From wsba@peloton.org Tue Jul 29 22:57:33 1997 Received: from mx2.u.washington.edu (mx2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id WAA37452 for ; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:57:31 -0700 Received: from accessone.com (blaze.accessone.com [198.68.191.19]) by mx2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.04) with ESMTP id WAA20204; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:56:27 -0700 Received: from rl1 (rloftin.accessone.com [198.68.190.22]) by accessone.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/PIH) with ESMTP id WAA01138; Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:55:41 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199707300555.WAA01138@accessone.com> From: "WSBA" To: "Vicki Schroeder" , "UW Racing" , Subject: Fw: Meeting summaries Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 22:54:35 -0700 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1161 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Please consider the below carefully. The cycling / racing community needs to work together to achieve a permanent and legal solution to the issues below. The draft of the guideline to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) is already being reviewed. It needs to be approved to secure a place on the highways for the racing you take for granted. Write to your representative as suggested. This is one race we have to win. Richard Loftin WSBA ~ , _o ~ \ \> _@/_@____ ---------- Subject: Meeting summaries Date: Monday, July 28, 1997 4:07 PM Dear Richard et al, Below is a summary of a couple of recent meetings that I've written up to help keep those on the mailing list abreast of the current developments. This piece is not a masterpiece of objectivity but I think it gets the job done. If you have any comments or concerns with the piece, please let me or Richard (who I hope will eventually post this to the uscf-nw list from the WSBA account) know. I've also typed up an electronic version of the letter drafted by the Spokane clubs which has been snail-mailed to all of the northwest's USCF and LAB clubs. Hopefully Richard will also post this mailing soon. Cheers, Dave p.s. To Richard, please change the subject heading to something a little more eye-catching when you repost this piece to uscf-nw. ---------------------------------------- Howdy folks, This message contains summaries of two meetings that have occurred in the last couple of weeks in response to an attempt to outlaw bicycle road racing here in eastern Washington. The first meeting was an open meeting attended by representatives from several eastern Washington bike clubs with the intent of generating an organized plan of action to fight this road racing ban. The second meeting was set up by Spokane County Commissioner, John Roskelley, in an attempt to develop a stop-gap compromise between the WSDOT and WSP on one side and the cycling community on the other until a permanent fix can be implemented. One important item to come out of this meeting was a bombshell dropped by Jerry Lenzi - he told those in attendance that he has sent out a set of letters that could cause this ban to spread state-wide. (See below.) Cheers, David Lawson ------------------------ Meeting Summary #1 Thursday, July 17, 1997 St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute - Spokane, WA In attendance (a partial list): Phil Miller (representing the USCF); Rep. Larry Sheahan (District 9 Representative); Robin Rivers (reporter, Spokane Spokesman-Review); several Spokane area cyclists/lawyers; members of the Washington Bicycle Advisory Committee; members of the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board; and members of Baddlands Cycling Club, Twin Rivers Cyclists, Arrivee Cycling, Spokane Bicycle Club, Spokane D.A.R.E. Cycling, and WSU Cougar Cycling. Instead of giving a blow-by-blow account of the 2+ hour meeting, I'll give a summary of the current situation and a list of things that you can do to help out. Current situation: Phil Miller, in his role as a Senior Transportation Planner & Coordinator for the King County DOT, has drafted a document that will be considered for addition to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). This document is based in part on sections 734-020-155 through 734-020-170 of the Oregon Administrative Rules which explicitly allow for bicycle racing in the State of Oregon. Since this would be part of the WAC and not the Revised Code of Washington, it is not a statute and thus does not have to be approved by the legislature (this is a good thing since the legislature does not reconvene until Jan. 1998). In order for this addendum to be amended to the WAC, it must be approved by several levels of bureaucracy within the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) up to and including the Secretary of Transportation, Sid Morrison. Currently the proposed addendum is circulating through the various lower levels at the WSDOT and will soon be forwarded to the cycling community for public comment. What you can do: 1. Stop e-mailing Jerry Lenzi. Both Lenzi and Lt. Jewell of the Washington State Patrol are resisting political pressure to reach a compromise which would allow racing while the WAC addendum is being considered. However, it seems that almost every _elected_ official contacted thus far is on our side. Thus, we should target our letters to our allies, the elected officials (see below on how to do this). 2. Write to your elected representatives. Ask them for their help in making sure that the proposed addendum is amended to the WAC. A committee of several members of Spokane area bicycle clubs met on July 21 to draft a letter to help explain to members of the cycling community the exact nature of this situation and to outline the issues that can and should be presented in your letters to state officials. This letter will be posted to uscf-nw in a separate mailing. Also, remember that the addresses for your state legislators can be found at: http://leginfo.leg.wa.gov/ ------------------------ Meeting Summary #2 Monday, July 21, 1997 County Commissioner's Office - Spokane, Washington In attendance: John Roskelley (Spokane Co. Commissioner), Lt. Jewell (WSP), Jerry Lenzi (WSDOT), Mary Ann McCurdy (Governor's office), Gino Lisiecki (USCF Washington District Rep.), Beth Perkins (Baddlands CC), and Sharon Hall (Baddlands CC). Note: I wasn't at this meeting so this description is based on reports given to me by Sharon Hall and Beth Perkins for the purpose of writing this summary. Listed below are the apparent positions held by each (non- cycling) person in attendance. John Roskelley: He set up this meeting in an attempt to diffuse the bad press and bad public reaction that this situation is garnering. He essentially told Jewell and Lenzi that they need to come to some sort of understanding so that racing can continue for some sort of "grace period" while the WAC addendum is being considered (can you say "political pressure"?) Note: such a grace period would allow Baddlands to finish out their Tuesday night twilight training race series. He called for another meeting to hash out the details of such a grace period - tentatively set for Friday, August 1. Lt. Jewell: He continually repeated the mantra of "Our job is to enforce the law," with the explanation that the law states that cyclists can only ride two abreast, period. Jerry Lenzi: He could not understand the explanation of a rolling enclosure to save his life (Lt. Jewell wasn't much better). The safety conferred by a rolling enclosure seemed to be a major sticking point in coming to an agreement. Also, he seems to be confused on the permitting process - he made many comments which were contradictory with the established (and well documented) permitting process. He also dropped a bit of a bombshell: he said that he sent letters to each of the WSDOT regional offices throughout the state declaring that pack road races are illegal under current state law and should not be issued permits. I should point out, however, that this was done before the Kla Ha Ya Days road race which went off without a problem. Mary Ann McCurdy: She proclaimed that we can expect Governor Locke's support on this issue. The bottom line: If Jewell and Lenzi clue into the political pressure that Roskelley is trying to put on them, the August 1st meeting should see some sort of agreement that would allow for pack road racing in the Spokane area until the WAC addendum has run its course. Then again, if Jewell and Lenzi are too stubborn to reach a compromise or can't understand a renewed effort at the explanation of a rolling enclosure, we might be without road racing until the WAC is amended. Even more important: Even if an agreement is reached, it is still crucial that we write our representatives to encourage them to support the adoption of the addendum. If we don't, road racing can expect continued attacks from cycling-unfriendly people in power for years to come - a situation I don't want to see. .