City of Eagle Provides Funding for Unique Bike Park
| BAMBA News |
|
BAMBA BREAKING NEWS! City of Eagle Provides Funding for Unique Bike Park February 16, 2012—By unanimous vote, the Eagle City Council agreed to contribute critically needed funding to the Eagle Bike Park (located at the Eagle Sports Complex) on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Eagle City is partnering with the local International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) chapter, Boise Area Mountain Bike Association (BAMBA), to jointly use these funds to support the park.
The Eagle Bike Park, located north of Floating Feather on old Highway 55, is one of the largest public cycling venues in the western United States with over 12 miles of trails and over 300 acres of land. Many of the trails are multi-use and are enjoyed by hikers, walkers, runners, dog enthusiasts and equestrian’s. Newly elected Councilwoman Mary Defayette (and BAMBA liaison) said, “I look forward to working closely with BAMBA for the future development of this incredible jewel. It’s great to see so many valley residents of all ages enjoying the park. There is so much potential for regional and even national events and the unanimous approval of funding by the Council speaks to the importance of this park to our community.”
Brad Nelson, a founding member of BAMBA, agrees with Dafayette’s assessment of the park’s potential. “One of the remarkable attributes of the Eagle Bike Park is its unique progression for riders—they can start out beginners and progress to experts in many of the cycling disciplines without ever leaving the park. When IMBA came out for a site visit they were most impressed with the level of progression that was designed into the park. It is fantastic to join the progressive thinking of the Eagle City Council to the progressiveness of the park. This is the first of many steps to making the Eagle Bike Park the gem that Mary speaks about.” First time Councilman, Mark Butler echoes their feelings from a slightly different perspective. “This park is a real treasure in our community–the trails are so cool! I am happy that all the awesome volunteers are willing to make this park an ever increasing quality location for folks to recreate at!” Much work remains but all agree that this is a great beginning.
About BAMBA: Boise Area Mountain Bike Association (BAMBA) was formed in 2011 as the local chapter of the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA). BAMBA membership is filled with riders from all the disciplines of cycling and from all walks of life. One of BAMBA’s main charters is working to preserve the unique attributes of the bike park at the Eagle Sports Complex. BAMBA prides itself being associated with a biking venue that is one of the largest and most diverse of its kind in the country. BAMBA also supports group rides, educational efforts and fund raising events to support biking in general in the Treasure Valley.
Stay in touch!
Visit http://eaglebikepark.org/ for news and events. If you Facebook, you can Like us at: Eagle Bike Park |
Supporting Eagle Bike Park
Some of the accomplishments of BAMBA this year:
The formation of a chapter of IMBA – the International Mountain Bicycling Association
Over 1200 volunteer hours for the year bringing the total over 11,000 in 4 years. Volunteer work consisted of repair, improvement, erosion control, and week control on multi-use and downhill bike trails at the park.
2 fundraisers and a membership drive raising over $6000 for the bike park
Worked with eagle scouts to complete several important erosion control projects including:
- Installing cinder blocks for erosion control purposes on several areas of the new freeride trail. (Austen Nelson and Bradon Evans)
- Installing sections of fence to protect a sensitive slick spot location. (Bradon Evans)
- Installing fence and reseeding the eroding hillside below the pump track. (Bradon Evans)
- Rebuilding and installing water bars on the return trail for freeride lines next to the pump track. (Sean Pinder working with Ridge to Rivers and BAMBA)
- Donation from Lowes and installation of tool storage shed. (Levi Smith)
BAMBA also worked with city managers and received the following commitments from the city:
- Complete a lease with the county that extends the city’s lease to include all trails at the park.
- Complete a land use agreement with BAMBA to allow the organization to assist the city in maintenance of trails.
- Pay a landscaping company to spray herbicide in select areas to help control weeds on trails.
- Pay a landscaping company to assist with weed control on trails.
Despite the commitments from the city, none of the above four items were completed by the city. The city, however, did find $1300 within their budget to have goats eat weeds in a small section of the southwest corner of the park. The city also helped pay for fencing materials for one of the Eagle Scout projects.
In September of this year BAMBA created the following presentation and met before the city council:
Eagle City Pre-Council Meeting presentation
While the meeting with the mayor and city council was not scheduled until after 2012 budget negotiations had already been completed, BAMBA did have a chance to present the following ideas to them. While not enough to cover all the needs of the park, the city did say they would try to spend 1-2K for maintenance in 2012, which is a start. It would be great if the city approached the county to ask them to help provide funding for trails as well. As a comparison point, the trails in the Ridge to Rivers system are funded at ~$2200 per mile which is consistent with funding recommendations from the International Mountain Bicycling Association. At $1-2K for 2012, the Eagle Bike Park trails maintenance budget is $80-$160 per mile.
Elections for Mayor and City Council are being held November 8th, 2011. BAMBA has created a questionnaire for candidates of this election to determine their position on funding and support for the bike park. Following are the responses that have been obtained so far. BAMBA encourages members of the community to get out and vote for candidates who are willing to support the continued success of, and proper funding for the Eagle Bike Park.
Mark Butler can be contacted via email at: markleebutler@gmail.com or by phone: 208-939-7444
Gary Tanner can be contacted via email at: gtanner@evanskeane.com or by phone: 208-384-1800
Norm Semanko can be contacted via email at: semanko@rmci.net or by phone: 208-863-7921
Mary Defayette can be contacted via email at: press@mytowninformer.com or by phone: 208-440-1252
September BAMBA Newsletter
| BAMBA News September 2011 |
|
Lots of trail maintenance been happening at Eagle Bike Park! August 10th an LDS youth group from the Eagle 6th Ward came out and performed trail maintenance at Eagle Bike Park (EBP). In the past some of the kids (and even a few of the adults) have raced BMX and mountain biked at EBP. They were looking for a community service project and this fit perfectly. They worked for only a few hours but were successful in clearing weeds off much of the BMX track and weed wacked along a few of the mountain bike tracks.
Ed Newgen was gracious enough to provide cold bottled water which was much appreciated as it was very hot and dusty as you can imagine. The group consisted of 9 adults running weed wackers and about 30 high school kids. Here’s a group pic sporting their Ephesians 6:6-7 shirts. (Scripture reads, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men”). Late August a bunch of weed-eaters came out to the park and spent about 3 days grazing… ( Pic from Facebook: Reed Cycle )
Sept. 3rd, a few folks went out and worked on Junk Yard and shoveled up all that dirt that washed down the hill and covered the handicap parking area. I had a good friend visiting form California and I put her to work shoveling dirt. Thanks Wendy! You can come back anytime…
Sept. 4th, Pastor Ed from Eagle Nazarene Church brought over 100 people to clean the park, repair some trails and they did an amazing job. The park looks great! Here are some after shots…. We owe them a huge thank you!
Upcoming Events: High school club rides – open to all high school age riders. Please email jtgallegos0313@gmail.com for more info… Planned rides: September Stay in touch!
Visit http://eaglebikepark.org/ for news and events. |
