back

ATV Impound Legislation; Insurance Resolutions

To NY Club Leaders and OHV Advocates:

I have been called twice today by reporters about an ATV impound bill
in
the NYS Legislature (A.8480-Englebright/S.5073-LaValle), which means it
is getting a lot of attention. Seems the Adirondack Mt. Club and
Adirondack Council were present to support the bills at press
conference
announcing them. It is my estimation that they are trying to divert the
issue away from a better comprehensive solution because they would
rather control the issue and get shallow media coverage than have a
positive outcome. My statements to the press have been to be supportive
of the notion of enforcement as it benefits getting legal places to
ride, but not to exclude it from the comprehensive process already
underway by both State Legislature Tourism Chairs (Assemblyman Morelle
and Senator Maziarz). It should be interesting to see how this spins,
and I'm hoping that the fact that these bills undermine what is already
being proposed and agreed to by the anti-access groups will make them
look foolish. Your members' attention to this by contacting their
Legislative members will be timely to see that proper trail funding
legislation gets advanced rather than this.
(Bill Summary and text at http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A08480)

In other news, we are pleased to announce that two more County
Legislatures, Lewis and Franklin (first was St. Lawrence) have passed
similar Resolutions directing the State government to solve the Club
Insurance crisis. Clubs in other counties should approach their own
County Legislative representatives to have similar resolutions passed
to
make the message even more clear. A copy of the St. Lawrence Resolution
was sent around in recent days that can be used as a template for your
County's purposes.

Alex Ernst
www.nysorva.org