January 11, 2016
Meeting held at the State College Borough Building
Present:
- Anna Nelson, President
- Joan Potter, Secretary
- Kelly Doyle, Treasurer
- Jim Serene
- Brian Dempsey
- Allan Stoekl
- Mark Davison
The meeting was called to order by Anna Nelson at 5:35 pm.
Liability Insurance
Board approval needed to renew the insurance policy through the League of American Cyclists. The cost for 2016 is $189 which covers 26 rides or less per year. There is also optional officers liability insurance at a cost of $550 for $1M in coverage. Jim Serene moved to only renew the basic coverage at $189; Brian Dempsey second; all in favor. Note that waivers will be required to be signed by all ride recipients. Jim offered to design a new waiver form.
Centre Foundation Endowment Fund
Thank you letter will be sent to Blake and Linda Gall for their generous gift of a $50,000 endowment, with an acknowledgement that CentreBike will host a ride/event in their honor. A story and photo will be posted to the website.
Open Streets Initiative
Melissa Bopp with ActiveLions is applying for grant for Open Streets. If received, CentreBike will be a partner, along with Mt Nittany Health System. Note that Melissa’s students are available to intern on projects.
Winter Bike to Work Day
Scheduled for Friday, Feb 12th with a coffee station on Old Main steps. A group photo will be taken just before 8:00am.
Focus for 2016
- Encourage and support implementation of the Regional Bike Plan accepted by COG. This is a wish list with no time requirements and will require citizen support. Suggest targeting one township a year and work with citizens to address issues.
- Community Rides: Jim Serene and Mark Davison will start off by organizing an easy family ride which connects bike paths and routes around town.
- Commuter Benefits: Encourage local businesses to incentivize biking to work, i.e., PSU, Hospital and businesses that pay for employee parking downtown. Brian Dempsey & Allan Stoekl will follow up with PSU on the potential for commuter benefits.
- Offer support to businesses to apply for Bike Friendly Business (BFB) status with the League of American Cycling. The next deadline is March 31st for awards announced in May, and June 30th is the deadline for August awards. Jim Serene will reach out to the Hospital and Joan will follow-up with Minitab on their status.
- Bellefonte-State College Rail Trail support: Paul Rito will take the lead on this effort.
- Revamp bike registration process and incorporate student education. Anna will be the lead.
- Improve website, email and social media communication. Joan and Anna will focus on this.
- Quarterly OpEd in CDT for various issues, i.e., closing Allen Street for pedestrian/bikes only.
- Bike awareness campaign using local people, i.e., “I’m the Mayor. I’m a Cyclist.” (I’m a Teacher, I’m a Firefighter, I’m a Business Owner, etc.) Also, “Bicyclists may use Full Lane” campaign and “Lights at Night” campaign
- Notify Transportation & Land Use Committee (TLU) about bike lane issues.
Reminder: When working on improvement projects, take before and after photos and write a story to share on the website.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, it adjourned at 6:55 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Potter, Secretary
We are excited to share that one of our local supporters has given CentreBike a tremendous gift to kick off our new year: an endowment of $50,000, held at Centre Foundation.