Metro Planning Budget: $2.5 million for MTB

[kindacreeky]

The park board passed on July 1 a planning budget that includes $2.5 million for mountain biking county wide. This is an unfunded budget, so we need to continue to make our voices heard.

Thanks to all that turned out for the Metro planning meetings and wrote letters. I am sure that is the reason this is in there.

Folks, I don't have to tell you how many trails and facilities can be built for $2.5 million.

And those who have not joined SORBA, we need the numbers to make as big of an impression with Metro as we can. Please join.

P.S. Thanks to David Broemel for getting this document from his buddy John Norris, the Chairman of the Greenways Board.

[Paddlechris]

AWSOME.. hopefully we can see some good progress with this development

Sent in my new dues last week..

C

[Taco-Tim]

That is GREAT news!

I look forward to being of whatever help I can building and maintaning the local trails.

[GRiD]

I would urge all of us to send thank you emails to the Parks and Greenways directors to let them know how much we appreciate their support on this planning budget.

[TryFour]

I would urge all of us to send thank you emails to the Parks and Greenways directors to let them know how much we appreciate their support on this planning budget.

Jose, do you have a good email address for this?

[Hoopty]

Since this $2.5mil is unfunded, does anyone have an inside track of whether or not the money is available, going to be available or this "plan" will have to be carried over into the next fiscal year & hope for the best? Hopefully $4.16/gal gas did not destroy any possible surplus... I still haven't forgotten about that indoor MTB park that was being pitched last year....

[GRiD]

Jose, do you have a good email address for this?

Yes, you can send emails to:

Roy Wilson - Director of Metro Parks
roy.wilson@nashville.gov

Shain Dennison - Director of Greenways
shain.dennison@nashville.gov

Renee Bates - Greenways Executive Coordinator
renee.bates@nashville.gov

[RMB_mike]

I still haven't forgotten about that indoor MTB park that was being pitched last year....

I haven't either, but I'd much rather have an outdoor one.
If everyone feels that an indoor park down here would be THAT lucrative, we can always get ahold of Ray (the owner of Ray's MTB in Cleveland), and try to convince HIM to invest in one.

To be honest, the main thing I want to see is, some of that budget going towards a skills park(or skills trail or section).
I'll be quite a bit more inclined to help out/volunteer if there is the possibility of allocating funds for a skills section.
I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful to anyone here, but there are already several cross-country trails around this area and no skills sections (at least not built/man-made ones). There are even three skateparks in the area. I'm hoping that anyone who attended the HC FTF and enjoyed the skills section we had going on there, will be on board with this as well.
Bentonville, AR and Cullman, AL got their skills section approved, funded and built, why can't Nashville/Davidson County?

[Hoopty]

From what I understand, Ray's would be the model. His indoor park is more a "labor of love" [sic: money pit] than an area of investment opportunity. I'm all for the skillz park and for any MTB projects funded by Metro you have to address 4 key concerns:

1. Demand
2. Available Location
3. Zero Maintenance
4. Minimal Liability

The pitches for the indoor park have met positively as far as Metro goes. If the previous four can be achieved, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be built. The same goes for an outdoor skillz course.

Metro realizes that anything MTB is not a money maker. They want to buy it once and be done with it to be able to offer it freely to everyone. Volunteers will be available 75% of the time, but it's the 25% of unavailability that concerns them the most - from a liability standpoint. Especially if even one part of the course needed some major attention. Someone hurts themself and then went looking for a golden parachute.

[RMB_mike]

From what I understand, Ray's would be the model. His indoor park is more a "labor of love" [sic: money pit] than an area of investment opportunity. I'm all for the skillz park and for any MTB projects funded by Metro you have to address 4 key concerns:

1. Demand
2. Available Location
3. Zero Maintenance
4. Minimal Liability

The pitches for the indoor park have met positively as far as Metro goes. If the previous four can be achieved, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be built. The same goes for an outdoor skillz course.

That's some very pleasantly surprising news. I wouldn't complain one bit about an indoor park.
However, when we went up the second time last year (me/Kenny, David/Reed), I spoke with Ray in some detail about this. I asked him what he thought about investing in one down in Nashville (or at least down here somewhat close in the area/region). His reason for being reluctant to build an indoor park down here was because of the weather. We do tend to have warm weather down here for much longer than Cleveland(especially being by the lake).
That did get me to thinking; I bet an indoor park would be sweltering in the hot, humid summers we have down here.
Ideally, I think both would be cool. Have the indoor portion of the park right next to the outdoor. You could have the outdoor portion connected to the indoor portion, but either one could be ridden individually should it be too rainy to ride the outdoor part, or too hot/humid to ride the indoor part.
But indoor or outdoor, I would be ecstatic with either.

Metro realizes that anything MTB is not a money maker. They want to buy it once and be done with it to be able to offer it freely to everyone. Volunteers will be available 75% of the time, but it's the 25% of unavailability that concerns them the most - from a liability standpoint. Especially if even one part of the course needed some major attention. Someone hurts themself and then went looking for a golden parachute.

If they approve this and build it, I will have no problem volunteering any spare time I have in the assistance of keeping a skills park up.
I would suggest to Metro that they use a similar approach that they do with the skateparks. The half-pipes/quarter pipes, fun boxes and launch ramps, the way they were built, are probably very sturdy and require very little and infrequent maintenance. If they don't, then to me that kinda goes against their philosophy of 'buying it once and being done with it'; unless Metro isn't the ones who fund the upkeep for the skateparks.
As far as liability goes, same thing with the skateparks. You can bust yourself up pretty good on the skatepark stunts if you're not wearing the proper safety gear. I would imagine that Metro could apply whatever they are applying to the skateparks, at the skills park.

[Hoopty]

IMHO, if the MTB community were awarded the $2.5 mil funded, it should be more than enough to build both parks outta steel, concrete & Trex with Ray here consulting. As far as indoor goes, I think more like a "sheltered" park would fit the bill here - open wall design (garage doors where you could open it in the summer surrounded by a control access fence) - if using an existing structure. Or if site built make it one ginormous carport. Using local contractors to do it would also be a positive impact as well as involving the media. An old friend of mine does concrete for just that type of construction - check out his work the next time you're walking Opry Mills. To put it into perspective - a Super Wal-Mart is 100-120,000 sq. ft. The indoor park was being pitched @ 25-35,000 sq. ft. Metro suggested going to 50-75,000 sq. ft. It can be done and done very well, either way.

[TNcaveman]

I'm working with a developer and he has a 55 (+/-) acre wood hill with 300 ft of relief that he would unload for 1 million - I wonder if parks would be interested - it's just off OHB in Bellvue - beautiful piece of property.

That would leave 1.5 million for a parking lot and kiosk - since we would build the trails for free

Steve

[TNcaveman]

What - no intrest in a MTB park?

There is other land available in the hilly areas of Davidson Co. This is just one of many.

Steve