Each year MTRA undertakes as many trail and horse camp assistance projects as we can manage with our volunteer efforts and for which we can raise the revenue to support. Our revenue comes only from your memberships, DNR grants, and your donations. In the April 2007 issue, we listed the projects which we were committing to support this year in the amount of $47,000, half of which was supplied by MTRA and the other half being supplied by the federal grant. And now in this report we are identifying the project expenditures that were completed as of the end of last year. Doubling Up in 2007 This year the DNR implemented an entirely new approach to how they administer this program. Starting in 2007 we in MTRA were required to deposit our share of the proposed project costs to the DNR up front and the DNR would pay the bills as they were submitted by the parks and forests groups. In the past MTRA paid all of the bills first and then applied for grant reimbursement from the DNR. To net this down, MTRA is now on the hook to put up all the money way before projects are started rather than well after the project completion as in the past. Traditionally these projects always take more time than originally planned so we end up operating a couple of years behind. So this year we needed to catching up on all of the remaining 2004, 2005, and 2006 projects on which we spent over $11,727, as well as putting up the money for the 2007 projects in the amount of $9181 for non DNR projects and our first $5000 DNR prepayment for a total this year of $25908. The following two spreadsheet show the details of where our funds were spent this year. Spreadsheet 1 (pdf) Spreadsheet 2 (pdf) We needed to cash in our Cd's this year in order to be able to do this, but, as we report in our year end financial reports, we actually only advanced $5000 of our $23,990 2007 obligation to the DNR before year end, with the next big payment of $13,890 occurring in January of 2008. This is because the parks and forests had only claimed $22,610 of the $47K project money we had offered to them as of year end. That is the reasoning behind the large 'apparent obligation' we are showing in our tentative 2008 budget expenditures for GRANT PROJECTS. They have until mid 2008 to finish up these projects and turn in their claims. The same analysis applies to the other projects at county or city level which we identify as non-DNR since we continue to administer them the same as in the past. We had offered $16,220 but they only spent $9181 leaving us an obligation for next year of $7040 if they should complete them by mid 2008. All of these final financial details will be wrapped up by the March Board of Directors meetings and we will update you in the April newsletter. Looking Ahead to 2008 - Trail Survey Letter Again this December 2007, we send out a solicitation to over 90 of the parks and forests in the state, that we know have horse related facilities or the potential to develop multi-use facilities including horses. We asked them to list their needs for the current year, 2008, and the following year, 2009. We are currently in the process of evaluating these requests and comparing our ability to support them along with the Horse Trail Pass funds which the DNR has from last season and from grant money that the MN Horse Council has available. The recently formed DNR Equestrian Advisory Group was formed for just this purpose of coordinating the available funds. We will report these decisions and allotments in future newsletters. The next meeting of the EAG is set for February 26. We use the information for the following year from the solicitation to apply for a National Recreation Trail Funding Act Grant (NRTFA) which is a Federal program, but is administered in MN by our DNR. This grant money reimburses MTRA for half the maintenance and improvement project expenses. So if we qualify for a grant, our private dollars are doubled in value by money from Federal non-highway use tax that is allocated to each state). If you know of project needs that we may not yet be aware of, be sure and let us know the details as soon as possible, so that we can include it in the list being considered for this year, 2008, or in the grant application for 2009 funding. Update: Click here to view the 2008 Projects pdf.