SPRINGHILL – Grooming more than 200 kilometres of snowmobile trails twice a week during the winter can be tough on a trail grooming machine.
“We’re always fundraising. Whether we’re funding for maintenance or fundraising to buy new equipment, the fundraising is ongoing,” said Greg Morash, president of the Cumberland Snowmobile Club.
The latest fundraising efforts went towards the purchase of a trail-grooming machine.
Morash was in Springhill on Saturday to display the latest grooming machine to the public.
“That’s a used piece of equipment. We searched for a long time to find one. We had to get it out of the States to get it here. It’s low mileage and in good shape,” said Morash.
The new machine, a Tucker Terra 2000, is stationed in Springhill, and will maintain approximately 200 kilometres between the Trans-Canada Highway and Southampton.
The Springhill machine is part of a three-groomer stable that includes a new John Deere groomer the club purchased in 2014, and an AGCO Gilbert groomer purchased in 2015. The John Deere grooms trails in the Collingwood area and the AGCO grooms trails in the Amherst area.
All together, the three groomers work 550 kilometres of trails in Cumberland and Colchester County.
Besides fundraising, the latest groomer was purchased with $10,000 from the Municipality of Cumberland County, $10,000 from the Snowmobile Association of Nova Scotia, and $50,000 from the Government of Canada.
Bill Casey, MP for Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley was in Springhill on Saturday as well.
He said the new groomer will make local trails safer, more accessible, and will bring more people to the trail system.
“More people are snowmobiling and using ATV’s (all terrain vehicles), and this groomer will make the local trails more usable,” said Casey.
He also said the new groomer ties in nicely with the opening of the Trans-Canada Trail system.
“We’re having ongoing discussions on building a trail system from Calais, Maine, up around the Bay of Fundy, through Cumberland and down to Yarmouth,” said Casey. “Having well-groomed trails will increase tourism.”
Morash thanked volunteers and sponsors for their support.
“I thank the volunteers for all their hard work and for our sponsors for making this all possible,” said Morash.
