MINUTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
LOUISVILLE BICYCLE CLUB
JULY 12, 2009

The meeting was held at Earl’s house after the 4pm bike ride. All Ex Comm. members were in attendance: Tom Armstrong, Earl Jones, Kevin Jones, Mark Luking, Andy Murphy, Barbara Tretter, Jim Tretter, & David Ryan, by phone.

ACTION ITEMS:
David: Look at forum Forum updates to see what can be done with the LBC forum
Tom: Work on submitting the grant from Metro government to get it in for the 2010 class next spring
Barbara & Jim: Look over minutes from past meetings to get them on the web site
ALL: Have all articles for Newsletter to David by 10rh of each month

ADVOCACY: Andy had signs made up to use for any LBC event. They are small & can be used anywhere.

COMMUNICATIONS: David had sent out 3 resolutions concerning the River Road Corridor and the rebuilding of the Harrods Creek Bridge. The Resolutions are attached to these minutes & the voting of the resolutions is as follows:

Earl NNN
Jim NNN
Barbara YYY
Andy YYY
David YYY
Tom YYY
Mark YNY
Kevin NNN

Resolution 1 & 3 passed, #2 was a tie and, therefore, did not pass.

The Resolutions were as follows:

Resolution I: The Position of the Louisville Bicycle Club on Complete Streets, the Club's role in furthering Complete Streets and the Club's position on the Louisville Loop.

The Louisville Bicycle Club in general supports the Louisville Complete Streets ordinance which requires bicycle and pedestrian accommodation on all new and reconstructed roads in Jefferson County.

The Louisville Bicycle Club is a repository of extensive cycling expertise and believes that it should be actively consulted in all matters related to cycling access in furtherance of the Complete Streets goals in principle and in detail and not be expected to anticipate these developments and be relegated to merely appearing at public meetings long after plans have been made.

The Louisville Bicycle Club supports the Louisville Loop multi-use path now under construction and believes that, as an unbroken corridor for the use of cyclists and pedestrians, all construction on the route of that path must fully accommodate both cyclists and pedestrians regardless of any other consideration, including Complete Streets' 20% of cost guideline.

Resolution II: The Position of the Louisville Bicycle Club on the Harrods Creek Bridge segment of the Louisville Loop.

Whereas River Road including the Harrods Creek Bridge is on the Louisville Loop corridor;
Whereas River Road is already extensively used by cyclists and that use will increase with completion of the Loop;
Whereas there is currently no accommodation for pedestrians on the Harrods Creek Bridge and none in the current "improvement" plan.

The Louisville Bicycle Club believes that any reconstruction of the Harrods Creek Bridge must include accommodations for both cyclists and pedestrians in anticipation of its vital connection in the Louisville Loop.

Accommodation for cyclists in the Complete Streets manual for the Suburban Zone, in which the Harrods Creek Bridge is located, includes a minimum 11-foot automobile lane and 5-foot shoulder/bike lane. The Louisville Bicycle Club considers the current plan for two 12-foot lanes inadequate, dangerous and unacceptable.

The Louisville Bicycle Club believes that the current plan to burden the existing concrete arches with more weight is an irresponsible approach. The Club also believes that the cantilevered road margins unacceptably change the historic appearance of the bridge seen from the sides. The Louisville Bicycle Club believes that the concrete arches should be widened to the full width of the road consistent with the Complete Streets ordinance and its inclusion in the Louisville Loop.

The Louisville Bicycle Club believes that the cost of widening the Harrods Creek Bridge should be considered in the total cost of River Road improvements for purposes of the 20% of cost guideline and that that guideline be given the maximum flexibility in view of the lack of any alternative route, and not as 20% of the cheapest possible bridge repair that short-changes all road users.

The Louisville Bicycle Club believes that safety must be enhanced on the bridge with signage and markings including a warning for cyclists ahead and a no passing zone including signage and double yellow lines. The Club does not however consider this an acceptable alternative to providing the appropriate accommodations.

Resolution III: The Position of the Louisville Bicycle Club on alliances in furtherance of its goals.

The Louisville Bicycle Club resolves to solicit and accept help in furtherance of its goals from all appropriate quarters and organizations and provide its help in return on common interests, with the clear understanding that the Louisville Bicycle Club reserves its independence in matters with which it disagrees with those organizations if those matters cannot be worked out.

There was a lot of discussion about the corridor, the bridge and the loop. Andy will attend the meeting being held on Monday July 13th. This will mostly be concerned about the corridor, but we were told we could talk about the bridge after the meeting.

David talked about adding the minutes, both General & Ex Committee, to the web site. It was decided that both should be on, but that sometimes there are sensitive issues that shouldn’t be out for the general public. Barbara & Jim will go thru them & then David will get them posted. It was decided previously that the general minutes could go out after the meeting, but the ex comm. should be held up a couple of months, because there could be timely items that shouldn’t be out right away.

There was also a lot of discussion about the using My Space, Face Book, etc to make the club more visible. Andy said that Martin Kaelin had offered to help, as well as Cathy Kinberger & Steven Webster. It was decided that David, Kevin Jones, Martin, Cathy & Steven try to get together. We hope to have something from them by Aug 2nd, so that we can talk about it at the picnic. More & more companies, bike clubs, racing teams, etc are using these tools, so it is a something we should be considering.

EDUCATION: Tom has not talked to Barry bout the education classes. It was decided that he should go ahead & write a proposal for the 2010 grant, since this is money that we can use for the Ed classes. Tom will look into the making of videos of the classes and they could be used as PSA on cable TV. If we could get 2 grants of $2500, this might be a possibility. Tom is also looking at using alternate times for a class next year, possibly Sat morning before the ride.

RACING: Mark said the Masters Natz were a success. The volunteer base was really down this year, and since we are getting them back again next year, that is something that needs to be worked on. He said we may not get any money form the races, but he isn’t sure. The Louisville Sports Commission was very happy with the results, but they probably need to increase their volunteer base as well. Some of the Racing teams rally stepped up to help also. Mark said the sponsorships were down but the registrations were up. He said the racers really seem to like the venue.

TOURING: Kevin said he has fewer ride captains this year than in the past, and most of the rides are downtown rides. He is trying to getting the RC to put on different routs, but it is hard to get commitments. The scheduler is apparently not very user friendly.

EARL: Earl asked if the committee thought there should be a continuation of the Task Force that was set up after the Bike Summit. There are bout 10-15 members. The consensus was yes, especially with the talk of change in the Metro Government. It was felt we should keep a presence with Metro.

SECRETARY: Barbara reported we have about 965 active members. She also gave Tom a printout from the first bike Ed class. The numbers were low, with this class having the lowest # of students who do 6 or more classes.

TREASURER: Jim said the money is coming in and going out fast with OKHT but everything appears in line with the budget . He just renewed a $22,640 CD and another for $8,600 matures the end of July.

OKHT: Jim reported that we have 157 registrations as of July 11, 107 of these are paid registrations; number appear comparable to previous years.. We also have the main building back for registrations Friday & Saturday. The park director did not want us using the new Sawyer-Hayes building; even thou we’d been granted a contract from the previous Events Coordinator. They worked it out with the Dog group for us to share. The jerseys are going to be ordered next week, and we have started getting some of the sponsorship money in.

PICNIC: Joe Thomas arranged for the event to be August 9 at the Farnsley Moorman pavilion. He is looking into getting inflatable for the kids, and will have 3 ride options. This will be a very family oriented picnic this year.

Submitted by Barbara Tretter, Secretary