Polaris Awards Nebraska Grants

Polaris Awards Nebraska Grants By Dan Nitzel, NOHVA Business Manager
The Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Association (NOHVA) is pleased to announce that Polaris Industries has awarded NOHVA a $10,000 grant to benefit ATV and dirtbike riders on public trails and parks. The Flat Rock Riders Club, a independent chapter of NOHVA in the North Platte area has been earmarked to receive a grant of $10,000 as well. Total funding planned to be received by Nebraska from Polaris is $20,000. The NOHVA grant will supplement NOHVA funds used to provide liability insurance involving four NOHVA projects. These projects include the Headworks OHV Park near Genoa, trails at Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, the Flat Rock Riders OHV Park near Sutherland, and a pending project involving the Alliance MX Association near Alliance. Additionally, the NOHVA grant will finance trail work on the Dismal River trail and trail planning and documentation at the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey.
	April 2005 - Volunteer NOHVA Members install fence crossings along trail routes so that ATV and dirtbike riders do not have to get off their machines to open the gate. The crossing also helps reduce the incidence of people leaving gates open. NOHVA strives to work with all users of the forest including non-motorized trailer users and allotment holders who graze cattle. Most all the trails materials used on most of the ATV trails at the Nebraska National Forest are purchased with voluntary membership fees paid by NOHVA members.
The grant awarded to the Flat Rock Riders OHV Park is planned to provide improvements involving emergency access, trail work, rest rooms, parking, signs and fencing. Final details of this grant are being worked out with the Flat Rock Riders pending a re-organization of the group. The grants are part of Polaris’s new T.R.A.I.L.S. program. The program makes funds available to national, state and local organizations in the United States to ensure the future of ATV riding. T.R.A.I.L.S. stands for: T = Trail Development R = Responsible Riding A = Access I = Initiatives L = Lobbying S = Safety
	October 2005 - Motoplex of Norfolk provides an ATV pulling sled at our Jamborees. Over 3000 riders attend our two jamborees each year and are enjoyed by riders of all ages. These are family events. A grant from Polaris will ensure that the jamborees will continue through 2006.
The grant program encompasses two main objectives – promoting safe and responsible riding, and preserving access. The Polaris grants came along just in time to help NOHVA. NOHVA membership has dropped 30% since 2004 and insurance has increased 300% because of a prior miss-calculation in policy rates. Knowing that membership is dropping and considering that it was unlikely that we would be able to fund the increased insurance costs for the long term, bankruptcy was on the horizon. We were beginning to plan how NOHVA would be dissolved. Our calculations concluded that we would need to increase voluntary memberships by 70% from the April 2006 levels to fund the new insurance policy, and continue our commitments to funding ATV and dirtbike events such as our jamborees, our trail repair Ride ‘n Work days, our funding trail maintenance materials, and providing funding for rider education. The Polaris grants are a godsend to our organization! The next time you are in the market for an ATV, look seriously at the Polaris lineup! Polaris is currently the only manufacturer of ATVs that help directly fund our recreation on public trails and parks in Nebraska and many other states. A portion of the price you pay for a Polaris ATV is directed to the T.R.A.I.L.S. fund, and the fund is directly distributed to organizations like our own.
	April 2006 - A NOHVA member volunteer is pulling a tree from the Poison Ivy trail at the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey. NOHVA members volunteered over 450 hours of labor at the NOHVA Ride 'n Work weekend at the Nebraska National Forest. Our goal this year was to make the most heavily traveled trails safer by clearing blind corners on the Dismal River Trail and Poison Ivy trails. Both trails were originally built by NOHVA volunteers and continue to be maintained by NOHVA members. A Polaris grant will help provide funds to rehabilitate the Dismal River trail with the help of NOHVA volunteers.
The T.R.A.I.L.S. fund serves as an innovative example of how a manufacturer can help grass-roots rider managed organizations like our own continue to exist. Generally, in the past other manufacturers allowed organizations like NOHVA to struggle along and frequently dissolve. Polaris has determined to blaze new trails, so to speak. Maybe the other manufacturers will take notice, and decide that they need to do more to directly fund local and state organizations and save the sport of recreational riding of ATVs and dirtbikes on public land. Thank you Polaris for single-handedly enabling us to continue to exist to manage and fund existing and new trails projects in Nebraska. Thank you for enabling us to continue our effort to organize new ATV groups in our state that hope to develop new public facilities where people and families can enjoy your fine products. Also thanks to Don Novotny, owner of Motoplex of Norfolk for his support of our organization, his encouragement, advice, and helping us with the grant process!
About NOHVA: The Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Association is a not-for-profit Nebraska corporation for recreational All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and off-road motorcycle (dirtbike) riders. We were organized in 1987. Our goals are to preserve existing places to ride in Nebraska, promote responsible and safe ATV/dirtbike use, and to educate and serve the interests of recreational ATV and dirtbike owners. We count on people who ride at the public trails and parks we help mange to volunteer their support via a low cost membership fee to help fund the areas they enjoy. We have seven chapters in eastern, central and west central Nebraska. Contact us from our web site at www.nohva.com , via Email , or by phone at 308-381-2143. Our business office and mailing address is 2231 W. 10^th Street, Grand Island, NE 68803.

Copyright © 2003-2006 TBQ Sport Club, Inc. / d.b.a. Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Association
Reproduction of any part of this web site is prohibited without permission. Read our Disclaimer for information
This Site is Designed and Maintained by hookusup.com
This page was updated on Tuesday, September 19, 2006