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Meeting Notes – November 6, 2008

Attending: Sharon Hermach, Rebecca Clancy, Jerome Hughes, Sue Montgomery, Ray Dal Lago, Bob Hoel

Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce
It was decided that we would initially work with the Spring Road Business Association and the York/Vallette Business Association in a couple of areas. First, open discussions with them about ways to promote their businesses with possible signage along the Prairie Path. We will first explore to determine if they are interested and then work as an intermediary with the Elmhurst Park District and the DuPage County Trails Coordinator to see how to make it happen. Sue Montgomery knows Shazaad Mehta, president of the Spring Road Association, and will approach him. Sue also has a couple of business contacts with the York/Vallette Association. Rebecca Clancy has offered to speak with Jason Janes (Edward Jones office on Vallette, 630-279-5530), president of the York/Vallette Association.

The second area is to have more bike racks available in the area of these businesses. Perhaps we can interest specific businesses or their respective area associations in installing simple inverted "U" racks throughout the district rather than have larger racks centrally located. (The inverted "U" holds at least 2 bikes and possibly 4 bikes, depending on positioning.) This would be more advantageous to conducting business by bike as the racks would be located closer to the businesses.

City Centre and the main business district
The thought is to focus on the above for now and hold off here until we have more experience before we approach the central business district.

Mayor's Task Force Citizen Volunteers
Bob did a quick overview of the new task force and indicated that he has already submitted his application to be a member of the task force. He indicated that it will be important to get as many Elmhurst residents, who are active cyclists, to apply as well. Rebecca Clancy has indicated she will apply. Bob will also check with the City Manager to find out if membership is restricted to Elmhurst residents.

The Mayor created the task force at the recent Nov. 3 Council meeting and there was no advance notice. To show our thanks for his efforts we will notify our membership to attend the Nov. 17 Council meeting and to make short statements during the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm.

There is a small conflict between the Elmhurst Council meeting and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation annual meeting, held at the Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington in Chicago. The only reprieve is the CBF meeting starts at 5:30 pm. Because some of our members are also members of CBF, it is possible to attend both using Metra trains and a few of us will do this. The importance of attending the CBF meeting comes from the Trail Blazer award they will present to Deborah Fagan, DuPage County Trail Coordinator and constant bike resource here in DuPage County. We certainly want to show our support for Deborah if at all possible.

Next City to work on?
Now that we have bike advocacy in motion for Elmhurst we need to start thinking of the next community that we can help. After some discussion it was decided that Villa Park was a natural. Like Elmhurst it has two great trails running through it - the Prairie Path and the Great Western - and the Greenway Trail touching it in a couple of locations. We will assess our membership in VP and the VP government structure to determine the best way to approach them. Dave Hegland, a VP Village Trustee, has attended some of our Advocacy meetings and is interested in getting something started.

Ride to Jerome's court date
Jerome has retained an attorney to dispute the citation he was issued by the police in the town of Oak Brook Terrace. The court date is Nov. 13 at 1 pm in Downers Grove at an American Legion Hall. A show of support by Club members is appreciated. Jerome will post ride details on the ride schedule shortly. It will probably be a short ride, starting from McCollum in Downers Grove. More details will be posted on the ride schedule.

Salt Creek Greenway Trail Strategy
So….what do we do from here? With the current position taken by the Park District Board, there will be perhaps a 1 year period during which various governmental bodies must be contacted and their permission requested for the placement of trail connector on an IDOT easement (along Rte. 83), on Elmhurst city property (along the edge of the waste water treatment facility) and possibly the Corp of Engineers (for wetland mitigation). These represent a lot of hurdles at an expense that could run as high as $300,000 with little return for the citizens of Elmhurst or the biking community. This expense does not include the cost discussed below to actually build the connector.

On November 4, Park District staff (Rich Grodsky, exec director and Jim Rogers, deputy director) organized a walk through of the connector options. None on them were ideal (running along the east side of Rte. 83 for about ¼ mile and then through the Elmhurst sewage treatment plant) or economic with estimated costs of the remaining two options preferred by the Fairview residents running from $1.7 to $2.1 million dollars. A write up and photos of the walk through have been prepared by Sue Montgomery and are included as part of these minutes.

In the meantime, we need to help the Park District with the new trail. So that it is the best possible trail we will review the trail for possible refinements, including signage, transition points (like Butterfield and Commonwealth) and maintenance. Jerome has volunteered to compile an initial list. These will be provided to Rich and Jim for consideration.V

One concern is knowing, in advance, when the trail underpasses at St. Charles Road and Roosevelt Road are flooded. Ideally it would be nice to have a website that would indicate the condition of these crossings, but barring that a "real time" indicator would work. Some good ideas were discussed and these will be offered to the Park District.

North Leg of the Salt Creek Greenway Trail (SCGT)

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has approved Federal funds ($3.9 million) for the north leg of the SCGT and local matching funds (about $1.3 million) have been set aside for the constructions of the north leg of the SCGT as it goes from Elmhurst/Villa Park through Addison to Wood Dale. Construction is slated to start in late Spring, 2009.

National Bike Summit

The 2009 Bike Summit will be held March 10 - 12 in Washington, DC. This is a time when bike advocates come from across the nation to lobby our leaders in the Senate and House of Representative to further develop the nation's bike infrastructure for both recreation and transportation. Bob Hoel plans to attend.

Bob Hoel
(bob.hoel_at_comcast.net)

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