The City Council hired a company Thursday to design a BMX bike track that officials say the community is excited about.
“We initially polled the community a couple years ago and it received tremendous response, particularly from the biking community,” Mayor Derek Slaughter said at Tuesday’s meeting of the council public works committee. “They (Pillar Design Studio) have a tremendous body of work all over the country. This is their wheelhouse.”
The council voted 5-0 to hire Pillar Design Studio/PumpTrax USA to design the track for at Shaw Place Park. Councilman Jon Mackey was absent.
Public works committee members spoke with the Arizona-based Pillar Design Studio’s owner Brad Siedlecki on Zoom Tuesday.
The firm has designed and built more than 700 bike and skate parks since its founding in 2006, Siedlecki said.
“We're excited to bring all of our experience and all of our knowledge to the table to come up with something unique and different. And really customize it to your community,” said Siedlecki, a skateboarder and former motocross racer.
The city has $750,000 to invest in the track – $500,000 in Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grants and $250,000 from Lycoming County.
The park could increase tourism, community engagement and city property values, said Penn College of Technology professor Robert Cooley, a member of the Lycoming Composite Mountain Bike Racing Team. He has collaborated with the city and county commissioners on the project.
“It’s (the pump track is) basically a playground where people can ride bikes. It allows skill building, it allows teamwork, it allows community building and a whole variety of community benefits,” he told the council Thursday.
Slaughter proposed construction at the park’s old pool and unused baseball field. The track would cover about 20,000 square feet of land.
“We have quite a large space there from the old volleyball court all the way down to the baseball field,” he said at the public works meeting.
The track could be asphalt, concrete or dirt depending on design, price and community feedback. Asphalt and concrete could allow skateboard, scooter and bikes to use it. Concrete would limit the park size due to cost, Siedlecki said. Dirt would confine it to bikes and specific all-terrain skateboards.
“For the most part with the city parks, we try to stick with a concrete and asphalt approach merely for the maintenance approach,” Siedlecki said. “Dirt is cheap to build, but costs a lot of money to maintain. It's a daily maintenance deal. Every time you ride, you're gonna want to maintain it and that's a hard thing to do for a municipality.”
City council and Siedlecki want community feedback before the track’s design phase begins. It might not accommodate all types of bike riders.
“They want skill tracks, they want pump tracks, they want downhill, they want this, they want that, and the site may not accommodate that,” Siedlecki said. “I want to make sure that I'm very educated on the site, the budget, your approach, your goals, so that when we bring them an idea, it's something that can be done.”
The city is investing heavily in parks. Youngs Woods and Memorial parks will also see upgrades.
Youngs Woods will receive $800,000 worth of upgrades with state grants to fund it. The project is expected to begin next year, city engineer Bill Scott said.
The park will get a new pavilion, picnic tables, benches, trash cans and inclusive playground equipment. The parking lot will be repaved to compliance with rules for accessibility for disabled people. New fencing will be installed along with a new walking trail, new bike racks, sidewalks, a rain garden and pickleball court. The court will replace the unused volleyball court, Scott said.
“There are a lot of improvements going on there. The basketball courts are new there, but everything else is pretty outdated,” Scott said. “It's a nice little park there… Everywhere I go, I see people playing pickleball so the mayor wants to add some more pickleball courts, they're just a pretty good idea.”
Memorial Park is getting a public use outdoor fitness pad. Livic Civil, an engineering firm, was hired to design it. A federal community development block grant will cover the $7,000 cost. Construction is planned later this year, Scott said.
