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April 28, 2008
Hang Loose
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| Image: Paragliding disc golfers intent on destroying
Bidwell Knotweed. Disc golf, if approved, will be moved away from Bidwell
Knotweed, a very common
plant
in Bidwell
Park.
Paragliding,
if approved probably won't be held to this standard. Some advice to the
para-gliders, don't ever carry frisbees! Here are a few topics for your Monday reading pleasure. The Fever For the Flavor of a Union- The Chico Fire Department makes thousands of medical emergency calls each year. In fact there's only an average of about 1 fire each week that they respond to. The medical calls are also responded to by private ambulance services in town. As far as I know each medical emergency is responded to by a fire engine as well as an ambulance. If hospitalization is required the ambulance provides the transportation service. I would guess that the average annual cost of personnel on a fire engine is close to $500,000 when the benefits are included. The people at the private ambulance service make something like $13/hour. That's caused employees at one of the two private companies to consider forming an employee union to take advantage of collective bargaining. This does make me wonder how one group of people can do a job for $13/hour while the other is pulling down 6 figures. I guess that's what the ambulance company employees are wondering as well. The Road Less Traveled - Steve Harrison, the Sierra Nevada Brewery executive that died last year, had a bike path named after him recently. This route runs parallel to Potter Road south-east of the Doe Mill development. The route was planned long before it was named after Harrison, and is a useful bike path to a specific class of cyclists. However, I recently heard that the city paid more than $300,000 for this route to be built. I have no idea why it cost so much. The route is useful to avid cyclists who enjoy riding up the adjacent canyon, and reduces the need for cyclist to be on the more dangerous Skyway to make that trek. But for $300,000 all of Potter Road probably could have been improved. More importantly, this project doesn't make Chico more friendly to bicycle commuting. It will not be used by a large number of cyclists. A better project could have been completing the horse/bike path between Wildwood Park and Horseshoe Lake. At least more people would be able to use it. Hang Loose: It sounds like disc golf may not be the most dangerous recreation in Upper Park after all. Para-gliders will be asking the Park Commission for permission to have legal access to the park that Annie built. Hang gliding and para-gliding are currently off limits. Hang-gliders have at times launched from the cliffs near disc golf, while para-gliders prefer to use slopes like those on the North Rim trail. A committee of the Park Commission recommended approval, and changing of the municipal code to allow para-gliders, but not hang-gliders. The city memo discussing this topic states that the city has no money for the environmental review that is required to allow paragliding. Had the park Master Plan not exceeded estimated costs by 100%, had the downtown plaza not exceeded early plans by 400%, and had the city not spent $42,000 on a plant study, perhaps there would be some money left. I suspect that opposition to this unique use of the park will occur. Colorful wings floating in the distance would destroy the meditative nature of Bidwell Park, as does anything humans enjoy. There was already a letter-to-the-editor fretting about the impact on falcons. Just a word of advice to the para-gliders folks... watch out for Bidwell's Knotweed, it's not endangered, but some people like to pretend it is. And it's everywhere, including the North Rim trail. Update: Images: Photo series of a para-glider in Upper Bidwell Park. Notice the rampant destruction and lack of falcons caused by this activity. |
|
 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Hoale Bras Steve B. and Gregg P., see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at April 28, 2008 07:32 AM
Comments
Hang ten?
Posted by: Gregg at April 28, 2008 07:39 AM
http://www.paulbacon.com/shaka.jpg
Our falcons do seem to get a little annoyed when I'm sneaking around with my camera during their nesting season. It seems they couldn't care less the rest or the year or if I'm just hanging out on the edge sightseeing.
I've seen them dive at Vultures and Redtails when they get too close. It's an amazing thing to watch.
Posted by: Gregg at April 28, 2008 08:10 AM
CIC: hand signal for hang loose.
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at April 28, 2008 08:24 AM
I ride in upper park probably 200 times a year... I have never even noticed that the bike path doesnt continue all the way from wildwood to Horseshoe until i recently started riding with the kids and all they want to do is ride to horseshoe lake.
I can ride on paths all the way from my house to the easter cross. but I have not found a safe way to get to the bike path so we can complete our journey. The trails from the cross to the bike path beginning are too narrow or too rocky to allow the younger kids to survive in the bike trailer without lifelong back and neck disorders.
Please help our family complete its dream and put in the extra section of trail...or else my kids will just cry and whine and i will have to bring them to your house.
B
Posted by: Brian at April 28, 2008 08:25 AM
I just rode that bike trail yesterday evening… Normally, I would NOT have taken the vehicle roads necessary to get to Honey Run on a bike. So, from that perspective the addition is a very welcome one.
However….. The cost is puzzling… The majority of the trail, .9 miles, goes straight down what was Potter Road from 20th Street to the Skyway. Then there is a .2 mile section that parallels the Skyway to meet with Honey Run.
I do not understand the $300,000 price tag.
But… I find many of our Capital Projects to be very curious. Both in terms of how long they take to actually get done and their costs.
One recent example is the pedestrian bridge across Chico Creek 75’ South of Manzanita.
It is a great location for a pedestrian bridge, and will be even more so during the widening of the vehicle bridge and related construction work.
When it was approved 05/21/2002, most folks envisioned a 60’ long bridge similar to those pedestrian bridges downstream for around the $60,000 - $70,000 that those 60’ bridges cost….
But, for reasons that I do not fully understand (I aint very bright) this ped-bridge needed to be 100’ long, higher above the creek, ended up costing about $371,000 and it took 5 years to ‘get-er-done’.
Plus… CalWater had plans to hang their 12” water main on that bridge to join their California Park water storage tanks to the NW quadrant of the city.
Cal Water apparently got tired of waiting for that crossing to actually get built, so about a year before the ped bridge was started, Cal-Water (we the rate payers) spent around $80,000 to do a directional bore under the creek for the water main.
So, in my mind, that ped bridge cost us citizens around $450,000.
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at April 28, 2008 09:00 AM
CIC That would be someone saying Shaka. For the howlies that would mean hang loose or cool.
Posted by: Steve B at April 28, 2008 09:19 AM
Mark,
Any idea how much of the $371,000 for the Manzanita bridge was design/construction vs "studies".
And I guess I should state that I never verified the cost of the Harrison bike path with the city, so that cost could be off. Even so I think the priority of that path over others that might be needed in town is an interesting discussion point.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 28, 2008 10:22 AM
Brian,
I think the best route to get to Horseshoe Lake with a bike trailer is to come through 5 mile and where 5 mile road (don't know the name) meets Upper Park Road at the Easter Cross spur you ride on the Upper Park Road 1000' until you reach the bike/horse/jogging path.
You end up dealing with cars for the 1000', but the visibility is pretty clear and the road is smooth.
What's peculiar is that this route should have been improved years ago. The Park Department and the city will at times ignore projects that make access easier.
Even the Horseshoe Lake parking lot seems to have made it more difficult to park at that site, with many people opting to use the gun clubs parking area instead of the narrow poorly designed official parking lot.
BTW, Bidwell's Knotweed was bulldozed during the Horseshoe Lake improvements and was never part of their EIR process. At the same time consultants were told to keep disc golf away from it. Kind of funny.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 28, 2008 10:30 AM
On the Pedestrian Bridge, here’s a summary of actual and estimated costs that I have:
$179,119 Thomas Williams bridge placement bid:
$ 86,730 Big R bridge fabrication and shipping to the site
$ 17,500 PG&E transmission line protection for drilling
$ 7,200 PG&E transmission line protection for placement
$ 10,770 Stream Zone environmental protection
$ 2,800 Timber Rail fencing
$307,119 Sub total for construction:
$ 42,579 City of Chico General Overhead mark up
$ 25,000 City of Chico construction inspection cost
$371,656
Plus the $83,500 to put the water main under the creek….
I believe that the pre-design, pre-build studies were included the approx $500,000 Manzanita Avenue reconstruction EIR…
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at April 28, 2008 10:47 AM
yea that is the route we take... If you saw my kid ride his bike, you would avoid the road too... plus we have to dodge the people driving about 45 mph over the speed bumps..
B
Posted by: brian at April 28, 2008 12:53 PM
I am a Haole, because I spelled Haole wrong, tru dat. Shaka Brah.
Posted by: Steve B. at April 28, 2008 09:18 PM
Of course it could be Dr Evil picking his teeth...
Posted by: Gregg at April 29, 2008 07:42 AM
Well, I was looking for the shaka hand sign, which does mean hang loose. But Gregg being lazy only posted a link to the photo and not the name I was looking for. Since that's a bit of a weeny technicality I can;t exclude him from the winner's circle.
So I'm calling Steve and Gregg a joint winners.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 29, 2008 08:49 AM
That is a weeny technicality. Especially since "shaka" is written in the link I posted. Always happy to share the glory, though.
Posted by: Gregg at April 29, 2008 10:39 AM
So was "http" and "paulbacon" perhaps you guessed those as well. I think this is just another indication that you don't take rules seriously.
And I won't forget the time theat you and Little tricked me into playing disc golf in Comanche Slough by telling me it was property you recently purchased.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 29, 2008 10:44 AM