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Chapman Hill bike project needs votes

Competition for Bell Built Grant begins Monday

Chicago’s population is 2.7 million. St. Paul’s is 300,000, plus you might want to include its twin, Minneapolis (387,000).

Durango’s population is around 17,000.

Can we outvote these megalopoli?

That’s the challenge as four communities wanting to better their bike parks go head-to-head for part of a $100,000 grant being offered by Bell Helmets and the International Mountain Bike Association.

The 2014 Bell Built Grant will be decided in the next two weeks during online voting. It begins Monday and ends May 4. Whoever has the most votes wins.

Durango’s project is the Chapman Hill Bike Park, which includes the improvement of existing trails and the addition of flow trails and a skills area. Another feature motivating many cycling enthusiasts is a pump track.

“If we get (the grant), it adds to the total amount of the pie we can accomplish,” said Mary Monroe Brown, executive director of Trails 2000, the local nonprofit trails advocate spearheading the project.

The bike park is a partnership among Trails 2000, the city of Durango, Durango Devo, Durango BMX, Fort Lewis College cycling, the Durango Winter Sports Foundation and Second Avenue Sports. It’s been in the planning for several years.

Getting the grant would help kick-start the project, said Kevin Hall, the city’s natural lands, trails and sustainability director. He said the city is in the process of hiring someone to design a final plan. It will set the tracks and sites for the various features and give more concise dollar amounts for construction costs.

“While there’s absolutely broad support for getting that bike park built at Chapman, and we have conceptual-level approvals from the elected officials and the boards, we don’t have it all designed and budgeted for construction,” Hall said last week. “It’s kind of a work in progress.”

Trails 2000 twice has been denied grants from Great Outdoors Colorado, a pot of state lottery money that goes toward towns’ recreation needs. The original estimated cost of the project was $430,000, and the city had agreed to match up to $100,000 of GOCO funding.

Hall said the project likely will be done in phases as money becomes available. Getting the Bell grant, targeted at the pump track, would give the entire project “some serious stimulation.”

Bike park details

Two or three “flow” trails with jumps, drops and bermed curves will start along the Rim Trail on the Fort Lewis College mesa and drop down the hillside to the base of Chapman Hill. Similar to ski areas, the trails would be rated green (easy), blue (intermediate) and/or black (advanced). The trails will be family-friendly.

At the base of Chapman Hill will be a “skills area” that includes obstacles such as rock and wood features, perhaps a balance beam. It’s designed for those learning to ride and learning different ways of moving around on a bike.

In the online video to promote Durango’s bid for the Bell Helmet grant, Monroe Brown explains that Durango has more than 300 miles of trails within 30 minutes of downtown but no pump track.

A pump track is similar to a BMX track. Riders use their handlebars to “pump” through the course. Chapman’s pump track would be a small oval located at the base.

‘Community need’

Monroe Brown is hopeful that construction could begin this fall.

“It’s been a big community need,” she said, and noted the cooperation among various users of Chapman Hill, including snowboarders, skiers and skaters.

“Most people understand because they do more than one thing,” she said.

Monroe Brown said that British Columbia-based Alpine Bike Parks, which has helped construct bike parks in such places as Boulder and San Francisco, visited to help consult on the needs and plans for the Chapman Hill project.

Among the expected users, Monroe Brown said, are Fort Lewis College athletes and students, youths in the Durango Devo cycling program and members of Durango’s “highly skilled” athletic community, adults included.

Monroe Brown said Bell Helmets received 62 applications for the grant. The 12 finalists were divided into three regions of four each. Durango was lumped in the Central region with the parks near Chicago and St. Paul as well as one in Nashville, Ind., near Indiana University.

“We really need everyone’s friends and families to vote,” Monroe Brown said.

As of last week, in West Coast voting, Flagstaff, Ariz.’s Fort Tuthill Bike Park had received more votes than a park located in Marin County north of San Francisco and a park in Santa Cruz, just south of San Francisco.

johnp@durangoherald.com

To vote

From Monday through May 4, visit www.bellhelmets.com/bellbuilt and follow directions to vote.

To view Durango’s promotional video for the contest, visit www.bellhelmets.com/bellbuilt/chapman-bike-park-project.

Feb 13, 2015
Chapman Hill Bike Park ramps up


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