical community. 05-20-07: The OHV Advisory Committee's website can be found here - http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/ohv/ohv-minutes.asp. This committee has been formed to advise government on OHV issues and how to administer the new fees collected from OHV owners at yearly registration of their ATVs. Department of Natural Resources
March 21, 2007 11:54 Amendments to off-highway vehicle (OHV) regulations help clarify where off-highway vehicle operators can drive, better define how landowners can grant permission for use of their property and will exempt some experienced riders from safety training courses. "We are continually working to improve how Nova Scotia governs its off-highway vehicles," Natural Resources Minister David Morse said today, March 21. "We have listened to the many operators who have expressed concern about not being able to use traditional paths on Crown logging roads, for example, and to landowners who wanted simpler ways of granting permission for OHVs to use their land. The amendments we are making continue our ongoing effort to regulate off-highway vehicles in a way that helps promote their safe and responsible use." The revised regulations, which take effect immediately, allow off-highway vehicles to use "established trails," that were traditionally used by OHVs before April 1, 2006, unless permission by the landowner has been withdrawn or the route falls within restricted zones such as wilderness areas or beach dunes, for example. The changes also allow the use of unmaintained, public k-class roads and of logging roads on Crown land, again unless the roads are within areas prohibited under the Off-highway Vehicle Act. The regulations also expand the definition of "written permission" to allow landowners or occupiers to sign one document granting general permission to use their property. The revised regulations also change the training requirements for some experienced off-highway vehicle operators. Safety training courses will no longer be required for a person (or his/her common-law/ married spouse or domestic partner) who: -- purchased an off-highway vehicle prior to April 1, 2006, and -- registered an off-highway vehicle on or before Sept. 30, 2007, and -- has a current driver's licence. The exemption would be lifted and the person would then have to complete safety training if his or her driver's licence is suspended or revoked, or the person is convicted of an offence under the Off-highway Vehicle Act. The revised regulations will be available later on the website at www.gov.ns.ca/natr. Al Pace and Mike Marriott will be attending on behalf of SMATVA.
Unfortunately we will only be able to accommodate 2 delegates from each club, as the meeting room accommodation will only allow for 90 people and we have 41 clubs eligible to attend. As per ATVANS by-laws, each club only has the right to have 2 voting delegates. This years conference will have a very interesting agenda and I am sure all clubs will want to attend, but there will be a deadline for delegate registration. Sorry we are not able to send out an agenda yet, but we still need a few confirmations…hope this is helpful. This is reminder to all clubs that are not registered with ATVANS for 2007 as of this date. The ATVANS membership year is January 1 to December 31 of the same year and clubs that have not sent their new memberships within 15 days of that date are in default and the re-instatement of a club in default must be approved by the Presidents office. Members pay their dues in good faith, but the club executive is failing to remit this money and membership as specified and can be held accountable for failing to carry out their fiduciary duties as defined in the ATVANS by-laws and the Societies Act. 1) Membership forms and ATVANS remittance is due and payable on the last day of the month in which it was collected. 2) All clubs will remit a club executive list with their first remittance: name and office, telephone number and e mail address. 3) If you have already made your first remittance and forgot to send in your club executive list, please prepare one ASAP and sent it to Heather at ATVANS Admin bmatvans@eastlink.ca 4) PLEASE, complete the membership in detail. 5) If you are contacted to supply missing information, please respond to Heather as quickly as possible, her job is difficult enough, don't make it impossible! 6) Clubs in default after the 15 January 2007 relinquish all rights of being a member of ATVANS and these rights are not restored until the membership is re-instated. 7) We have "former members" (2007 membership not received to date) who feel they have the right to criticize the ATVANS executive for not doing what they think should be done, but in fact this criticism should be leveled at the club executive for not carrying out their duties to ATVANS. 8) Keep in mind that the ATVANS executive is a volunteer body that devote many hours in pursuit of improving our sport and it is every members responsibility to support these gallant folks When you get the urge to criticize, stop and ask yourself these few simple questions 1) could I do better? 2) If you feel you are equal to the challenge, elections are at the fall AGM every odd year and any member in good standing is invited to stand for election for any office, zone directors are done in a different manner, they are appointed/or volunteer, but their acceptance must be ratified by the clubs in that particular zone. 3) If your level of input is vocal only, then please follow the proper procedure and present it to your club President, who in turn will forward it to the zone director, who will present it to the elected executive of the association. Thank you and I appeal to your better judgment to help the ATVANS executive do the job they were elected to do! Lets work together!!! Ray Gouthro, Executive Director ATVANS (902) 727-2565, atvans1@xplornet.com
Minister MacIsaac has asked me to respond to your e-mail letter of Feb. 26, 2007 concerning off-highway vehicles (OHV) crossing controlled access highways.
The Department does not support OHV's crossing controlled access highways at-grade. Controlled access highways are designed to carry high volumes of high speed traffic and allowing at-grade OHV crossings is a safety concern. Although our controlled access highways do have a few at-grade highway crossings, it is the intent of the Department to eliminate each of these as time and construction budgets permit. Providing additional at-grade crossings does not fit within the purpose of controlled access highways. The Department does recognize the impediment controlled access highways present to trail development. We are working with staff of the Departments of Natural Resources and Health Promotion and Protection to find ways to remove these impediments. This work will take time and will require amendments to legislation and regulations. It is important that we be given the time necessary to review the problems and identify appropriate solutions. Existing regulations, pursuant to the Off-Highway Vehicle Act, contain the prohibition that prevent OHV's from crossing controlled access highways. These regulations came into effect in the late 1980's, so the prohibition has been in place for some time. You were inquiring about the issuance of a permit to authorize a one day consent enabling the crossing of controlled access highways. I regret to inform you that this is not currently possible as the prohibition on crossing these highways is contained in regulation. There is no process that would permit the Department to issue a permit that has greater precedence than the law (regulations). Therefore it is not possible to develop a permit that would function as written consent to cross controlled access highways. Thank you for your comments regarding highway crossings. This information will be considered in our discussions on this subject. The meeting time for the rally has been changed from 10:00am to 11:00am. The house breaks for lunch at 12:00pm, so everyone will only be there for an hour before the petition is presented to the MLAs.
I have turned their petition into an online petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/ohvpet/petition.html. I am asking you to forward this on to every OHV user you know or anyone who is sympathetic to our cause to get them to sign the petition to show the government that our voice is large and strong. If we, as a community of outdoor enthusiasts, ever wanted to get our voice heard, this is it. Also, click here to get a MS Word copy of the petition and here to get the accompanying MS Excel signature sheet. Please get as many “real” signatures as you can before that date. Once you have the sheet filled, get it back to me and I will look after it from there. Get in touch with me and we will make arrangements, whether by fax or e-mail, let me know. This is the ad we are looking at putting in the local paper: Off Highway Vehicle dealers and users are soliciting your support.
We are asking for you support at a peaceful rally to be held at the legislature in Halifax on March 21 at 11:00am. If you can not make it to Halifax on that date, please go to you closest OHV dealer and sign the petition to show your support. Stan Williams - Isle Royale ATV Club 01-28-07: Thanks to all who came to the January 27th rally. The support was well appreciated on a frigid but beautiful day. Here are the winners of the 3 top poker hands at the rally: John Isnor - $500.00 Jody Graves - $200.00 John Haislip - $100.00 There was a 50/50 draw of $156.00 won by a lucky rider as well. We found it necessary to change our rally route as well as the venue in the last two weeks before the rally in order to satisfy conditions put upon us by the DNR/RCMP, as per highway regulations. We apologize to any rally participants who may have been unfortunate in not being aware of our rally changes before rally day. We posted the changes in as many ways as were available to us. Due to the new enforcement of public highways regulations [1987], that no OHV may be driven across or on the shoulder of a controlled 100 series highway, it was necessary to have all rally registrants drive and unload their ATVs from trucks or trailers after parking off of the north side of the highway. As was apparent to all who were there, this increased vehicle traffic turning off and on the highway in this area by 75%, and was far more unsafe than allowing ATVs to cross one at a time, as is normally done at our rallies and others across the province. We hope to have discussions with various government departments in the coming weeks to implement a short term solution to this issue for upcoming rallies, while setting in motion steps to make changes to the numerous highway acts and legislation/regulations. Our goal is to ensure that safe crossings are put in place for all residents of NS. Please contact your provincial elected officials and lobby for action on approved crossings for OHVs in NS, as this will support all responsible OHV operators in the province. Join your local ATV clubs so that we can use our increased membership province wide to be a force to bring about common sense regulations, increasing safety for all OHV operators as well as the public in our province. 01-24-07: It has become nessasary to change our route and directions to riders registering on rally day. The registration area will now be on the north side of the 103 highway, across from the original parking area. All riders will now be required to park and unload as well on the north side of the 103 highway, and bowater has opened up their woodyard compound to accommodate vehicles and trailers. The area is large enough to handle all anticipated motor vehicles on rally day. Any ATV riders not coming by truck or trailer will need to come in from the north side of 103 highway to register for the rally, without having to cross the highway while operating your ATV. These areas could be accessed legally in the Hubbards area, the Westwood / Sobeys public roads, parking areas, parking in the north side of Ingramport Road and following trails to registration. These trails are not marked and will require someone familiar with them to travel to registration. These changes have come about from the instructions I have recieved from DNR/RCMP that they intend to enforce the legislation under the Public Highways Act that states that on a controlled 100 series highway it is not permissable to drive/operate any OHV across or on the shoulder of these highways, and they most likely will be on our rally in force to apply the law for this as well as the usual OHV requirements. This is now a policy of enforcement that will apply to all rallies in the province of NS from now on. We recommend that all ATVs coming to our rally avoid crossing the highway to attend our rally, even by walking your ATV across, which at this time appears to be the only legal alternative available to OHV operators in NS, as this would be a very unsafe and difficult way to cross, and in no way can we as a club sanction crossing in this way on a rally day or any other day. There has also been an indication that the authorities may charge anyone doing so by giving tickets for impeding traffic on a public roadway, so please use your own judgment and ride safe and legally. The solution into the future for ATV/OHVing in NS is to unite all clubs, ATVANS, and ATV owners to lobby our elected officials in all levels of government to legislate properly posted crossing throughout the province, whether that may be underpasses, designated crossing areas where safe to do so, or whatever can be done to provide all OHV, bikers, and walkers with a safe and proper crossing area, as is done in most other provinces on their 100 series controlled-access highways. In the meantime we as OHV operators involved in clubs (affiliated with the ATV association of NS), and being responsible ATV riders in our communties, need to work with the provincial enforcement agencies to comply with all regulations and situations until we can have these outdated and regressive policies changed to make our sport and recreation activity safer for all Nova Scotians. |
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