We have a local bike/atv park in the little town 12 miles south of us. It is city owned property and with volunteer work they let them build a park. It is no charge and no supervision, gates always open. City police come by a few time a day and check on things. of course there are rules, atv's on their track only, same for bikes and there is a kids track also. Everyone looks out and us old guys yell at younger idiots, I'm sure you know the story. The city wants to releave themselves from the liablity of the "bike pit" on June 1st as it is under the city's insurance. First of all I dont know how that ever flew but this is small town USA. I believe that will be the death of the place because no way will the group or whatever it is be able to afford insurance. Sponsors have bailed with economy like everything else. I somewhat got involved because nobody has worked the track in a year and its a mess along with being dangerous. They made it too challenging, death doubles and the jump by-passes go out then back into the line so someone is going to get landed on someday. I offered to work the track over. Before I started teaching I was a logger so I still have access to friends equipment and I still own a 2000gl water truck. I offered to the man in charge to fix the place up with a D-5H Cat at no cost. I did put a stipulation on it that I would only do it if I could make it less technical and more vintage/beginner friendly. I explained that I would make it wider and have two wide lines side by side, one easy, one technical. It would be safer and draw more people. Got the blank stare and he said we need to put more jumps in for the ATV's? Nobody has gotten seriously hurt out there but it is going to happen. I really enjoy going out there with my 10 year old daughter, she rides a TTR125 that I lowered, 20 minutes from the house were there with never much of a crowd. I dont want to see the place go away because its a great resource in our area. I know with the attitude I ran into and the city wanting out the place will be dead in June. They wont be able to hire anyone or get a volunteer to man the gate to take admission. We are in a great central location for a vintage race in the PNW circuit, half way between Portland Oregon/Boise Idaho, three hours from Seattle. Finally my question? I'm looking for advice from all you wiser-more "experienced" guys on how much should I get involved to try to save this place? I never complain about anything unless I have a solution to the problem, thats why I offered my time and equipment, but I'm not the "take over the world guy either" I'm going to call my friend CJ- "Siege" who coordinates the Hammer and Tongs Vintage Dirt Racing her in the PNW this weekend and see what he says about an event there. Thanks for your time and pending advice, Scott
I might make a few comments. I don't promise to be correct. How does the hold harmless law or lack of law work in your state. If you don't charge money then hold harmless law applies and it is hard to sue. Unfortunately sometimes upon litigation it is decided that since the town forces you to pay taxes hold harmless doesn't apply. There was such a ruling in Connecticut over an injury at a tennis court. Obviously if you charge to race forget about that line of protection. Do you have the option of joining a bike club which owns property? Do you already belong to such type of organization? Often even if you only join a club which puts on things like enduros, hare scrambles, turkey runs there is a property owner who allows some form of riding on their property at least some of the time. There is a practice track I know of which costs $30 a day just to do what you describe and has yearly rates starting at around $500. When lifestar takes a rider to the hospital the TV news runs the story every 15 minutes, they only seem know the start and end of the helicopter trip.
does the state of oregon have a trails dept? The state of NH does ... http://www.nhtrails.org/ if you let people ride on your land for free you go under the state coverage. Look into what the state of oregon has going on.
Would it be ok if I moved this thread to the Main forum? There may be other people that could give good information that normally does not look in the vintage bikes forum.
Guys, I do a lot of volunteer work for non-profit organizations in my area. Everything from applying herbicides on the local School district lawns and playing fields to doing various tasks for the Daly Mansion grounds Dept. The take away thought is that there is certainly some grant money available for providing junior playing fields and low cost recreation. You will probably need to do the grant writing yourself but this isn't rocket science. This way you can probably pay for the cities liability insurance and general upkeep at your facility. This is not BS, there is definitely money available for promoting any kind of junior recreational activity. The Daly Mansion exists almost exclusively on historic site grants and as an area for local juniors to learn and participate in grounds, tree, and flower cultivation. My guess is you need to start a non-profit organization/club that will maintain and provide some form of scheduled supervision and instruction. This will not require you to close the gates when supervision isn't available but simply provides a supervised time when juniors can come out and participate and preferably receive instruction. You can probably receive money to buy bikes and quads with storage to facilitate making the recreation available to all the local kids. My course was looking into these types of grants to raise money to upgrade facilities. In the end it was decided not to proceed not because there was no money but because the members didn't want to give up their autonomy. This isn't your issue as you want to provide a safe facility for use open to all. The biggest obstacle you face is actually being willing to donate your time and finding others like you that would be available for similar efforts. It only takes a few individuals that are willing to give of themselves ~ 10 hours a month and you can get it done. Do not expect any help from your local public officials. Their only interest will be in paying the liability insurance and making sure it doesn't require ANY input of time or materials on their part. This isn't because they don't want to help but more a case of municipalities never having enough money, time, or expertise to help in any non-traditional recreation. Find a local individual who is involved in junior recreation and education that would be willing to donate some time to writing grants. Your local school administrators if they are doing their job are very familiar with the process and should be willing to spend a little of their own time for advancement of local junior activities. Damn but it is easy to donate other peoples time, Walt
I heard today that they got a 30K grant to improve the park. I haven't heard what if any intentions they have with the money. I hope they dont use it for more "do or die" doubles. The current organizer sells bikes so he tries to connect with the younger kids with a technical track. I ride on a private track that is very reliant on weather, livestock etc. I had to sign a hold harmless to ride, no problem. We are lucky to live in this rural area as we have alot of public land to ride on with Forest Service taril netwroks less than a hour away. I will look into some other grants if I decide to get more involved. I deal with grants everyday at work, mechanical technology/welding instructor at comm. college so we are always under the axe without grants!
we had a nice outdoor practice track get shut down by the next door neighbor who complained of noise,they put up a fence,dust,they installed a nice watering system,even limited the riding to every other day and sat and sunday no riding till 10am,but it still got shut down,ANYTIME there was a call for the ambulance the fire dept called the helicopter saying it was always life threatening injuries? always replayed that many times a day on the local news
In our city the local track is right in the middle of town..... its the exact same thing......if the ins. liabilities dont get you....the dust control problem is another hurdle.....and ever since the 4 strokes became the tool of choice...well now its a noise problem....and always the threat of closure....it costs 20 bucks to get through the gates now........and they can only have one track open at a time for the first time I didnt buy a seasons pass and I am not the only one......geesh I have been riding this track in our city since 1978.....and it has been closed down before.....and re opened when the city couldnt defend the usage of it when the Firemen held their "Olympics" at the same location.... Its good for business...good for keeping kids busy(read: out of trouble)...and close by in case someone gets hurt (a given) I guess.....in terms of society as a whole...we have become very good complainers..... As riders I guess we need to be more Pro active......against those activists.....
One thing is nice about this locale is its a mile out of town. The town, Pilot Rock Oregon is a farming/ranching area with the main source of income being a fledgling sawmill. Not many-how would I say it-metro wacko's, no news media in 100 miles. The biggest problem is the lack of representation to the city to keep the city interested in having the liabilty. The guy in charge of it thinks it needs to be some supercross track, big jumps- long straights and its a mile around? People cant see there kids or anyone else for that matter on the back 1/2 mile. I have decided to go to the next city council meeting and see what I can do to keep it alive. Going to play the "change the track" to make it more safe-ie-less liabilty and that would atract more people= sponsors. I'm a pretty good public speaker, college instructor so I'll see what I can do. Thanks Scott
Good luck Scott, Keep us informed on how this works out. I think there are a lot of small communities in our less populated areas that could really benefit from this kind of public run and operated venture. Walt
Walt, I will, I'm going to the city council meeting on the 17th to see what discussion there is about the track.
