Meeting Summary, February 7, 2019
Attending: Waldburger, Clark, Hultgren, Palmer, Hankins
The meeting was begun at 6:34 pm in the Nash Zimmer Transportation Center. The meeting summary for the Jan 3, 2019 meeting was reviewed and approved by consensus.
Hultgren gave a brief Treasurer’s report indicating there was about $1280 in the checking account and not much in additional 2019 membership renewals had taken place since the January meeting. Contacts with business members who could be interested in renewing will take place in the near future.
Two items of correspondence were received and relayed to the membership: A postcard from the League regarding insurance that is available to bike clubs/groups like Bike Mansfield, and a save the date card from the Town for this year’s festival on the square September 21, 2019. After discussing the insurance concept, it was decided to inquire as to the cost of the Officers and Directors insurance for further consideration.
Waldburger and Hultgren reported they met with the Town’s Recreation Director to discuss bike education in the Mansfield schools. He and his staff expressed interest in supporting this effort, but agreed that finding an interested PE teacher in the 4th or 5th grade would be a desired first step. Hultgren said he would recontact the lead Middle School PE teacher and if necessary contact the 4th grade PE teachers to determine interest.
Clark updated the group on the BFU activities at UConn. She said that the concept of having her working BFU group be a subcommittee of UConn’s Environmental Policy Advisory Council did not receive positive support, so she was still looking for a way to establish the working group as an official UConn body. She also reported on her visit to CSU in Ft. Collins, Colorado and the many things both the City and the University had done to accommodate bicycling. She said that the BFU working group’s efforts were reported in the recent UConn OEP (Office of Env Policy) newsletter.
Hankins said he was asked to meet with the MDP staff to discuss ways to attract more cyclists to the annual Tour de Mansfield, perhaps modifying the event in 2020 to do so. A discussion followed with a number of ideas to change the ride including: Becoming a publicized city ride in BikeWalkCT’s program; marketing the ride’s personality – hard or easy??; including a longer ride (100K – 62 mi); utilizing other roads (and Towns) in the area; starting at a geographically flatter part of Mansfield; having some type of street fair or interesting event coincidentally or post-ride; making the ride to an area destination of interest; making the different distance rides have their own appropriate routes; using/visiting new bicycle facilities in the area; others?
Hankins reported on his recent discussions with the Town’s parks coordinator and inquired about the past effort to open some of the Town lands to mt biking. Hultgren said that after the new bike trail was constructed near Dodd Road, he hadn’t done any reporting/evaluations on the Town lands that could be opened to biking on a trial basis. They agreed to dig out the notes on which Town owned areas those were and get some type of report to the parks coordinator.
Waldburger said that there was an Adventure Cycling meeting in New Haven scheduled for Feb 24th at the Orchid Café that he will be attending, and the public is invited.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:35 pm. Pending any rescheduling, the next meeting will be Thursday March 7th.
Lon Hultgren, Secretary Treasurer