Meeting Summary, November 2, 2017
Attending: Gosselin, Waldburger, O’Keefe, Hultgren, Palmer, Yakovleff, Manizza
The meeting was begun at 6:33 pm in the Nash Zimmer Transportation Center main lobby.
The meeting notes from the October 5, 2017 meeting were reviewed and approved by consensus. Hultgren gave a brief Treasurer’s report and Manizza presented Bike Mansfield with a $200 check from the recent cyclocross race in the Mansfield Hollow State Park.
Yakovleff gave a report on the 4 rides that the Ashford scout troop had taken this year, with the final ride scheduled for this Saturday in the Yale Forest.
Waldburger and Hultgren recapped the League’s Instructor (LCI) meeting held in October in New Haven. Bicycle education programs for grade schools were presented and discussed. Such a program for CT could be developed by the League and BikeWalkCT patterned after existing programs like South Windsor’s.
The discussion of how to put the 2017 membership fees to work to further bicycling in the community was continued. Ideas include bike parking symbols for the Town Square, public relations materials including the safety tips card now being worked on with the Town’s police and engineering offices, and swag/refreshments for the attendees at the planned bicycle movie night this winter. Hultgren said that the tips card might be the first thing that needs to be funded, but that he didn’t have approvals yet from the people on the Town staff working with him on it or a firm price for printing it.
O’Keefe reported on the recent membership canvass in Storrs Center noting that one new business membership was obtained. The new letter about the benefits of membership was left behind at all businesses visited along with a new flier explaining the bicycle commuter facilities in the Transportation Center and the reduced fees.
Waldburger said that the DOT had scheduled a public meeting about the Bolton Notch redesign project on December 6th which was the proposed Bike Mansfield movie night date this winter. Hultgren said he would cancel the Dec 6th date at the Buchanan Center auditorium and try to reserve a January date (Jan 10th) for the movie night event.
Hultgren updated everyone on the status of the 2015 proposal to open some of the Town’s parks and preserves to mountain biking. He said that because of objections from the CT Forest and Parks Association to the use of the blue dot trail, nothing had been done by the Town. When he and John Hankins examined the proposal recently they determined that several of the Town’s areas did not have the blue dot trail in them and so he was planning to meet with Jennifer Kaufman of the Town’s Recreation Department staff to determine how to move forward on at least part of the original proposal.
A tentative re-canvass date for business memberships in Storrs Center was set for November 12th.
The meeting was concluded at 7:28 PM. The next meeting is scheduled for the first Thursday in December (Dec 7th).
Lon Hultgren, Secretary-Treasurer