Greetings fellow members. Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend last week. There are many thing I love about September besides Labor Day weekend…the start of football season (college, pro and fantasy!), US Open tennis tournament (yes, I’m a big tennis fan.) and milder temperature. As we wind down the riding season this month, the board will begin to plan for next year. I found out the City of Peoria is also planning for next year and the subsequent years from the Bicycle Master Plan meeting I attended two weeks ago. It’s good to know that Peoria is listening the the voice of its citizens regarding making the streets more bicycle friendly and increasing connectivity to the trails.
Similar planning is also taking place in E. Peoria as I met with Planning & Development Director Ty Livingston last Friday. E.P. Park District is working on adding signage & kiosks near the trail heads by street intersections to help cyclists and pedestrians figure out how to get to the trail as well as available amenities adjacent to the trail. I know there are a lot more things E.P. need to work on to make it city more cyclists and pedestrian friendly, but it’s a start. We can help speed up the process by voicing our opinions to both cities. For Peoria, I encourage you to take the Bicycle Master Plan survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PeoriaBikePlan) as the project is in the development stage and the planners are seeking input. You can also stay connected on updates and progress of the Alta/Allen Rd Project through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PeoriaBikePlan). As for the McClugage Bridge Project, you can get updates through IDOT’s website (http://mcclugagebridgeproject.com/). For E. Peoria, I encourage you to reach out to Ty (tylivingston@cityofeastpeoria.com). Together, we can help make a difference in improvements.
NOTE: We will have the club’s board meeting this Thursday (Sept 11th) 6pm at Leaves N Beans (1003 N. Bourland Ave) near Bradley. If you have any suggestions to improve the club, we would love to hear it at the meeting.
As always, bike safe and see you out on the road!
Kind Regards,
Fai Mok
Illinois Valley Wheelm’n President
