FORT KENT, Maine – Fort Kent Town Council voted unanimously on Monday to let the Fort Kent Snoriders snowmobile club, a local nonprofit, lease a $148,500 2018 Tucker Model 2000 Trail Groomer through the town’s snowmobile association.
The snowmobile association, according to Fort Kent Town Manager Suzie Paradis, is an account that the town administers in which it receives grant funding to pay for trail grooming expenses. The town is leasing the Tucker groomer through the association, but the snowmobile club will be paying for it through membership dues and fundraisers.
The groomer, if purchased outright, would have depleted most of the snowmobile association and snowmobile club’s funds. Paradis suggested that the club lease the equipment over the next five years to avoid draining the account. With a down payment of roughly $45,000, the club would pay about $21,000 annually for five years.
Snowmobiling, particularly in Aroostook County, is a major economic booster in Maine. The industry brings in about $600 million annually to the state. Several businesses throughout Fort Kent and the St. John Valley depend on revenue from snowmobilers during the winter months.
And while Fort Kent has recently experienced mild winters, the town typically sees about 151 to 160 inches of snow per year.
Snowmobile Club President Matthew Collin said the Tucker would be used with their existing equipment, as it has advantages over the tractor that they currently use. The tractor, he said, struggles climbing hills in the part of the late season when the ground is icy.
“This new Tucker that we’re looking at has steel lags,” he said. “We are anticipating it not to have any issues.”
He said the Tucker is almost brand new, with only 1,100 hours of use, an upgraded track system, and an upgraded transmission.
The council asked if this would be safer to use under a bridge in town, and Collin agreed.
“There’s a lot of places where the Tucker is more well-built and utilized in certain spots than the tractors,” he said. “So we will be using them in tandem.”
By doing this, he said it will allow more members of the grooming crew to access the trails simultaneously. There are only a handful of people in the club able to run the tractor, which limits the pace of work.
“With the Tucker, all of a sudden we go from 10 to 18 potential grooming operators, which takes a lot of pressure off the rest of those guys that need to go out there and cover 60 plus miles of trail,” he said.
Collin said the town’s trail system is well known throughout the state, and this new groomer should help them uphold that reputation.
“We have a very good grooming operation,” he said. “So if we can maintain that, we’ll continue to bring that revenue for the club and the town.”
