Bike Board members,
Those of you who printed and posted flyers for this weekend's Road I
course, please accept my gratitude. Nobody signed up. The next offering
is September 8-9. Attached is the flyer updated for these dates. Would
you please replace the flyers you posted with this one? Perhaps with a
little more exposure time, the flyers will bring in a minimum of 4
participants.
Yesterday, I met with Jeff Mikorski, Assistant City Manager. He is quite
supportive of pursuing a WV Transportation Enhancement grant to support our
Education recommendations. To submit a grant on our behalf, Mr. Mikorski
needs us to define what the money would be spent on, how much would be
spent on each item, and the transportation impact. Our chances of getting
the grant depend on how substantive and credible a case we can make. Who
will work with me to do this?
Intent-to-propose applications are due 15-November. Grants are $30K
minimum and must be spent in 12-15 months. The state provides 80% and the
municipality or county must contribute 20%. The application must be
approved by City Council. Proposed projects must fit into one or more of
12 categories. Category #1 is "provision of facilities for pedestrians or
bicyclists". Category #2 is "provision of safety and educational
activities for pedestrians and bicyclists". Proposals are due
15-Jan. Awards are announced 6-9 months later.
Mr. Mikorski has a good rapport with Harold Simmons the WV coordinator of
transportation grants. He will talk with Simmons to find out who applied
for category 1 and 2 grants in the past, who received them, who didn't and
why they did or didn't get them. He'll feed guidance back to us.
Anytime the City spends over $10K on one project, they must request
competitive bids. Mr. Mikorski emphasized that the state won't pay
salaries but will pay consultants. We should recognize that the City will
probably end up hiring consultants rather than funding Bike Board
members. I will talk with Ron Eck about the best way to balance this
out. Dr. Eck is Chairman of the Traffic Commission, a WVU Civil
Engineering professor, and, I believe, a member of a consulting group.
In our February recommendations, we recommended that the City get a $10K
grant to be spent over 24-months to purchase, develop and deliver training.
We didn't define any more detail than that. If we flesh out our education
details and they total to less than $30K, we could include infrastructure.
That we convince City Council and the State that they will realize
substantial value for their investment is crucial.
My next meeting with Mr. Mikorski is 22-August. Let's have a substantive
case to present!
I look forward to your reply.
Frank
Cyclists Fare Best when They Act and Are Treated as Drivers of Vehicles