Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

extensive bike trail system. He shared that he had been hit by a car on December 31, 2009, as he was riding his bicycle to one of those bike paths. He said his injury had prevented him from attending school for over a month. He was just starting to get back on his bicycle. It did not make sense to him to bar bicyclists from the Ribbon Trail, th which would provide access for commuters to get to Lane Community College (LCC) and the 30 Avenue area without risk of being hit by cars. He asked the council to please help them. Steve Strickland , 4685 Cloudburst Lane, said the City had done a great job of putting together an open space plan. He lived in North Eugene and, for him, the connector and accessibility to the river trails was amazing, but it separated him from the Ridgeline. He stated that to get from the river trails to the Ridgeline, one of the easiest access th points would be on the Ribbon Trail which came up through Hendricks Park and went to 30 Avenue. He averred that the Ribbon Trail would help bicyclists stay off of arterials and make it safer for them. He thought the connection between trails could be easily made. He said they needed an access point on the east side of the trail network so that a loop could be made either way. He looked at the Ribbon Trail more as a transportation corridor, an arterial that would allow access to that area of Eugene and the Ridgeline Trail. Benjamin Beamer , P.O. Box 804, Oakridge, stated that Oakridge had been promoted as the Mountain Bike Capital of the Northwest. He said he was chairman of the Greater Oakridge Area Trail Stewards and he also served on the International Mountain Bicycling Association Northwest Regional Leadership Advisory Council. He declared that bicycles connected three key elements in society: recreation, fitness, and transportation. He said it also helped to engage youth and brought them to a different idea of what transportation was. He related that Oakridge welcomed Eugene bikers with open arms. He lauded them as great stewards of the trails and noted that the past weekend cyclists had put in over 200 hours of work on trails. He declared that mountain bikers were stewards of the land and respected others. He said mountain bikers were in the woods like all other trail users; they just used a different mode of transportation. He asked that the mountain bike community be involved in decisions regarding transportation and recreation. Steve Mertz , 1761 Lawrence Street, stated that he owned the Laughing Planet Café, which catered to an active and health-minded clientele. He had been disappointed to hear that mountain bikes would not have access to the Ribbon Trail. He averred that from an economic standpoint, Eugene should keep itself positioned as an interesting city to those who were outdoor enthusiasts. He said if they looked at other communities such as Bend, Ashland, Corvallis, Portland, Seattle and Spokane – all of them had embraced the use of bike trails close to their urban cores. He averred that by continuing the ban on bikes on any addition to the Ridgeline Trail system, the City was selling itself short to the outdoor community. He pointed out that preventing mountain biking on local trails pushed people into their cars to drive to areas where they could ride on trails in the woods. He said this made the appeal of mountain biking smaller. He declared that people wanted to bicycle on paths, more than just by the river. He stated that the bicycle shops would benefit from an increase in trail access. He added that on a family level, he liked getting his sons outside. He related that one of their first questions when they went camping was whether they would be able to go biking. He said once they were in the woods the kids commented on all of the natural wonders in “our great state.” He felt that mountain biking was a way to get kids excited about being outside. Zarifah Spain , 1270 West Hilliard Lane, stated that as a board member of the NCS and a parent of one of its students she asked that the CDBG funds be allocated to assist the school in the purchase of a school building. She reiterated that the school might be homeless without it. She said the school fulfilled a vital and unique function in the Eugene system. She averred that the school had worked “tirelessly and creatively” for the past seven years to help the students engage in their own educations and to help them be involved and productive members of the community. Jan Aho , 82233 Rattlesnake Road, Dexter, Executive Director of the Pearl Buck Center, asked that the council approve the recommendations coming before the council for the allocations of the CDBG funds. She explained that the Pearl Buck proposal had been for air conditioning for the vocational training center, which served 120 adults with developmental disabilities. She said when they bought the facility, they had thought all of the windows were a “great MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 26, 2010 Page 3 Regular Meeting