March 2006
Bike Lane Designs At the working session of the Hendersonville Planning Commis-sion on Feb 21’nd Bruce Day and David Hardin presented basic guidelines for the inclusion of bike lanes on new road development. The City is seeing extensive growth in the areas neighboring Viet-nam Veteran Bypass and the Greenways Committee felt it important to initiate discussion with the Commission relative to issues associated with bicycle friendly road designs. Please view a copy of their presentation at http://bikinhville.homestead.com/files/Pres_022106a.pdf	Hendersonville Tomorrow Committee Report The Greenways Committee has envisioned the needs for City as it relates to Bike Paths and Pedestrian Walkways over the next 15 years.  On March 31’st it will present that report the Henderson-ville Tomorrow Committee sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. We have placed a copy of the first draft of our report on our Web Site     http://bikinhville.homestead.com/files/HTC_Report.pdf and encourage all citizens to offer suggestions and comments.  We continuously update this copy as we receive your help.
Essay Contest May is national bicycle month.  Cathy Haley has approval from the School Board to contact school principals in offering an essay contest for our school children to describe how greenways would benefit Hendersonville.  The prize is a $500 donated by The Biker’s Choice Bicycle Shop.  For more details see http://bikinhville.homestead.com/Essay.html She needs your help in contacting principals and working with schools.  Please contact her at bikinhville@evanscenter.com .	Input to Planning Commission One of the tasks of the Greenways Committee is to assist the Planning Commission in the review of new real estate develop-ment.  This month our reviews have been led by Frank Bowyer in cooperation with Timothy Whitten, and with the assistance of Bruce Day and David Hardin. - Saundersville Station Phase 4-A and 5 - Norman Creek subdivision Frank is still discussing concerns with Jerry Horton and he is not ready to offer any report at this time.
Greenways and Crime Mention building a greenway and you can be certain somebody will falsely claim they are potential attractors for crime.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I even had a land owner challenge me to do a Google search of “Greenways and Crime,” which with some trepidation I promptly did it. The results were a HUGE surprise.  I read the first 50 hits and scanned the next 50.  Without a single negative comment my search overwhelming supported the construction of greenways.  Read a sampling of what is found at http://bikinhville.homestead.com/Greenway-Crime.html	Veterans Park Greenway Complex Please view the details of our planning on this GREAT project to our Web Site at http://bikinhville.homestead.com/files/HTC_VPGC.pdf. Our goal is to provide a complete layout of inter-connecting green-ways in Hendersonville. A couple of weekends ago, Bruce Day and Tom Evans walked Mansker’s Creek in the snow between Gallatin Road and John Paul II, taking pictures and planning a route along this edge of the city.  This area would make a fantastic greenway.
Town Rides Adult bike riding isn’t just for those trim bodies in multi-colored spandex.  Some of us seniors find getting on a bike to be a great source of low impact exercise, plus it is a great way to enjoy our community. March usually means great weather for biking and we would like to share some of the routes on the City’s Master Plan.  These casual rides are targeted for our young and our senior advocates who want to get some light and relaxing exercise.  The length of the ride will depend on you.  Our focus for March is the two bike routes on Indian Lake Peninsu-la.  Along the western edge runs the best route for casual rider.  Our trail head is Kids’ Kingdom in Memorial Park.  If you would like to join us, send us an e-mail with your preferred times for biking at bikinhville@evanscenter.com . We will try to put together rides that match the schedules of the majority.	Money for Trails Held up Mayor Foster reports that although the City has received approval to build two important trails in our Veteran’s Park Greenway Complex, the Governor has not released the funding. One trail connects Nanny Berry school to Memorial Park and the other trail connects Drake’s Creek Park to Wessington school.  The City’s request for $1.2 Million for a third trail along the edge of Drakes Creek behind Mallard’s Restaurant has been rejected. Because of budget problems the Governor has held up funding on road projects (basis of our funding).  Reports are that the State Budget problems are alleviating and the Governor intends to start easing up on these funding restrictions. The objective of the Committee is to have the City build Multi-use trails in compliance with its Master Plan, which call for 12- to 14- foot paths.  The current trails in Drake’s Creek are slightly narrower than 9 feet. The Committee plans to explore all opportunities for funding for these kinds of projects and seeks help for anyone to give us advice in obtaining grants.
Inter-Connectivity The objectivity of the Greenways Committee is to establish through-out Hendersonville a network of interconnecting conduits for Bike and Pedestrian traffic.  We plan to provide guidelines for road con-struction that includes safe passage for forms of transportation alternative to cars and for construction of multi-use trails.  Our goal is goal is to provide opportunity to get to schools, parks, shopping, library, and other key attractors without the use of a car. With all the development in Hendersonville the timing to make that happen is now.  The City Planners are doing a good job it getting greenways and multi-use paths included in new sub-divisions and we appreciate their work, especially in the Durham Farm develop-ment.  But we need to include in our planning proper road designs that allow safe passage to those trails. Frank Bowyer IV is working with City engineers in the approval of the Saundersville Station development.  Everyone recognizes the need for wider roads for safe passage for increased traffic in these growth areas for the City, but feel without an ordinance they are unable to enforce important design requirements.	21 Best Cycling Cities in the U.S. Bicycling Magazine in their March issue listed by population cate- gories the most bike friendly cities in the U.S.  (in a sidebar they also noted the worst.) Tennessee made the honorable mention list with Chattanooga.  In Hendersonville sized towns Davis, California was the only one on the list.  Although most of the major cities neighboring Hendersonville have active Greenway programs and the state has ordinance that dictate the inclusion of bike lanes on all new road construction, few Tennessee bikes would challenge that list. However, if you are interested in what a small city (in our backyard) can do, we invite you to visit White House.  You can hop on your bike and ride there, like most of us do, you can choose an alternate form of transportation, such as a car, or you can take a virtual tour by clicking on the following link. http://www.cityofwhitehouse.com/PR%20Park%20Facilities.htm Isn’t that GREAT!  Now imagine something similar for our city.
Your Participation is Important We need your involvement in expanding this grass roots movement throughout our city. Please email this newsletter to your friends and family and encourage them to participate.  BikeNwalk is our communication to list of friends of the community who are interested in Greenways in Hendersonville.  Also visit our Web Site http://bikinhville.homestead.com where we share activities of our Committee.  For more information and to sign up to receive this newsletter, contact Doug Depew at BikeNwalk@comcast.net