Another opportunity to speak up for more multi use trails. I will be out there. There is trail building going on 8:00 to 12:00 out there also. Let me know if you are interested in helping out.

Also put on your calendar, trail building day at Smithville trails is on for December 2.

The trail building hammer

The Johnson County Park and Recreation District will be holding a public comment forum on October 21^st to solicit input regarding future use of the Oakridge Farm area and Mack House at Shawnee Mission Park. This area is due north of the existing mountain bike trail system. If you have ridden or run off-road at SMP in the past two years I’m sure you are aware of the Phase 1 changes to the existing trail system. We plan to complete Phase 1 by the end of this year and will be looking to get started on Phase 2 very soon afterward. The Phase 2 trail system will be within the aforementioned Oakridge Farm area. I have mapped out Phase 2 with a proposed 10 mile loop and I plan to present this proposal to the County for their approval. If we can get a significant representation of trail users to attend this public input meeting and express their interest in a singletrack trail system I am extremely confident that the proposed trail would be approved.

We have an incredible opportunity here to develop a sizeable trail system in the heart of Johnson County. Even if you don’t live in JoCo, there will be enough trail here to make the drive worthwhile. Please participate in the public input meetings. Don’t leave it to others. Make a day of it, come out and ride or run first then just drop by the park office on your way out.

When/Where
The public input meeting will be held:
Saturday, October 21^st at 12:15pm
JCPRD Admin Boardroom (at the Renner entrance to SMP)
7900 Renner Rd.

This is a “social” meeting. You don’t need to stand up in front of a crowd of people to get your point across and there is no official start time. Just swing by between 12:15 and 1pm.

The County has arranged for a hayride tour of the Oakridge Farm area starting from the Mack House. You can join a tour anytime between 10am and noon.

The hayrides will be held:
Saturday, October 21st from 10:00am until noon
at the Mack House

Keywords
It is very important for trail users to accurately convey to the planners the type of trail that they are interested in using. For all they know, mountain bikers want a 12 foot wide chat path on flat terrain, running through a field. I personally, am interested in a trail that meets the following criteria:

• Singletrack with no more than an 18 inches of compacted tread
• Built on natural terrain with a natural surface
• Flows well yet has technical challenges
• Takes advantage of the topology to create sustained climbs
• Provides a sense of seclusion and remoteness
• Is in a heavily wooded area
• Provides relief from the sun during the hot summer months
• Has sufficient mileage to keep me occupied for an extended period of time.
• Is in an location that would be appropriate as a race venue
• Is a well defined loop with a very limited number of intersections

These are the phrases that I will use to ensure that the land planners have an accurate view of the type of trail that I would like to ride. Please come up with your own list of criteria and be sure to convey them to the planners. Feel free to steal from my list as well.

Follow Up Meetings
Once the land planners have gathered their public input they will spend the following week meeting with a steering committee and formulating a Master Plan for the park. There will be several times during the Master Plan process when the public can make comments on the progress of the park plans. It is important that we have people showing up at these meetings to ensure that the planners are accurately interpreting our interests. These meetings will be on the following dates:

    Wed. Nov. 1^st, 4-5pm – Analysis and Park Planning Pin-ups
    Thurs. Nov 2^nd, Evening (anytime after 5pm) – Presentation of design alternatives
    Thurs. Nov. 9^th, Evening (anytime after 5pm) – Public Open House – Preferred Alternatives

Ongoing dicussions regarding the public input can be found here:
http://forums.earthriders.com/viewtopic.php?p=10898#10898

You can view the JCPRD press release regarding the public input here:
http://www.jcprd.com/apps/news/specific_record_info.cfm?id=852

If you have questions or comments please contact me. If you cannot make it to any of the meetings, let me know and I can arrange for you to comment outside the scope of the meetings.

Sean Cairns
seancairns@...
816 536-2647