Here is a message received late last week from Greg Jackson at Mecklenburg County Park & Rec!
We are proud to announce that the Jetton accessible mountain bike trail has won a National Association of Counties award for unique program. Certainly this would not have happened without the Tarheel Trailblazers leadership. I think Michael Kirschman from our dept. will be attending this awards ceremony and we would certainly extend this invitation to a TT representative. Unfortunately, we cannot help with any travel expenses, but if someone is interested in going to Nashville for the July 26 awards, let me know.
Please share this with the appropriate folks, especially Tom Matthews. I thought I had an email address for Tom, but couldn't find it. Thanks again for all the great work you and your volunteers do to make mountain biking the great experience it is here in Meck. County.
Greg Jackson
Gregory.Jackson@MecklenburgCountyNC.Gov
Division Director, Park Operations & Athletic Services
5841 Brookshire Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28216
(O) 704.336.5471
(F) 704.336.5472
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) As many of you know, even though this is only a one mile trail, Tom and his team willingly took on this project and made it a very special and unique one. Responding to a question from a paralyzed rider who attended the community outreach meeting to plan the trail, Tom determined that we could not only design and build a trail suitable for adaptive hand cycle use, but we should also take on the responsibility to raise $10,000 in donated funds for 2 hand cycles.
This may be the only specially built adaptive use mountain bike trail in the country and Charlotte is likely among very few communities where state of the art hand cycles are available free of charge for disabled area residents to be able to participate in mountain biking.
Additionally, Tom and his crew designed the trail to include displays of many different trail building techniques so it could be used as an instructive guide to show land managers and others how trail features such as bridging, raised structures, armored and other tread surfaces can be built to create sustainable trail that address many different trail building challenges. We will continue to use this one mile trail as a showpiece for others, and a reminder for ourselves, of just what can be done.
All of the Tarheel Trailblazers can be proud of the club's accomplishment, which is the direct result of the partnerships with our land managers and the vision and hard work of our members.
Jim Grover
President, Tarheel Trailblazers
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Jetton Trail wins National Award (Read 951 times)