Paid operators needed

Dear sir:
I have been told our local snowmobile club has purchased a new groomer. Now I wonder how many businessmen would put a bunch of inexperienced operators on this machine if it was their own piece of machinery, or even a few different operators–not qualified–to run it?
Some of our directors feel the groomer should be operated by volunteers but these men or women will not be qualified to operate this machine.
Then I was told they will be given a three-hour course by the truck driver who drops this machine off. But I really wonder how much they will learn in three hours (probably how to check the oils and gear cases).
Secondly, the trail will not be smooth, and there probably will be some very costly breakdowns. Or maybe it will end up at the bottom of one of our lakes because the operator didn’t know where the bad ice was or where there was some current.
How will these people know what this machine is capable of doing–or where it is capable of going?
There are a lot of people in Fort Frances qualified to operate this machine but for the most of the free operators, you are only going to get the people who have never operated a large machine and want to play or practice at the club’s expense.
I wonder if the directors have contacted some experienced logging people and asked them about being volunteer operators, or if they have checked the price of a transmission or motor?
For the past five or six years, I have groomed and cleared most of the trails in our area and a lot of this was volunteer also. The other trouble with this way of doing the grooming is that to go to the Manitou and places like that, it takes about 15-18 hours–not many volunteers are going to do that very often!
The trails are not as good underneath as they seem when you are out riding your snowmachine. There are a lot of rocks and stumps that you have to watch for. The main trail to the Manitou is very narrow and dangerous to groom, with very steep and deep drop-offs.
Maybe they could pay an experienced operator to do all the dangerous parts and let the volunteers play around Fort Frances, where it is safe.
The bottom line is our directors had better check out all the options, and I think they will find that the least expensive way would be to pay someone who knows how to operate this machine; not try to count on volunteers.
Volunteers won’t last very long–and the machine might not last as long as the volunteers.
Thank you,
Dale LaBelle