| ROUTT COUNTY RIDERS NEWS ~ March 2010
"We unite all bicyclists in Steamboat Springs and Routt County to create a fun, healthy and safe bicycle friendly community benefitting local citizens and visitors alike." |
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MULTI-MODAL ADVISORY BOARD
All of the positions for this board have been filled and the group had their first meeting at the end of February, which was the kick-off meeting with the County Commissioners. They have their first individual meeting scheduled in early March.
The following are the members:
Lisa Shaffer -cycling
Steve Williams - South Routt resident
Derek Hodson - cycling business
Stuart Handloff - Steamboat springs resident
Bill Gay - Agriculture
Bill Baderacca - construction
Leslie Lovejoy- North Routt resident
Lisa Barbour- runner/ped
Mike Rossman- trucking
Frank Roitsch- West Routt resident
2 ex-officio: Paul Draper- RC R&B, Janet Hruby Steamboat springs Public Works. |
BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATE
The Routt County Riders Board of Directors currently consists of four members: Robin Craigen, President, Lisa Shafer, Vice President, Paul Strong, Treasurer, and Scott Schlapkohl, Secretary.
The Board has begun the process of adding five new members for a total of nine. The terms will vary between one and two years for each seat. Ultimately all board terms will be for 3 years, with three position schanging every year.
Seven applications were submitted and one round of interviews has been conducted with the final round commencing next week. The Board hopes to announce their decision by next week.
There will also be an advisory board formed shortly after for those who may have a conflict of interest such as being a government employee or official. |
BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS (BFB) PROGRAM
The Board of Directors is seeking a Committee Chair for the Bicycle Friendly Business Program. The foundation for the program has been established, and they are looking for someone that can launch the program.
The BFB program helps business plan for how they might participate in cycling related events and help achieve community cycling goals at the same time. It also enables businesses to extend the reach of their support for cycling events or projects into a year-round message.
This will be a great opportunity for businesses to contribute to the many RCR events, support the cycling community and be recognized for the partnership. If you have a Bicycle Friendly Business get in touch about enrolling in the program. Volunteers are needed for this committee. Please contact Jackie if you are interested. |
The Rotary is hosting this event and have named Routt County Riders the beneficiary for the purpose of building a new trail on Emerald. The event is described as a really fun event that involves cocktail hour, dinner, dancing, raffle drawings and social interaction with fellow people from the Yampa Valley. This event raises approximately $10,000.00 that is given to the beneficiary. The Rotary will also be donating time to help build the trail as well.
Event
Beneficiary: RCR for the purpose of building a 2-3 mile trail off of the ridge trail on Emerald Mountain.
Date: April 3, 2010
Location: 3 Peaks Grill
Time: 5:30 pm
Event Tickets: $55.00 per person. Includes Salad, Entrée (Chicken fish or steak) and desert, gratuity.) Drinks extra.
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Raffle tickets and prizes:
Raffle tickets $100.00 each
260 total tickets sold. (Great odds)
Prize breakdown:
Grand prize: $7000.00 winner (1)
2nd Prize $2500.00 winner (1)
3rd prize $1000.00 winner (1)
4th prize $500.00 winners (5)
5th prize $100.00 winners (10)
Tickets need to be present to win. If someone wants to purchase a raffle ticket but can not attend the event they simply need to give it an attendee to represent them.
First Drawing at 6:30 pm
All prizes paid the night of the event.
Those tickets not drawn to win cash prizes all go into a hat to win lucky looser prizes. These will be drawn after the grand prize is drawn.
The event will raise $10,000 that will be given to RCR for the purpose of building the trail mentioned above.
Contact Jackie to purchase raffle or event tickets. A great showing by the biking community will be a big help to make this event a success.
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ADAPTIVE COMMITTEE
Access Anything has signed a contract with STARS nonprofit (formerly Steamboat Adaptive for-profit) to help establish new camps, run their programming, and expand the fundraising. What that means is that STARS will now be handling everything adaptive-sport oriented in Steamboat from now on, so the word needs to get out on that. Access Anything is pretty busy figuring out several sports right now, fishing, riding, cycling, kayaking, to name a few.
The group will likely take this year slow as far as making sure every cycling event is adapted, step by step. They want to run the cycling camp for both road and mountain biking possibly sometime in July, but it will depend on scheduling with the bikes.
The site www.one-off.com has the dimensions/specs of adaptive bikes. The Adaptive Committee will have a booth with adaptive bikes and information at the Spring Bike Festival. |
 DOWNHILL / FREE RIDERS / GRAVITY MOUNTAIN BIKING
Aryeh Copah reported that the website: www.freeridesteamboat.com is up and running. This website has information on freeride updates.
Jim Schneider, from the Ski Resort, reported that the overall master plan was delivered to the Forest Service on February 11th. The Forest Service is in favor of the concept, so the next step will be to put this out to the public process. They will obtain feedback prior to providing the Forest Service with a final document.
Jim thinks there is potential to begin work on a trail this summer and it is reasonable to think that we could have it up and running by 2011. They will use a professional group to design and oversee construction. They have received opinion that letting a trail sit under snow for a Winter makes it even better for the trail.
Jim reported that the economics for the plan is not a slam dunk. They are still doing research internally and keeping their eyes on the business of Winter Park and Whistler. He emphasized that this entire plan would not be happening without the partnerships and relationships with the Forest Service and Routt County Riders.
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ROUTT COUNTY RIDERS WEBSITE
The new RCR website has been developed and will be ready once the content is populated throughout the site. Exec. Director Jackie Brown and RCR President Robin Craigen asked for a volunteer to head the website committee to move forward with this content development. Member, Randy Howie volunteered to take over this position. The new website could be live within the next two weeks!
This new design will offer a content management system, which will allow quicker and easier updates to the website. New features will include an event calendar, photo gallery, RCR blog, improved online membership registration, committee updates, cycling forum and more! |
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BIKE TOWN USA TASK FORCE
The Bike Town USA Task Force had a couple of meetings within the past month. Ryan Schutz, The Regional Director of IMBA, came to the last meeting. Ryan works on helping create bicycle focused communities and gave the group several ideas to move forward with becoming a biking destination. Ryan really sees the potential in Steamboat becoming "the next Whistler" in terms of cycling.
Ryan will be coming back to Steamboat on March 23rd for a strategic/brainstorming session as well as to speak to the RCR membership. Details on this visit will be announced soon.
This group has taken a step toward trademarking the phrase "Bike Town USA." The application has been submitted, but the process may take at least six months before a decision is made.
The initial objective of this Task Force was to bring community decision makers together to create a vision and purpose to move forward on the idea of developing the potential of Steamboat as a biking destination. This task force includes representatives from the City, County, BLM, Forest Service, Ski Area and Routt County Riders. Please contact RCR Executive Director, Jackie Brown, if you are interested providing input and she will pass the information along to the Task Force. |
STEAMBOAT RIDE - 4 -YELLOW
The committee continues to move forward with planning. Many of the event details are now being finalized including partnerships with the Wine Festival which takes place on the same weekend, as well as a lodging package.
Sponsorship is a major focus at this time. Radioshack has signed on as a National Sponsor. Additional sponsors include Trek, HoneyStinger, CocaCola. Local sponsors are currently being approached.
Click Here for full sponsorship information.
The Ride 4 Yellow Committee which is a subcommittee of Routt County Riders is seeking a volunteer coordinator for the event. It takes quite a few volunteers to make this event happen and they need someone to coordinate this effort. They are also seeking a coordinator for the silent auction. Please contact Committee Chair, David Nagel, if you are interested in serving on this committee. |
Immerse yourself in the beauty of Italy by bike. The Travel Center at Steamboat is proud to offer a uniquely customized trip that will take you from the sunny beaches of a quaint Adriatic seaside town to the hills of Siena, the cultural center of Tuscany. A truly affordable adventure that will delight all of your senses! Limited availability on a trip that looks after every detail of your journey; including 3 star accommodations, inter-country transportation, most meals (to delight your culinary tastes), bike tours geared to your abilities and of course, a high quality performance road bike.
For more information or schedule of events:
The Travel Center at Steamboat
970.871.5080 or thetravelcenter@steamboat.com Webiste: www.funtravelcenter.com |
2010 ROUTT COUNTY RIDERS JERSEY
The 2010 RCR Jersey sponsorship is officially sold out! The design has been submitted to Voler and the committee is currently working on obtaining sponsor logos. There was discussion about adding "BikeTown,USA" to the jersey, but several concerns were addressed about using this prior to trademarking. This jersey will run for the 2010-2011 seasons and should be available in early May.
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| MEMBERSHIP REPORT
It's that time of year when you can renew your membership for RCR, or join this great organization.
The membership committee is focusing on membership plans for 2010. They will be working on an e-mail campaign as well as possible member benefits. Routt County Riders will be working with the Winter Sports Club Cycling team on a member benefit this summer.
There are currently 70 paid memberships for 2010. Memberships for 2009 are now expired and you can sign up for 2010 membership which is due buy June 1, 2010.
Please contact Jackie to join or find out the status of your membership to RCR. Online registration is available on the Routt County Riders website. When you join you will receive a confirmation via e-mail.
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SPRING BIKE FESTIVAL (formally known as Bike Swap)
Save the date for Saturday, May 8th for the 5th Annual Spring Bike Festival! The event will be held at Olympian Hall and will feature new events and activities. Ideas include the bike swap, food, drinks, games for kids, bike safety, a bike shop expo, free-ride FYI, music and much more! Katie Lindquist, the Bike Swap Coordinator, has began work on this event and is looking for volunteers to assist with planning.
Katie is looking for an official name for the event. Please contact her if you have any ideas! Andrew Bisbee volunteered to create a new poster for the event and Andy Kennedy volunteered the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council to handle the garbage and recycling efforts. There was also discussion of doing a live auction for the un-sold bikes. Katie will continue planning over the next several weeks.
If you are interested in joining the committee for the Bike Festival/Swap, please contact Katie. |
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STEAMBOAT TRAIL MAPPING
A representative was not present at this meeting, but Gavin Malia, the Mapping Committee Chair, is working on organizing ideas to move forward. There is another meeting scheduled for this month.
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BICYCLE FRIENDLY COMMUNITY RENEWAL
The committee for the Bicycle Friendly Community renewal has been established and have been meeting regularly. Committee Chair, Janet Hruby recently discovered that the application is not actually due until July of 2011, which gives the committee more time to gather data. One benefit of knowing this now is that this allows time to implement one of the major recommendations of the last BFC application - to establish a system with to gather data on safety and bike crashes. |
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TEAMBOAT FROM STEAMBOAT
Bike MS is a two-day inspirational ride held by National MS Society chapters a cross the nation each year to raise funds that support programs to enhance the lives of people living with MS as well as fund vital research to help create a world free of MS. Of the funds raised through this event, 83 cents of each dollar is spent on research and local programs; this has paved the way for the development of breakthrough treatments and programs, enabling a more fulfilling and productive life for over 9,500 Coloradans and their families.
The Colorado Chapter of the National MS Society's Bike MS is Colorado's oldest nonprofit ride. The 25th Anniversary Great-West Life Bike MS, Colorado's Ride 2010 presented by Sam's Club will be held June 26 - 27, 2010, with a goal of raising over $3 million! More than 3,000 cyclists, 600 volunteers, and countless supporters will enjoy majestic Colorado scenery while riding from Front Range Community College in Westminster to Colorado State University in Fort Collins and back, collectively logging over 400,000 miles.
Mike Peilet of Steamboat is organizing a team from Steamboat. A Steamboat team participated last year and raised over $1000 per rider! They sported the Routt County Riders jerseys and won two awards! Please contact Mike if you are interested or www.bikemscolorado.org
A motion was made and carried at the meeting for Routt County Riders to contribute $100 to Steamboat's Team. |
Next RCR Meeting
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
5:30pm - 7:00pm
Bud Werner Memorial Library
Library Hall Meeting Room |
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Please contact us with any questions or if you are interested in the Routt County Riders organization, membership or volunteering. Also, RCR jersey's are still available to members for just $55!
Jackie Brown
Routt County Riders |
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