Nothing Says Summer Like...

Ongoing participation in the LGRAB Summer Games is a blast, I am trying new and different things and looking at my rides with "new" eyes.  I try to commute to work and did pretty good this spring and early summer but when the heat waves started coming one after another I drifted over to using my car.  The Summer Games has me motivated to use my bike for commuting again.  The collage from above was from yesterday's ride to and from work.  There is a photo of Whitmore Lake from dockside at Harbor Cove, the "School's Out" sign at WL Middle School and of course a still shot of the beloved ice cream man's truck. 

I love the ice cream truck and the music it plays in the video whisks me back in time to when I was a kid again.  Basically that is how I feel on my bike, like a kid.    Maybe that's why I ride grinning from ear to ear.

While I am on this path of new and different things I went out for an early morning ride today instead of my evening rides after work.  I like.  Lots!

Bicycle and Pedestrian Infastructure - The Barker Road Path Project

Being a proponent of bicycling and serving our Township as its Supervisor I have a unique story for the summer games.  I have helped to lead an initiative to create the first non motorized path in our township.  The desire to see a bike path in our township was the motivation for myself and two other board members. 

The opportunity came in the form of a newspaper article about a new grant opportunity being offered by our County Parks and Recreation department, I read the article and called on the person from Parks and Rec that was quoted in the article.  It appeared that the county had not fully implemented this program yet and it was still in the development phase.  This was in the winter of 2008, by May of 2009 the program was ready, grant applications were being accepted and the criteria for applying for them was in place.  We submitted our application for Phase I of a multi phase project in December of 2009 and received the award for the project in March of 2010. 

We set about acquiring right’s of way, easements and approval from the Department of Natural Resources for crossing over a wetland area in Phase I.  In June of this year we were given the permit from the DNR to begin, we set about advertising for bids, opened sealed bids on July 13^th and on the 22^nd  of July our board approved the contractor for work on Phase I.  A contract is being prepared and at long last work will begin on the project!  The time frame for Phase I is four weeks and that phase should be up and running before school opens.  A small group is being formed to ride it the day it opens.  With the July 22^nd meeting falling in the time frame of the contest dates and that meeting carrying the approval for work to begin I submit this for “support for bicycling infrastructure catagory”.  I am in a unique position to be able to influence and authorize projects like this and am happy to be an advocate for non motorized transportation infastructure.

An overal map of the project can be found here and the narrative, scope of the project and outline of the pathway can be found here.  In the outline of the project there are links to the exisiting Border to Border Trail in Washtenaw County and what future plans are to have a county wide network of pathways.  To view the meeting agenda and packet information for the July 22nd meeting where the Board approved the contractor click here.