IMBC Board
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 5
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REI Grant Helps Mountain Bike Group Take On Big Project
The Chicago Area Mountain Bikers (CAMBr) has been awarded a $5,000 trail
improvement and advocacy grant from Recreational Equipment, Inc (REI).
The bulk of this grant has been earmarked for a bridge the trail advocacy
group will help construct this fall at the Palos Forest Preserve, in
partnership with the Cook County Forest Preserve District. While primarily
intended for pedestrian, bike and horse traffic, the bridge must also be
able to accommodate small county vehicles. This required that it be
constructed to engineering standards that exceeded what the volunteer group
could do by themselves.
"This is like no other project we've ever taken on," said CAMBr President
John Siwinski. "It's a civil engineering project and I don't think any of us
expected to take trail building to this level."
"Even with the county's help, the cost of something like this is well beyond
the resources of a band of volunteers," added Ed Bartunek, CAMBr vice
president. "REI is helping to make this possible."
The bridge was of key importance to the mountain bikers, as its completion
will allow them to build new trails in an area that has previously been
off-limits.
"Palos has been desperately in need of additional singletrack trails, and
finding funds for this bridge has been holding us back from remedying that,"
said Siwinski.
The REI grant represents the largest single financial contribution to
CAMBr's trail advocacy efforts to date.
Besides the bridge expenses not covered by county funding, the group also
expects to use the grant to purchase new trail-building tools and pursue
additional trail improvement projects. |
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