Morgantown Municipal Bike Board

Regular Meeting

Public Safety Building

August 2, 2007

New Action Items:

Due date	Responsibility	Action Item
ASAP	Bryson	10. Create flyer to advertise for Frank’s effective cycling class
09/06/07	Hein et al	6. Compose a report on meeting with Tom Arnold
09/06/07	Wamsley et al	8. Continue working on details for “Bicycle Morgantown”
08/09/07	Shogren & Gmeindl	11. Compose a letter to the City Planner regarding bike standards for  city zoning ordinances

Meeting Minutes:

The August monthly meeting of the Morgantown Municipal Bike Board was called to order at 6:35 p.m. at the Public Safety Building by chairman Frank Gmeindl with the following members attending:

Betsy Shogren, Marilyn Newcomb, Nick Hein, Don Dickerson,  Don Spencer, Frank Gmeindl, Bill Reger-Nash, Autumn Bryson, and Gunnar Shogren.  Absent members were Sonitt Bhatt, Jim Rye, Greg Good, Tyler Pearson, Jonathan Rosenbaum, John Lozier, Alice Vernon, and Chip Wamsley.

à Agenda Item 2 (Agenda):

All members present agreed to follow the given agenda. 

à Agenda Item 3 (Action Items):

Ø  Open Action Items:

o Gmeindl distributed and reviewed the vision statement.  He requested that his action item be closed and that the vision statement be accepted by the Board until someone would move to change it.  There was no opposition so action item #1 is closed for now.

o Hein was absent at the time the action items were reviewed.

o Wamsley was absent.

o The Infrastructure Committee submitted their final signage recommendations to the Traffic Commission at their July meeting so action item #9 is closed.

à Agenda Item 4 (Ripe Banana Issues):

There were no ripe bananas in the room at this time.

à Agenda Item 5 (Bike Standards for City Zoning Ordinance):

The Morgantown Municipal Bicycle Board was asked recently to provide a standard for bike storage in City B4 Zoning Ordinances.  After much discussion, and based upon precedences set by cities of similar size, we recommend the following MINIMUM guidelines for communal bike storage per facility:

• 1 indoor, secured, sheltered bicycle storage space per dwelling should be provided. (Ideally 2 spaces per dwelling should be provided.)
• Each space should be a minimum of 3’ x 6’ x 4’.
• Each bicycle should be able to be individually secured with a lock.
• There should be sufficient space for easy access to bicycles.

These standards will be presented to the city planner in a letter, as composed by Betsy Shogren and Frank Gmeindl.

à Agenda Item 6 (Effective Cycling Education)

Frank’s 1 hour presentation to the Traffic Commission was well received. In an effort to expedite a grant writing process to obtain money to further the education efforts of the Bike Board, Frank asked for some grant writing ideas, specifically the best way to approach grant-writing, and where bike-friendly grants might be obtained. Suggestions included the following:

• Contact the Morgantown Multisport Club for their grant-writing experience  
• Find out more about “Complete Streets,” as featured in USA Today
• Contact the Civic Engagement Office at WVU for assistance
• Contact Catherine Grieber, who is rumored to be “charitably inclined”
• Contact the Benedum Foundation (but grant application must be funneled outside of Morgantown)
• Preston County Health Dept. (contact: Denise Noble) has potential
• Contact Triple S Harley
• work to establish a link between bicycles and motorcycles

à Agenda Item 7 (Open Discussion)

The time left for open discussion was gobbled up by the other agenda items. 

à Agenda Item 8 (New Action Items):

• Autumn Bryson will create a flyer to advertise for Frank’s effective cycling class.  She will send it to the Board, and we will all print 5-10 copies and post them in prominent spots.
• Betsy Shogren and Frank Gmeindl will compose a letter to the city planner regarding bike standards for city zoning ordinances.

à Agenda Item 9 (Meeting Evaluation):

There were no comments regarding the conduct of this meeting.  Don Spencer suggested that the formal name of the Bike Board be changed to “Bicycle Board.”

The next regularly scheduled meeting is September 6, 2007 @ 6:30 pm, at the Public Safety Building.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm.

Betsy Shogren

08/07/07