September 11, 2017
Meeting held at the State College Borough Building
Present:
- Tristan Avelis, President
- Joan Potter, Secretary/Treasurer
- Lyn Pipenberg
- Mark Davison
- Valerie Burnett
- Courtney Hayden
- Andrew Artz
- Cecily Zhu
- Paul Rito
- Autumn Busbee
- Christine Stephens
The meeting was called to order by Tristan Avelis at 5:35 pm.
Treasurers Report
- Current cash balance is $9,260.38. Three membership payments were received, and $50 paid to PSU Lion Surplus for 5 bike racks.
Discussions
- Bike rack donation program update: 5 racks were purchased and delivered to Videon as a holding place. Dennis Bender delivered one to The Friends School. Videon would like to keep one and Toftrees expressed interest, leaving 2 available.
- The “Ask a Cyclist” information table was held on Friday, Sep 1st at Allen Street Gates from 9:00-3:00. The shorter time frame worked well (instead of 8:00-4:00) and will likely be repeated for future info tables.
- Cecily announced the next CRBAC (Centre Region Bicycle Advisory Committee) meeting will be Sep 19th from 4:30-6:00 in the Borough Building. Each of the bicycle-related groups are urged to send a representative to the meetings. Tristan Avelis volunteered to attend.
- Lyn Pipenberg mentioned she is planning to attend the Patton Township Supervisors meeting and is willing to raise bicycle/pedestrian issues, if needed. Discussion followed on the importance of all members attending their respective township’s meetings to praise positive improvements in the township, such as the recently completed Waddle Road bike lane and proposed Valley Vista drive bike path, as well as bringing forth issues that need to be addressed, like the missing sidewalks along North Atherton Street.
- Valerie Burnett suggested a good project would be a biking/walking feasibility study to assess the connectivity and safety issues people face trying to get from one place to another. Paul referred to the missing sidewalk on North Atherton Street as a point of frustration, and if a survey could identify how many people are affected by this, the data could be presented to the Patton Township Supervisors. Other issues mentioned are the challenges of riding a bike to the airport or Bernel Park, and commuting between Bellefonte and State College.
- Autumn Busbee introduced Christine Stephens who replaced her as the new Americorp volunteer for the Borough.
- Andrew Artz offered to form a new subcommittee for “doing cool stuff”, as there are so many great ideas discussed but not pursued due to lack of someone willing to lead the effort. Andrew would like to organize a group to come up with detailed proposals to bring ideas to fruition.
- Paul said he heard there was a recent bicycle fatality but it wasn’t in the news. No one else had any information. Discussion followed on methods of tracking the number of bicycle accidents and fatalities in the region.
- In preparation for the “Light up the Night” safety event and bicycle light giveaway in October, 500 red and white lights were removed from their individual plastic bags and a red & white light were hooked together and then repacked into ziplock bags for easy distribution by volunteers. It was agreed that the week before Halloween would be good timing, pending availability of bicycle police to help. As soon as the date is confirmed, planning will commence for organizing volunteers and advertising.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, it adjourned at 6:50 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Potter, Secretary
