Hall had factual statistics that backed up a phenomenon that many people have noticed over the years — that most of the problems encountered with ATV riders are locals who break the rules, not visiting tourists.
Hall said that Hatfield-McCoy's rangers had pulled over 181 riders in the past few months for safety inspections and out of that entire number only had to issue a fine or citation to one man.
"And it turned out he was a local from Matewan," Hall explained. "He got a ticket for not having a helmet or a permit. It also turned out that he was somebody we had warned once before."
Hall said that trespassing on property that is not on the trails system continues to be a problem and that the most recent bad accident Hatfield-McCoy rangers investigated was actually on a closed trail that is not a part of that system any longer.
Hall said that over the winter months, the HMRRA Ranger staff had been visiting more public schools in the area with its safety presentations for children about the outdoors.
"From January to March, we visited 13 schools bringing the number of kids who have received our safety program up to 1,433 kids," Hall said.
Hall said on Feb. 20 all members of Hatfield-McCoy's field crew received first aid and CPR training and that both he and Todd Hamrick had also received some Wilderness Rescue Training.
"We learned how to do tracking in the woods," Hall explained, saying that if somebody is lost the tracking skills they learned would come in handy.
James Brown has been hired as Hatfield-McCoy's newest ranger and the HMRRA will be hiring another ranger soon to handle the Wyoming-McDowell County trail systems. Deadline for application is May 1 and training at the state's police academy will be provided.
Executive Director Jeff Lusk said he would like to see a Ranger hired for all of Hatfield-McCoy's systems and wants to hire the next ranger for the Lincoln and Wayne County systems.
"What we would like is one Ranger for each trail system and each of them would in effect become an expert in their own system.
In other Hatfield-McCoy news:
• Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority Director Jeff Lusk said the trails system will host a special meeting for vendors on April 21 to help them make official Hatfield-McCoy merchandise more prominent in their places of business.
"We also will be making shelving available for them to display our stuff," Lusk said. "Our goal is to raise our retail sales from $188,000 to $300,000 by the end of next year."
• Board member Matt Ballard said he recently traveled to New York and spoke with the marketing and tourism director of American Airlines about the Hatfield-McCoy Trails. Ballard who is a former director of the HMRRA said the airlines marketing folks were very interested in the possibilities for package deals and working with Hatfield-McCoy for tourism destination travel.
"They really want to meet with Jeff (Lusk) and Johnny (Fekete)," Ballard added.
• Kristy Laxton replaced Richard Browning on the board of directors. Laxton is the Wyoming County Economic Development Director.
• HMRRA has requested an additional $250,000 in funding from the legislature and should find out in May if it is approved.
• HMRRA legal counsel Chip Shaffer addressed work he and Lusk had done in meeting with the Legislature in regards to proposed legislation and definitions impacting Hatfield-McCoy. One piece of legislation was designed to assist outfitters and was amended, adding a definition of UTVs and extending protection to the trails. Lusk and Shaffer went to the capital on five occasions and found that pretty much every bill that went into a committee got changed. Lusk said some good legislation was passed and that Shaffer had his hands full working many long days with lawmakers.
Senator Richard Browning noted that Shaffer came in handy not just because he was Hatfield-McCoys attorney, but also because Shaffer is a rider himself and understands the machines and technology as well as the ATV and outdoor recreation industry.
• Representatives from the Blue Goose Inn in Mingo County and Jay Mills of the Mercer County Commission were also present at the meeting.
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