Quincy council asks for design, cost estimate for pump track expansion
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 12 months AGO
Quincy municipal services director Carl Worley lays out the options for an expanded pump park to Quincy City Council members during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
The city of Quincy is looking to expand recreational options with a pump park similar to the one pictured above. A pump park uses hills and other landscaping fixtures to provide cyclists, scooter riders and skateboarders a course that allows them to continually move without pedaling or kicking.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | April 7, 2022 1:20 AM
QUINCY — A bike-skateboard-scooter track - known as a pump track - slated for construction in Quincy’s East Park could be expanded, either this year or in 2023. Quincy City Council members authorized research on a second phase for the city’s new pump park at the regular meeting Tuesday.
Municipal services director Carl Worley said at Tuesday’s meeting that the track as designed works well for some riders, but not others.
“The current design targets bicycles more so than scooters or skateboards,” Worley said.
A pump park is a series of bumps and curves for bike riders, skateboarders and scooter riders, sometimes paved, sometimes not. The object is to ride as far as possible using just the initial momentum. Construction of the East Park pump track is scheduled to begin this month.
Quincy resident Greg Martinez asked about the design during the March 17 council meeting, saying he didn’t think it would be an attractive design for scooter riders and skateboarders.
“The option to add a scooter-friendly option seems to offer the best solution,” Worley said.
City officials asked the pump track designers, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, about possible modifications.
In an email included with the meeting documentation, David Fleischhauer of EMBA suggested it would be better to build a track more accommodating of scooters and skateboards as a second phase.
“We’re not expert scooter/skate riders, so we would need a time window for outside consultation on that,” Fleischhauer wrote.
Fleischhauer said the design process would be similar to the bike pump track. Once a preliminary design was completed, city officials, scooter and skateboard riders and Quincy residents generally would be asked for their reaction. That feedback would be incorporated into the final design before the city moves forward with construction of the possible second phase.
Fleischhauer estimated the design process would take about two months.
Council members authorized city officials to work with EMBA on a second-phase design and provide a cost estimate. The council then would decide whether or not to proceed.
Worley said that if the council decides to go ahead, city officials would hope to build the second phase this summer.
“But if not, it would be prepped and ready to go in the spring of 2023,” Worley said.
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