March 2020 Metro Meeting
03/10/2020
Beer Snobs
Hartland, Wi
18 members in attendance
Mission Statement
Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities. Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.
Introduction of Board
Present:
James Mattox
Dave Burch
Dan Kutz
Beth Kazinski
Ron Stawicki
Chris McArdle
Absent:
Isaac Olson
Membership Renewal
Membership renewals should be going out automatically. A year is from the date that you became a member. You can always go to the web-site www.metromountainbikers.com to check and see when your membership is up for renewal.
Trail Conditions/Maintenance
It seems to be working well updating the trail conditions on the Metro Facebook page and pushing to each group page. We will continue to do this through-out the summer. Trails are closed for spring thaw. Hopefully we can get out soon to walk the trails to see what maintenance needs to be done and if/when they would be rideable.
Milwaukee County had stated they didn’t have the resources to remove the large trees anymore, so we are trying to figure out what this means and if so then we will have to do it. We are looking for NICA to help do the trimming at the Tosa Trails since they seem to get overgrown quickly. Stay tuned and watch the specific trail pages workdays.
Signage
There was obviously a need to for fat bike signage at Minooka. This was the first year for grooming and people didn’t realize that the groomed trails were for bikes and not hiking. We certainly put enough out there so it should be obvious that its for bikes.
Minooka Park Update - James
James went over why we need to put in a Staging Area and not the park. Staging area is for educational and recreational activities including mountain biking. A parking lot is for cars.
Before the “Staging Area” goes in, Ron and James are working on the proposed plan on the new trail head and re-routes to give to the Park. There will be a lot of dirt work to start. They will be renting equipment for a weekend and will try to do as much machine work as possible but will need volunteers for manual work as well. It might be something that NICA can help with.
We will also need volunteers to help with the features from Little Switz. Right now, we are figuring out how to get them to the Park. We need to have the new trail head and features in before the Ribbon Cutting in June.
Dave is working on fundraising in the forms of County Grants, DNR, and Stewardship funds. Some of these grants leverage volunteers’ hours so make sure you get them into Chris Cooper! We will also approach the Kegel Foundation and Peoples for Bikes. If you are interested in fundraising, let Dave know he certainly can you our help.
We will also have a FAQ on our website to help Members with why and what is occurring with the fundraising projects.
Bike Expo
Bike expo is coming up and Chris has out on the website a sign-up sheet. You should be able to select the time/day you are able to work. The booth will be about the same as last year but with foam boards of each trail system that Darrin is currently working on. We probably won’t have the video playing this year. Hoping to get a spot by the fat bikes since we will have the groomer in the booth. We will also have the donation tube since we did raise $200 last year toward the groomer. Member ask if we could have laptop available for people to sign up. It can be something we can look at doing. We need to make sure we have WiFi available.
NICA
Practice starts in July with races in starting in September. Within their season we can let coaches know where and when trail work needs to be done. Chris C. has the document in Google Docs for each trail head to completed to let them know what needs to be work-on.
Grooming
Everyone agree it was grooming at Minooka and Pleasant Valley was awesome? It wasn’t easy getting through the single-track sections and it added on hours to the process, but it was certainly worth it.
We are working on extending out the exhaust system to move it away from the person running it. We did have a member step up that will do it for us.
We would like to have more grooming options but are limited by one machine and volunteer time. We are looking at Nagawaukee golf course for next year. Three to four options are max. We would have to pay off this machine before looking at purchasing another. We would like to expand but need to be smart about it.
Wick Field
Marty has been in touch with a small group that are looking for support in building trails behind Wick Field. They have started on their own already. The land is about 14 acres with 90’ vertical slope. They are calling it Hobo Hills. The land is property of the City of Milwaukee. They don’t have written approval to develop the property but a verbal interest in allowing MTB trails there. The Alderman is on board. They would like to get help from Metro on building out trails and maybe putting in some features and put together a master plan. Marty is trying to get a meeting together with them and our board members to discuss opportunity. Would be helpful for us to walk the property.
James Mattox motioned to allow the board to explore possibility participating in developing and maximizing the use of the property for MTB trials. 2nd by Dan Kutz, all board members present voted yes. No Nays. Motion carried.
Open Floor
Membership appreciation banquet is this Sunday at Raised Grain. We’ll be having Pizza and door prizes. This is a free event for Members Only.
Charlie, member in attendance, brought up that Mt. Olympia in Oconomowoc is looking at putting MTB down hill trails on the hill. No metro involvement but exciting to hear, nonetheless.
Heritage trails is still moving along but no additional update. Still waiting for the ground to thaw before any work can start. Looking to have trails done in July.
Wednesday night races - James is working with an individual who is interested in running the Wednesday night races. He has a racing club in Milwaukee – not mtb. His main reason for wanting to do this is to keep kids on bikes. Outside of WORS there really isn’t any other races for the kids to participate in. James did explain the partnership with Wheel & Sprocket, and he is fine with that. It would still be promoted as a Metro Event. Would like to incorporate all 3 trail systems and have an overall series winner. We would give it one year and see how it goes. Still need to finalize some details and will go to the board.
Meeting adjourned 8:34pm
