Help Re-open the Velodrome

[Plawless]

from Chris Anstey (Prez of the Velodrome Assoc.):

Hi All

(It has come to pass. No)

West Shore Parks and Recreation Society will be considering a motion put
forward by Metchosin, Highlands And View Royal to allow us to restart our
programs again this year. The gist of the motion is that we be given the
same contract as the BMX club and be required to implement the 5 year plan
Mike Cooper circulated in January. This plan has been endorsed by the three
communities and has the support of there representatives. That gives the
plan 6 votes and to pass we require 8. Simply put if you want to get back on
the track you must be at the next meeting. This is planned to happen on
Thursday the the 10th of March at 7 PM in either the Field House or the
Lower Clubhouse.

This is probably our best chance to regain access to the track in years. Please try and attend this meeting.

There is a chance the meeting date will be changed. Should that happen I
will send out an update.

Be there as we need moral suasion to swing two votes.

Sincerely,
Chris Anstey
President. GVVA

[Josh.E]

sweet!! i'm there

[JohnT]

Triple shot has provided many of us with the opportunity to ride in a big group for the first time, pace-line for the first time, bunch-sprint for the first time, and for many it has motivated us to enter our first roadrace, time trial, team time trial, etc. Think of the velodrom as another such opportunity: It's a bit intiminating at first (fixed wheel, no brakes), but there are lots of thrills you can't get anywhere else: When you're leading and get tired, you move up the banking and then drop back down into the group - that's fun. Or you bust your butt trying to catch the only other guy on the track who started on the opposite side. What an rush it is when the race that's been going on in your head for many laps suddenly gets real as you catch glimpses of him up ahead. Then there's the Maddison (too scary for me). Also, if you have kids, no problem. They can sit in the middle of the oval and watch (or play with the DS, etc.) - you get baby-sitting points WHILE you are racing!

Show up at the meeting or write to the people who are going to make the decision!

JT

[Josh.E]

Yes, everyone who can, please make a point of coming out to this meeting, even if just to support your fellow members of tripleshot. Getting the velodrome back would be a very big deal for the sport of cycling in our community, a destination venue for high level training for many elite cyclists and triathletes, and a unique opportunity to try a style of racing that most cyclists don't have access to. Even if you never plan on trying a track race, it is one more thing to bolster both the strength and image of cycling locally. More reasons to ride = more people riding = more infrastructure to support riding.
We are extremely fortunate to have the facility in our community in the first place, and it sitting idle the last couple years has really been a tragedy. We are far and away the largest club in town, and our numbers could make a huge difference.

[jeremy]

I'll be there

[Josh.E]

plus, track racing gives you the ready made excuse for needing two more bikes.......

[Lister Farrar]

FYI
I've been to a few of these meetings, and westshore parks and rec is a bit sensitive to maintaining a facility for people outside their municipal boundaries. Westshore parks and rec is a partnership of Langford, Colwood, Highlands, Mechosin, Juan de Fuca electoral area, and View Royal. One of the reasons it's sometimes a er, ' lively' group is that they have five municipalities interests to balance. Yeah, yeah, I know, federal tax dollars paid for it, and it was meant as a legacy facility for the region, but it's a reality. Follow the votes: the reps on WPRS are elected by the residents of the westshore. They'll do what they think residents want.

A really good thing would be westshore members of TS to go, and second best would be non-residents encouraging more residents to go. Also, we could talk about how we serve residents. For eg. TS efforts such as the high school league, the novice C race league, the Nanaimo to Victoria, etc all have west shore participation. Non-resident velodrome users have been perceived as outsiders entertaining themselves on west shore property.

They are also sensitive about the hesitancy with which the cycling community embraced the indoor velodrome plan proposed some years ago, http://www.vicdavies.com/project066.htm when they wanted to build a soccer stadium on the velodrome site. It was way too much money for us to have a hope of raising ($10-12 mil.), especially when the existing track is in such good condition, but it might not hurt to thank someone for the indoor proposal if it comes up. They spent money on the architect, and it went nowhere. Colwood mayor Dave Saunders (and current vice chair of WSPRS) lead the group that proposed that. His dad (Bob, Saunders Suburu) had been a long time cycling sponsor. When I talked to him about it, he was disappointed by the lukewarm reception. The stadium has since gone to Langford.

Definitely go and support the motion, but be aware of how the locals might see it.

[emilederosnay]

Really great points made, Lister.

Uh, Josh, they have rental bikes Really good bikes.

[Josh.E]

Crap, in the end, kid stuff kept me from being able to attend this tonight.

I hope it went well and was well attended. Anybody go?

[jeremy]

Sorry this totally slipped my mind, I hope some tripleshotters showed up

[Lister Farrar]

I went. WSPRS decided to strike a committee to look at opening the velodrome. Bizarre meeting and some personalities. I think it's a good achievement by GVVA though, especially as the chair seemed heavily opposed to do this.

The committee will have a rep from each partner community, the chair of the current capital review committee, and a rep of GVVA. If you're counting votes, a majority of that group appear to favour opening the velodrome. The mandate is to act quickly to avoid missing another season. But they have to report back to the board, and there is a heavy presence there of Langford and Colwood reps who seem less interested to me, so whether it opens will depend on the report of the committee and then the reaction of the WSPRS board.

Very good turn out, filled all the chairs, tho the field house room could have held more. Surprisingly good turnout from the fixie crowd, which Mike Cooper (VP GVVA) acknowledged, and noted is a change in the cycling landscape since the track closed. You could tell them by the messenger mags and mud splatters from riding out. Emile noted their "Belgian tans".

Strong, articulate support from View Royal, Metchosin, and Highlands. We should all write thanks to the following:

Moralea Milne- Metchosin
David Screech, View Royal
Jo Mitchell, Metchosin
Heidi Rast, View Royal (also chair of the Capital review committee)
Ken Williams, Highlands

Somewhat bizarre comments from the WSPRS chair Les Bjola and Colwood mayor Dave Saunders, and also Lanny Seaton from Colwood. They had rambling comments about how divisive the issue had been for WSPRS, and how they had been dealing with this so many times over the past years, and how they had decided as a group to wait until after the capital review was done by a consultant. But they appeared immune to the obvious question; why not re-open it? (As an aside, Bjola kept calling it the "strategic plan", which is already done and he was corrected more than once.)

Saunders spoke about how these municipalities offered support but not money, but was shot down by the partner municipalities pointing out they pay their per capita share in everything. He also spoke about the Commonwealth Legacy fund, and claims to have 500 pages of documents via FOI that suggest it can pay for repairs to the turf. (Which most observers dispute). He made several motions which even the chair tried to talk him out of, including asking for $50,000 for use of the velodrome (No other groups get asked for fees like this), etc.

He also also asked for football, field lacrosse and soccer groups to be invited to attend the committee. This makes me think he's still set on taking the velodrome down and using the land for a field or stadium. Lanny Seaton from Colwood raised the issue of the indoor velodrome more than once. He also said that the velodrome could only be used if it didn't snow. (!). Right. (Actually I think he was trying to say indoor is preferable, but like Dave, overlooks the cost, then turns around and worries re-opening the velodrome will cost too much. )

arg.

[Josh.E]

So Lister.

Do you understand the rationale they have behind fixing the infield turf being a prerequisite for the track itself being open? What other cost in maintenance to the track itself to they claim needs to happen?

I say rip out the turf and make it a set of dedicated bike polo courts on the concrete. Could also double as a place to hold bike safety camps for kids, like pedalheads in the summer, That would be progressive, like putting in a skate park in 1993 would have been. It would be great for not only changing the landscape of cycling, but also for getting the fixie crowd and the rodies out seeing what eachother is up to and getting to know eachother.

[Roland]

Do you understand the rationale they have behind fixing the infield turf being a prerequisite for the track itself being open?

Stop trying to use logic.

[Lister Farrar]

So Lister.

Do you understand the rationale they have behind fixing the infield turf being a prerequisite for the track itself being open? What other cost in maintenance to the track itself to they claim needs to happen?

I say rip out the turf and make it a set of dedicated bike polo courts on the concrete. Could also double as a place to hold bike safety camps for kids, like pedalheads in the summer, That would be progressive, like putting in a skate park in 1993 would have been. It would be great for not only changing the landscape of cycling, but also for getting the fixie crowd and the rodies out seeing what each other is up to and getting to know eachother.

I think the main rationale is that some of them have their hearts set on a field stadium, and the velodrome base is just the right size (see the indoor plan drawing). It has drainage, and had an impeccable compacting job done on the ground. They can get a stadium cheap if they do it on that ground. So the rationale is to make the job so awkward, we leave. The 'liability' of the tears in the infield is a scam. There's no other maintenance that was mentioned.

Plus Saunders is pissed that cycling didn't follow his pied piper act on the indoor velodrome and raise $10 mil and give it to him. (Can you imagine giving that kind of money to that bunch, even if we had it?) So they are bluffing/daring/misleading (and worse) the cycling community, and it's supporters on WSPRS, to grab it. But they are so wacky about it, the other partner communities are calling their bluff. Those folks make me believe in local politics again.

Ripping out the turf would leave black rubber I think, wouldn't it? Safe and durable, but hot as hell in the sun. Under that I think there's asphalt; not much cooler. I'm pretty sure it's not concrete. I think they should fix the old field (GVVA has found a quote of $5000 to stitch up all the tears.). Later, if money is around, a field turf field should probably go in to bring it up to modern field standards, and, frankly, save the velodrome from being torn out by the next wacko politician.

I was serious about thanking the VR, M, and H reps. That's not a nice place to spend your volunteer community time. I think we should all volunteer on their re-election campaigns.

View Royal, Heidi Rast and David Screech, http://www.viewroyal.ca/EN/main/town/ma ... .html#rast
mayorandcouncil@town.viewroyal.bc.ca

Highlands
Ken Williams kgwmaya@shaw.ca

Metchosin
Moralea Milne moraleamilne@gmail.com
Jo Mitchell jomitchell@shaw.ca

[Lister Farrar]

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/1178271 ... &bc09=true