The Sharon Pathfinders Snowmobile Club would like to see trail access at Sharon Springs Central School restored.
But Pathfinders President Jon Karker and Vice President Doug Bartlett are also echoing others’ calls that the existing laws—including curfews and where and when the snowmobilers should be traveling—be enforced.
The Pathfinders, along with representatives from the Village of Sharon Springs and the SSCS Board of Education, will be meeting at 7pm Thursday to discuss both the ban and the fact that snowmobilers are now illegally traveling sidewalks because of it.
Mr. Karker said he feels the Pathfinders are getting a “bad rap” because of the actions of a very few.
“We’re not a fly-by-night organization,” he said. “We’re a family organization. We use our own time and money to build and maintain trails and we’ve worked closely with the school for a long time to try to take care of this.”
Long a topic of concern at SSCS, a portion of a state trail running beside the elementary playground was closed in January after a snowmobiler who reportedly was traveling too fast to see the signage prohibiting it, drove past youngsters in the middle of the day.
Mr. Karker and Mr. Bartlett said the club responded—immediately—by adding to signage near the upper athletic fields, but two days later, the school board passed the ban.
‘They didn’t give us time to let it work,” Mr. Karker said. “As a club, we endorse the decision. We support it. We don’t want to see anyone hurt. But we’d like it to go back to the way it was.”
That means the existing laws need to be enforced, both men agreed, and they’ve already approached the Schoharie County Sheriff and DEC to see that that’s done.
Funding for efforts by the Sheriff’s Department is available on a cost-sharing basis through Parks & Recreation, they said.
“It would take just one parked car sitting there, just one ticket, and the word would get out,” Mr. Karker said.
The Pathfinders are made up of 260 families, the two men said, 75 percent of them living in Schoharie and Otsego Counties.
Trail work is funded in part by snowmobile registration fees, but the labor is all-volunteer.
In Otsego County, Mr. Karker said, snowmobiling is a $16 million a year business, with money spent on lodging, gas, and food.
“It a viable economic resource for many communities,” he said.
“Because it’s midway, Sharon Springs is a destination spot for many people for things like gas and food. It brings a lot of money and a lot of business in.”
Thursday’s meeting will be held in the community room of the village’s new offices in the Sharon Springs Free Library building.
The public is welcome, but no comments from the floor will be taken.