Meeting Minutes and News

August 18, 2003

Guest speaker:

Gay Page: CDOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator.

• Gay has been with CDOT since 1995 and assists in the development of policies and design guidelines that impact bicycle and pedestrian usage.  She also tries to keep the CDOT designers and engineers aware of the policies.
• Her position is federally mandated however funding for her work is at the whim of the Colorado administration.  Presently funding is down.
• In her position she is not allowed to advocate and stressed that letter writing and meeting attendance by people outside of government is the best way to advocate change and have an impact.  The best way to influence CDOT is through the Transportation Commission.
• Presently CDOT has in place a policy to add shoulders to any road that is undergoing major renovation.  CDOT is presently considering changing this to include any road that is undergoing repavement.
• Off road trails are difficult to maintain and historically there has been money to build new trails but limited funds to maintain and repair the trails that have already been built.  Gay definitely understands the advantages to bicyclists of shoulders on a road as opposed to off road trails.
• For trail maintenance for the C470 trail in Douglas County is the CDOT coordinator:  Terry Farber at 303-757-9935.  However the C470 trail from Sante-Fe to Quebec is maintained in conjunction with Highlands Ranch Metro District.
• Gay stressed that the TEA 21 legislation in Washington is critical to obtaining Federal funds for bike facilities.  Last year the state of CO received $8 million from the “Enhancements” part of this legislation, which helped to fund/build the bike bridge over highway 285 near Bear Creek State Park.  This year the House Subcommittee has voted to remove this funding.  We should all be active in letting our state senators and representatives know our priorities on this issue.  Contact information is provided below:

Rep. Tom Tancredo, 1130 Longworth HOB, Washington DC, 20515

Sen. Wayne Allard, 525 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington DC 20510

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 380 Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington DC, 20510

• The club discussed the possibility of an Adopt a Trail program with Gay.  Nobody else has done this previously and it may be a great way to get publicity for the club.  We will be looking into this.
• Gay was very informative and we certainly appreciated her time and energy.

Club business:

• Judy Siel attended the Park Meadows Development Committee meeting which included discussion on the new bridge slated for the C470 trail over Yosemite.  There are funds for this bridge and designs and cost estimates have been solicited from design firms.  They have requested that our club comment on the submitted designs when they become available.
• We presently have $400 in the club account and 54 people on the email list.  We need to focus on getting more members so be sure to inform your biking partners and anybody else you come across on your rides.
• Gary Debus of the Highlands Ranch Community Assoc./Development & Review Committee has asked for a 5-minute presentation from our club.  Judy Siel will be presenting for us and will focus on maintaining bike lanes, bike access and bike parking etc. in front of commercial development sites.
• Presently there is no plan for connecting the new light rail station at Park Meadows to the C470 bike trail.  The person to contact for this would be the RTD bike coordinator David Krutsinger at 303-299-2436 or davidkrutsinger@rtd:denver.com.
• The Web site is still not up but is inching forward – if you want to help in this area please let Judy Siel know, as this is critical to the club.
• Judy Siel asked for 6 month feed back on the clubs progress.  The response was very positive.  In order to keep the present momentum though we all need to get to the upcoming Town Meetings at 6:30 pm as listed below: 
• 8/28/03:  Parker @ Parker Fire Joint Services Facility, 17801 Plaza Dr.
• 9/11/03: Highlands Ranch @ Mountain View High School.
• 9/25/03: Sedalia/Castle Rock/Larkspur@ Sedalia Elementary, 5449 N. Huxtable. 

And thanks to Judy for all her hard work to date.

• Next meeting 9/15/03 @ 7Pm @ Red Rocks Credit Union – see you there.

Hint of the Month!

• Don’t tell any motorists but, according to a very good source, Highway 83 is closed at the bridge near Castlewood Canyon State Park for the next 4-6 weeks.  This translates into a beautiful road to ride south of Castlewood Canyon with almost zero cars (via Lake Gulch Rd in Castle Rock).  Get out there and own it while you can.