by Dan Nitzel, NOHVA Business Manager

On December 3, 2002, a trails focus meeting was held in Grand Island at the Chamber of Commerce building. The meeting was sponsored by the Nebraska Game and Parks commission. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain opinions on the need for places to operate an off-highway vehicle for recreation and what type facilities we desire.

Turn out for the meeting was AWESOME! Included in the crowd was a large number of NOHVA members, as well as many members of the Nebraska State Snowmobile Association. Also in attendance at the meeting were jeep enthusiasts and sand buggy and sand rail enthusiasts. The meeting room was crowed to capacity AND people over-flowed into the hallway! Attendance was set at 150 to 200.

Items discussed at the meeting included the definitions of motorized recreation vehicles and desired trails and areas where they can be used. There was some discussion concerning the design of ATV, dirtbike and snowmobile trails.

While the meeting was intended to be a forum to solicit constructive ideas for motorized recreation, at times it turned into a heated session targeting our organization (NOHVA) and myself. The attendee’s who disrupted the meeting were sand rail/dune buggy owners and jeep owners.

Much to our dismay, state officials at the meeting came away from the meeting with the impression that there was a considerable amount of in-fighting with in OUR group. Apparently, state officials did not understand that our organization does not represent sand rail/dune buggy and jeep owners, even though the sand rail/dune buggy and jeep owners stated that we were to represent sand rail and jeep users. I will discuss who we represent and who we do not in an article entitled "Just What Is an OHV?" in this newsletter.

All in all, I believe that the results of the meeting were positive. There was a HUGH attendance. Those in attendance presented many good ideas. Let’s simply hope that the meeting will result in some positive projects for us! Thanks to Game and Parks and Michelle Stryker for putting this focus group meeting together!

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This page was updated on Wednesday, January 19, 2005