Sudbury Trail Plan Association gets $400K to build 3 snowmobile bridges

The Sudbury Trail Plan Association has put $400,000 it gotfrom the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) toward three new bridges for snowmobiles.

James Saville, the association's president, said two of the bridges are almost complete, and the third will be ready by the end of November.

The bridges cross the Whitson, Morton and McGrindle rivers in Greater Sudbury.

"As you can imagine these are large complex projects, so they're costly," Saville said.

Ahead of the upcoming snowmobile season the NOHFC has granted $834,904 to snowmobile clubs across northern Ontario to improve their trail networks.

"This investment in snowmobile trail improvements is critical to providing a high quality of life for residents and will increase tourism, strengthening the local economy," said Minister of Northern Development Greg Rickford in a newsrelease.

Ontario Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney said in a newsrelease that snowmobiling generates up to $3.3 billion worth of economic activity in the province each year.

In Greater Sudbury, Saville said the local association also received funding from the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs to reroute a trail between Lake Panache and Long Lake so it doesn't go over ice.

"To make it safer, we're just going toreroute over land," Saville said.

"It'll be better for everybody in the long run. It'll be better for our groomer operators because they won't have to check the ice or or have to make the decision to go out on the ice."

Saville said he remembers winters being longer when he was a child, and that is probably due in part to climate change.

Each year, he said members of the association try a different superstition to bring a long winter with a lot of snow.

Last year members were encouraged to put a spoon in their freezers. This year, the request is that they wear their pyjamas inside out at least a couple of times during the season.

"The Farmer's Almanac says it's going to snow, so fingers and toes crossed," Saville said.