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MEETING ATTENDEES: David Gunn, Jeff Ault, Buzz Kraft, Barbara Bandeira, Bob Burch, Susanne Smith, Steve Ellison, Steve Glison (sp? I couldn't read your writing), Ralph White, Barry Dixon, Ralph Hambrick, Greg Velzy, Steve Ensign, Kimberly Conley, Roger Sattler, Glenn Amey. The attendees represent a wide variety of park users from boaters (private and commercial) to climbers, bikers and physical fitness buffs |
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PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT Saturday Nov., 10th at 2 PM we will be doing the site preparation on the Tredegar street river access ramp. Please come to the site with brush cutters, shovels, mattocks, rakes, crowbars, and other implements of destruction to clear the site. The frames will be built this week and next weekend we hope to be pouring concrete. If you can't come this weekend, please plan to help next weekend. |
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DISCUSSIONS Permanent Take-Out below the base of the falls. The park has been very good about providing put-ins for the river. There are, however, no easy public access points for taking out at the base of the fall line (all of us who park on Mayo Island are technically trespassing, but this has not been enforced). This issue is more critical and timely since the Ancarrow Marina has been closed due to security concerns over the chlorine tanks at the City wastewater treatment plant. We need to get some public support for providing a permanent takeout. Ralph Hambrick (working with the Falls of the James Scenic Advisory Board) volunteered to prepare an op-ed piece for submission to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. |
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The current target is the parking lot on the downstream north side corner of the 14th street bridge. A January project is proposed to cleanup and make improvements at the access point in the east end of the parking lot (should be able to get a couple of truck loads of rock for a ramp, will need to spread and smooth it out). |
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Tredegar Street River Access. This weekend's project is to prepare the site. Jeff Ault has agreed to help prepare and install concrete forms for steps and a ramp and we'll pour concrete next weekend. Dominion Building. We'd like to be able to influence Dominion to reduce the visual impact of the proposed building, since we don't want it to be a massive eyesore blighting the riverscape. We are looking for suggestions on ways to get our input heard. |
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Missing Link trail from the Lee Bridge area to the Manchester wall. A major goal for the park is to be able to go from the Main Area down to the Manchester Wall area. It is a longer-term project that has had some work on it, but needs more. Project days will be scheduled but right now, the Tredegar access point and the 14th street takeout are higher priorities and should take less time and effort |
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Mountain bike trails. Bob Burch and others worked on an eroded area of the bike trail near Reedy creek and Riverside drive. This trail was cut by the Xterra Games organizers without permission. More work still needs to be done to prevent further erosion. This may be our December project. This issue brought up a discussion on organized events and their impacts on park facilities. We have a small park area with limited facilities and a finite ability to support organized events. How many events can the park support without degradation? How much money and effort is required to fix things that get broke? The larger events like Xterra have public support and a positive economic impact on the community. The organizers of these events seem to realize that negative impacts on facilities will impact their ability to return to any specific venue and take steps |