9-11-2024 Insurance Update

The insurance company from Boonville responded with their definitions of the exclusions, basically, it covered non motorized things.... so if you stepped off your machine and fell on a landowners property you would be covered but any accident involving an ATV was not. Also would not cover any trespassers, we asked what good would this policy be for an ATV club and they responded that we have to understand it is a very basic policy..

They don't offer the coverage we are looking for. Interesting thing is the two other clubs that are using it must not be fortunate to have someone like we do to read and understand the fine print. I plan on contacting them and recommend they get a professional opinion.  

The second company finally replied by saying they refused to give us a quote based on the fact that we offer an organized night ride.....This instantly fired me up because they provide insurance to snowmobile clubs that are able to run all night long unorganized. I said fine we will quit all night rides now give us a quote, he asked to provide a letter stating that we would no longer have night rides and he will resubmit for a quote. I did and was told the person who does the quotes is out of work for the next two weeks.

So here we are stuck in a mud hole pinned to the handle bar not moving.....

Now we contacted Senator Dan Stec trying to get help from the state, he had his Legislative Director John Alexander call me. John said there is nothing NYS will do for us however he recommended two things one we should retain an attorney. The second thing he said is we should get in touch with the local town Supervisors and try and gain their support to approach Washington County and ask if we could be put on the County Insurance NYMIR.

NYMIR insurance is something that I believe all counties have and it has a motorsports provision that covers the snowmobile trials and other recreation. This is the same insurance that some of the counties are using to keep the clubs open in the Tughill area. It is at the discretion of each county, last year we asked Washington County and we were told No.

So a lot of bad news now some hopeful news... I spoke with Bob Henke he is Argyle Town Supervisor and also the Washington County Chairman really nice guy I have known for years. Bob said he would look into it and see what he can do, he will speak to the New Washington County Attorney Dan Martindale who is different from the Last county Attorney who told us No. I have a source that works for the County and they told me the last guy was always quick to say No but the new Attorney is really nice and open to new ideas and willing to work with people. 

Bob also called NYMIR himself and spoke to them for us he provided me a name and phone number to contact them, I left a message today and waiting for a callback.

Sorry for the long email but just wanted to keep everyone up to date.

Thank You

Jon W