Meeting Notes: April 1, 2015

Meeting Notes, Bike Mansfield, April 1, 2015

Attending: Palmer, Hultgren, Weinland, Gosselin, O’Keefe, O’Keefe, Dean, Waldburger, Manizza, Yakovleff, Werth (Daily Campus)

The meeting was begun at 6:30 PM and introductions were made.

Final arrangements for the April workshops (8, 22, 29) were discussed. Hultgren will try to get the list of registrants to the presenters prior to each workshop. O’Keefe will draft a letter to the editor of the Chronicle regarding Bike Mansfield and the workshops. Dean, Weinland, Yakovleff and Hultgren will post a few more workshop fliers.

Summer workshops on July 8 and 15 were set for the summer Town recreation brochure. July 8th will be a repeat of the April 22nd riding techniques workshop and July 15th will be similar to the April 8th minor maintenance workshop. Presenters (Waldburger and Paterson) have agreed to these dates. The time will be changed to 7:00 PM for these two sessions.

Sunday morning rides in Mansfield were discussed, but the only date that was firmed up was April 26th. Ride leaders are needed for other Sunday mornings, so members will contact others to see who might be interested. The date of Sunday June 21st was possible, but it is the day after the Tour de Mansfield, so we weren’t sure if that was a good date or not. Hultgren arranged for the summer brochure to say that there will be Sunday morning rides and the dates will be posted on the BikeMansfield and Town Recreation websites. Hultgren received sample participant waivers from Waldburger and will adapt one for the ride on the 26th.

The need to begin work on a complete streets policy recommendation for the Town was discussed. It was noted that several policies that have been adopted in Towns in Massachusetts were similar and about 4 pages long, and would be a good place to start. A subcommittee of Weinland, Gosselin, Hultgren and Palmer was formed to suggest a policy for Mansfield. (Our recommendation should go to the Town’s Transportation Advisory Committee as an entry point for the Town’s consideration.)

There were no objections to having Bike Mansfield register as an organization with People for Bikes (as suggested by Santasiere). Hultgren will contact Santasiere to do this.

The group decided to participate in UConn’s Earth Day event on April 20th by having a display table on Fairfield Way from 11 to 2. Hultgren, Manizza and Palmer said they would try to staff the table. Manizza suggested we get some business cards printed up with our name, mission and contact information on them to be able to give to people at the display table. Hultgren will assemble some maps and other bike materials as well. Other advocates are invited to stop by and assist. A reminder will be sent out via email.

Hultgren said he is attending the BikeWalkCT summit in Wethersfield on Friday April 24th and asked if anyone else wishes to attend to let him know so we could drive in together. The event should be a great way to share ideas with other bicycle advocates from Connecticut.

Publicity and participation in the May 11-16 national bicycle week was discussed. A meet-up activity for the Friday (May 15th) bike to work/school day was a possibility as well as asking the Town to make an official proclamation of support. More needs to be done on this before the next meeting.

Palmer was thanked for his work in setting up the interactive www.bikemansfield.com website, and everyone was asked to view the website and refer comments to him. A masthead picture is needed, and we will try to take pictures at the April workshops and April 26th Sunday ride to put on the website.

Yakovleff gave a progress report on his efforts to get a safe bike route to link Mansfield Hollow State Park to Bigelow Hollow State Park. He said that while he had the support of a NECOG planner, the planner was not currently working on the project. He asked how to get the Town of Mansfield to support the project, and Hultgren suggested he attend the next Transportation Advisory Committee meeting (April 9th) to inform that committee of the project and determine if it would support the project. Yakovleff thought Mansfield’s support could trigger involvement of the CROG staff as well. He also announced his first sponsored ride of the year which will be on June 6th (rain date June 7th) and asked anyone who is interested in this 30 mile ride on the East Bay Trail near Narragansett to contact him at Nordy177@gmail.com.

Manizza expressed an interest in speaking with the appropriate people at UConn to make the campus more bicycle friendly. Hultgren and Werth said they would give him the contact information for the new Transportation Planner and the staff in the Environmental Policy Office.

The need for a Bike Mansfield logo was brought up. A few suggestions as to how to get one in the near future were made, including asking UConn graphic design students (which Werth said she could do), Kathleen Paterson and a staff member at Storrs Center Cycle who has done work on the SCC logo. All advocates who might be able to get a simple ‘bike Mansfield” logo crafted in the next week or so are encouraged to do so.

The meeting was concluded at about 8:40, 10 minutes longer than our 1 hour meeting target … we’ll try to better on May 6th!

Lon H.

4/2/15

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