The Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee appointed two of its members, President Brian Beck and Eric Post, to investigate what options are available to keep the Mt. Lemmon trailhead at the original location despite Pima County saying it is no longer on the table.

Committee members ultimately decided to discuss the project with Jean Gorman, who has been out of town due to a personal matter, to see what direction she wants to go in.

“We do need to find our where Jean stands, where the Gorman Fund stands,” Josefina Ahumada said. “We are hearing that it is the best possible site, but there is a political issue there. So I think there needs to be some assessment of how much energy there is from the Gorman Fund and also see if it is a viable thing to go forward and to plan some strategic intervention with that neighborhood. If it seems like a reasonable thing to do, then we could marshal some resources to do a BAC public hearing.”

Members agreed with Ahumada.

“It would be foolish for us to go spend a lot of energy if Jean would rather not,” Committee member Norm Land said. “Before we do anything, let’s see what she would like to do.”

Concern was expressed about the amount of money the Brad Fund has spent developing that site only to have it nixed.

The BAC will revisit the issue at their next meeting.

Urban loop project 50% funded

Nanette Slusser, the assistant county administrator for policy, discussed progress on the urban loop project.

The idea behind the urban loop it to connect existing multiple use paths, such as the Rillito, Santa Cruz and Aviation to make one continuous loop around the city.

According to Slusser, when it is completed, the loop will be 55 miles long.

Slusser said 50 percent of the loop has been funded and they are trying to do some of the projects now because construction rates have fallen allowing for work to be done cheaper.

Pima County diversionary program

Eric Post said he is working with Pima County to create a diversionary class similar to the ones the City of Tucson has for cyclists who are ticketed for an infraction.

Once the program is created they will try to get UAPD on board as well.

“We hope, soon, Pima County will be able to adopt this program so that citations issued to cyclists can be addressed with some training,” Post said.

Bike count numbers off

According to Ann Chanecka, who is a planner for the Pima Association of Governments, due to an error in the spreadsheet she inherited, the bike count numbers were not accurate in the report released last week. She is working to correct the error and will send out new numbers soon.

According to Chanecka, the error over inflated the number and there will be a drop in the number of riders from 2008.

Mountain Bike subcomittee will attempt to create skills park

Martha Lemen, TPBAC mountain bike subcommittee member, presented information about mountain bike skills courses to the BAC. According to Lemen there are several different types of courses, but that some of the options are inexpensive to build because they just require dirt and labor, which she believes will be volunteered by members or the bicycle communities.

According to Lemen a skill course could easily be built at any existing park.

The BAC passed a motion asking the mountain bike subcommittee to proceed with trying to create a trial program at an existing park.