Meeting Summary, January 3, 2019

Attending: Waldburger, Clark, Hultgren, O’Keefe, Weinland, Hankins, Yakovleff

The meeting was begun at 6:35 pm in the Nash Zimmer Transportation Center. The meeting summary for the November 7, 2018 meeting was reviewed and approved by consensus.

Hultgren gave a brief Treasurer’s report indicating there was about $1250 in the checking account, and said that $321 had been received recently for 2019 membership renewals. He passed around a spreadsheet showing the renewals to date and suggested that most of the business members would need a personal visit for theirs. O’Keefe said he could do this and would let other members know when he was available to make these visits. Hultgren said he would email thank yous to renewing members and offer to send them an additional Bike Mansfield window sticker if anyone wanted another one.

Hultgren passed around the People for Bikes community grant program guidelines and the draft letter of interest for applying for a grant to fund 1/3 of the cost of parking symbols for the Town Square railings (Bike Mansfield would provide 1/3 of the cost and the Downtown Partnership would also provide 1/3 — $367 from each and the grant totaling $1100). The letter of interest was approved by consensus and will be submitted prior to the Jan 18th deadline.

Waldburger and Hultgren reported that they met with the Middle School PE teachers about getting a 5th grade bicycle education program started in the Mansfield schools similar to the program in South Windsor. They haven’t heard back from the teachers as yet, and they said they are planning to meet with the Town’s Director of Recreation in the near future to ask for the Rec Dept’s participation as well.

Clark updated the BFU activities at UConn. She said that she had contacted and had received interest from many of the UConn Departments who are involved in bicycling on the campus including the Police, Transportation, Recreation, Facilities, Office of Environmental Policy and Civil Engineering. Her working group (representatives from many of these Depts) is continuing to meet monthly, and is considering ways to formally integrate the working group into UConn’s planning efforts.

Hultgren asked for help in compiling bike rides that at least start in Mansfield into GPX files that could be displayed on the www.CyclelifeHQ.com website where a community’s bicycle routes and bicycle friendly businesses can be posted (under the Town’s name) for free. Hankins and O’Keefe said they would check the website to see how the ride files could be imported.

Waldburger said that the work on the Charter Oak Greenway into Bolton Notch was done, and the new sections of the multi-use trail were open now, but the official grand opening was not yet scheduled.

Hankins said there was a possibility that Scotts Cyclery may be closing as Scott Johnson retires. He said the TCC will be showing a compendium of Scott’s 44 years in the Willi cycling scene at its Jan 26th annual meeting and potluck.

O’Keefe requested interesting Mansfield area information for posting on social media. Yakovleff said there would be two boy scout rides this spring and that he was going to serve as a bike repair tech for the Webster Summer Camp.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:32 pm. Pending any rescheduling, the next meeting will be Thursday February 7th.

Lon Hultgren, Secretary Treasurer