News

Big Park School Kids Bike Rodeo

The June Board meeting will now be held at Marty Glinsky’s home 417 Acacia Dr. Sedona, AZ 86336. To get to Marty’s from the Mystic Hills Club House, head up the hill on East Mallard until you reach the T intersection at Acacia Dr. Turn left and 417 is on your right.

 In what's being referred to as "a ground  breaking meeting", John Halikowski,  Executive Director of ADOT, directed that  ADOT take over the maintenance and r  related costs for sweeping, signage and  bike lane markings on the unincorporated  portion of Hwy 179 between the Red Rock  Ranger Station and Back O’Beyond Road by  the end of 2017. These costs are currently  incurred by VVCC and area friends of  bicycling under an encroachment  agreement that was originally required in  order to have bicycle lanes included in the Hwy 179 reconstruction design. 

Bob Beane, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclist “CAzB” President, made this request directly of Executive Director  Halikowski at a meeting at ADOT Headquarters in Phoenix on June 8th. VVCC Board Member in Waiting Rich Leever represented the VVCC at this meeting. According to Leever, "the VVCC will soon receive written confirmation from Audra Merrick, District Engineer for ADOT in Flagstaff that we are no longer responsible for quarterly sweeping the bike lanes." In an email summary of this meeting sent to CAzB Members, CAzB President Beane wrote "I believe that having a VVCC representative in attendance was influential in the outcome." 

After the meeting, Rich Leever stated "I like to present VVCC's heartfelt thanks to CAzB and its President Bob Beane for for arranging the meeting and bringing VVCC's situation to the attention of ADOT leadership in Phoenix." 

There are others in the Verde Valley that helped create awareness about the need for ADOT to take over the cleaning of the 179 in VOC. The VVCC will be sending out thank yous to those people and a press release to the community about this change.  

Since the VVCC has been raising money to keep the road clean we will determine at next week’s board meeting if there will be any forecasted surplus sweeping donations by year's end as well as the best way to contact those who so generously supported the VVCC’s sweeping requirements concerning any forecasted surplus.  "Hopefully some of those that made donations may be willing to allow the VVCC to keep any surplus sweeping funds for other positive cycling issues" Leever added. 

You can help the VVCC continue to advance its mission to improve the bicycling environment, facilities, quality of life in the Verde Valley. VVCC needs and welcomes the enthusiastic participation of its Members on the Board of Directors.

Here are some of the main functions of a VVCC Board member: oversee the direction and management of the club, lead specific committees, recruit new members, ensure a solid, balanced budget, contribute to the club's financial success, and represent VVCC Members. The VVCC's Board of Directors is an active board that makes a difference. 

Those who are elected to the Board will serve a 3-year term (2017-2019). 

Submit a statement of interest to membership@vvcc.us by June 10th. Use "Board Nomination" as the subject line of your e-mail message. Your statement of interest should include the following three headings and describe:

(1) your qualifications

(2) what you would bring to the board

(3) your vision for the VVCC. 

Construction on the dual slalom feature at the Sedona Bike Skills Park will begin within the next two weeks and be completed by the end of June. Progressive Bike Ramps is the contractor building the dual slalom. We ask that riders not use the dual slalom feature until the project has been completed.

The VVCC, led by Board Member in Waiting Pam Milavec, met with Yavapai County District 3 Supervisor Randy Garrison in February to discuss accommodating some form of cycling lane on both the Dry Creek and Boynton Pass roads as part of their upcoming re-pavement project. This project is NACOG funded, and is being done jointly with the City of Sedona, which greatly restricts the County's ability to add any additional features or make any meaningful changes to the existing roadway. With these limitations, Randy entered into discussions with the County Public Works Department on how to accommodate some form of cycling lane and together they toured these roads and determined that narrowing the travel lane and providing for a 3’ stripped shoulder was the solution.

Kudos to Randy Garrison and Pam Milavec for ensuring that cyclists needs were considered as part of this project.

Each year the Sedona Fire Department puts on a bike rodeo at one of our two public elementary schools, alternating between West Sedona School and Big Park School in the VOC. This year it was at the Big Park Elementary School on May12th.

Kids are encouraged to ride their bikes to school that day. The VVCC assists cadets from the fire academy to set up approximately 10 obstacle course stations using cones and chalk lines. VVCC Members then assisted the kids as they rode through the courses. Kids range in age from primary grades through 8th grade. Don Nelms from Farmers Insurance gave away 4 new bikes to needy kids. 

Here are some pictures from this year's rodeo.

Enjoy!

VVCC's Dan Blaettler's recent Villager Article. When he's not advocating for mountain bikers, Dan's advocating for our trails!

At its April Board Meeting, the VVCC Board approved using an all-in-one membership fulfillment solutions from Wild Apricot. Wild Apricot was recently ranked by Capterra as the # 1 Membership Management Software.

Wild Apricot's fulfillment software offers

The Wild Apricot choice enabled the creation of new website that demonstrates the VVCC’s board commitment to serving all Verde Valley Cyclists. Highlights include:

As we become more familiar with the system, we’ll be sure to take full advantage of it. Member suggestions are welcome.

The City of Sedona held its annual Celebration on Spring event on Saturday April 15th at Posse Grounds Park. This event is intended for families with small children. There were rides, a magician and an Easter egg hunt. There were also many groups handing out information on health, recreation, recycling, trails, etc. The Verde Valley Cyclists Coalition purchased 40 kids bicycle helmets for the event. Doug Copp and folks from the Yavapai County Health Department fitted helmets on kids, gave out bike safety information, and promoted the new Sedona Bike Skills Park. We gave away all 40 helmets and could have handed out a few more helmets.

This young man was too late, so he got his own helmet.