Rights

Hard Work = New Trails

Alabama club offers tips for creating an OHV park

Glenn Myers of the Cheaha Trail Riders in Alabama is the first to admit that “it’s been a long, hard struggle” for his club to create a new OHV park.

But after almost three years of work, the Minooka OHV Park is set to open in late June. And at a time when off-road riding opportunities are vanishing across the country, Myers hopes that riders elsewhere can benefit from the experience of his group in creating riding areas of their own.

The new park, located near Jemison, midway between Birmingham and Montgomery, has more than 15 miles of trails on 159 acres. And Chilton County, which is building the park, has acquired more land so that the OHV area eventually will encompass 366 acres.

Right now, the project includes trails for dirtbikers, ATVers, mountain bikers, hikers and horse riders.

The park also has a fishing lake with wheelchair-accessible walkways and fishing piers, a youth nature education facility, a rider education and training area, a full hook-up campsite, a primitive campsite, and more.

Myers, a longtime AMA member, says that such a multi-use approach has a much greater chance of success when dealing with public officials and members of the community.

“You have to have a vision of what you want in a park,” he says. “Include environmental education, rider training, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility, youth adventures and family fun.”

Besides a vision of what the park ought to offer, the most important ingredient, notes Myers, is funding.

With the support of the Cheaha Trail Riders, Chilton County was successful in getting $874,000 from the federal Recreational Trails Program for the Minooka OHV Park project.

This fund (see “Show Me the Money,” below) returns federal gasoline taxes paid by off-highway recreation enthusiasts to state and local governments to be used for trail development and maintenance.

To secure the funding, the Cheaha Trail Riders and the county had to pledge matching funds of $218,500 in a combination of direct cash payments, donated supplies and volunteer labor to create the park.

The land they chose was under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management and was known as a pretty rough area, not because of the terrain, but because of drug dealing and trash dumping that went on there. Replacing those uses with a family-friendly park made the project even more attractive to local officials.

The final step involved actually getting the work done, and that’s where the Cheaha Trail Riders really showed their commitment. The club’s members put in hundreds of hours of labor to build trails, clear trash and coordinate with other user groups to make the park a reality.

Myers says that willingness to put their effort into a public park really won over county officials.

“They knew we wanted a park where we could go riding,” he says. “But when they saw that we were willing to work to create things that would benefit campers and fishermen and kids, they knew we were serious about improving this land for everyone.”

And when the Minooka OHV Park opens in late June, Glenn Myers and the members of the Cheaha Trail Riders will be able to invite the entire county to the park they helped build.

Show Me the Money

Your club has a dream of building an OHV riding area. How do you follow the lead of the Cheaha Trail Riders and make that dream a reality?

The key element is often getting funding through the Recreational Trails Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.

You pay into this fund every time you fill up your off-road motorcycle or ATV. The vast majority of the money raised through federal fuel taxes goes to pay for highway construction and maintenance. But every year, Congress earmarks roughly $50 million to fund trail programs.

Money in the program can be used for all kinds of trails, including those used by hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders, along with off-road motorcyclists and ATV riders. In addition to constructing new trails, the funds can be used to maintain and restore existing trails, develop or rehabilitate trail facilities, buy or lease trail construction and maintenance equipment, and for educational programs related to trails.

The federal fund makes money available to the states, which administer their own programs to determine how it’s spent. Grants are usually made through a state natural resource or park agency.

In some states, only officials representing cities and counties can apply for grants. In others, non-profit organizations or even individuals can apply.

The key thing to remember, though, is that this isn’t free money. Every grant from the fund requires a matching contribution of 20 to 50 percent. This can be in the form of cash, equipment and materials, or labor.

In many cases, cities or counties have been willing to provide the matching contribution when it comes to facilities like hiking or biking trails. But few municipalities have posted their own money as a match for OHV trails. And that’s where you come in.

If you and your club are in a position to provide volunteer labor and equipment, you may be able to provide most of the matching contribution to your local government officials. And by designing a project that has benefits for a wide range of people, you make it easy for your city or county to approve your project.

How can you get started? First, find the name of your state’s recreation fund administrator. He or she can fill you in on the procedures for applying for grants in your state. You can get this information at the Federal Highway Administration website: www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rectrails/rtpstate.htm.

Then, start planning your project. As with the Cheaha Trails Riders, it might take years, but you, too, can contribute to increasing the available miles of riding trail across the country.

GETTING JUSTICE

10 Years for Road Rage
A 27-year-old Delaware man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the road-rage death of a motorcyclist.

Willis R. Miller of Dover pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Joseph D. August, 40.

Miller admitted that he got into a confrontation with two motorcyclists—August and Matthew W. Passwaters—and then chased them down and struck August from the rear with his Chevrolet Suburban.

Miller also was ordered to pay $6,000 to the state’s Victims Compensation Fund.

BAD IDEA OF THE MONTH

Canadian Sportbike Ban Suggested
An insurance official in Quebec, Canada, would like to see a ban on sportbikes larger than 400cc.

John Harbour, director of the Quebec Automobile Insurance Company, says sportbikes should be banned because they result in large insurance losses.

Harbour’s comments are reminiscent of a proposal promoted by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the late 1980s that could have resulted in a ban on sportbikes in this country.

At the time, the AMA was able to defeat that proposal, eventually succeeding in getting a U.S. senator to abandon support for the ban he had introduced in Congress.

NO LONGER SEEING RED

Idaho Gets Friendly Traffic Signal Law
Beginning July 1, Idaho motorcyclists will be able to proceed through intersections as soon as it’s safe when traffic signals don’t recognize their presence.

Idaho motorcyclists, led by Tim Herzog and the other members of ABATE of North Idaho, won near-unanimous support for the red-light bill in the Idaho Legislature, and it was signed into law by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

Kempthorne, an enthusiastic motorcyclist himself, was recently nominated by President Bush to be interior secretary.

The law addresses the problem of traffic light sensors that aren’t properly calibrated to detect motorcycles, leaving a rider waiting endlessly for a green light. The law allows riders to proceed through the intersection with caution when that happens.

Similar laws have been passed in Minnesota, Tennessee and Arkansas.

FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION

Health Care Denied
Earlier this year, we told you how motorcyclists who work at the American Coal Company mine in Galatia, Illinois, lost their health-care coverage for motorcycle-related injuries.

That means if a worker is injured riding a legally licensed motorcycle on the street, he has no coverage and could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Even if the injury is caused by another driver, the rider could lose, because the costs of medical treatment often exceed minimum-liability coverage purchased by drivers.

Over the years, the AMA has fought this kind of discrimination against motorcyclists, even getting legislation passed in Washington to forbid employers from excluding legal recreation activities like motorcycling from their employee health-insurance plans.

But when that act was implemented by federal agencies, they left an enormous loophole that allows companies like American Coal to discriminate against its employees who ride. We need your help to close that loophole.

Does your employer provide you with coverage while you’re on your bike? Are you sure? Have you checked with your plan administrator?

If you find your employer-provided health coverage excludes injuries related to motorcycle crashes or other recreational activities, we need to know.

We need concrete examples to take to Congress to show lawmakers that insurance discrimination against motorcyclists is real, and potentially devastating.

Send information to Legal Affairs Editor Bill Kresnak at: bkresnak@ama-cycle.org, or by mail at: AMA, 13515 Yarmouth Dr., Pickerington, OH 43147.

The Minooka OHV Park. -- Photo by NOHVCC

10 Years of Road Rage. -- Photo by Bill Andrews

Health Care Denied