A local mountain bike club is working with Sault Ste. Marie Regional Conservation Authority (SSMRCA) to create a section of trail for mountain biking in the Hiawatha Highlands.
The intent is to create a mountain bike trail on the SSMRCA property within the four-kilometre Lookout Trail, said Deane Greenwood, SSMRCA trails coordinator at a meeting Tuesday.
"They have offered to help design the route and would be willing to provide some of the volunteer hours to help complete the trail," Greenwood said. "What they want to do is to become the future custodians of the trail."
Shown are some members of the Sault trail crew during a recent Hiawatha Area Planning Initiative open house.
At its regular board meeting today, the authority heard that Greenwood has been meeting with local cycling enthusiasts to make a sanctioned section of trail for mountain bikers in the Hiawatha Highlands, an area commonly used by skiers and hikers.
"I think it's a real win-win situation," Greenwood told the board. "After I meet with the club this Friday I'll have a better idea of exactly where they want to put the trail and when we hope to do this."
Authority board member Neil DelBianco asked if this would be for exclusive use by the cycling club.
Greenwood told the board that the club would be maintaining the trails at no cost to the authority in exchange for the opportunity to use them and that the trails would remain open to the public.
Hub Trail update
Greenwood also updated the conservation authority board on the status of the Hub Trail and Sault Trail Association Committee's involvement with it.
"We're taking it to City Council to ask for funding of an engineering study in the April 30 meeting," Greenwood reported. "We hope to be able to put out a request for proposals on May 1 and have work underway on our portion of the trail in July or August."
He said almost a kilometre of a planned non-motorized, all-season trail passes through SSMRCA property.
As reported earlier by SooToday.com, the trail is to be built in sections over a five- to six-year period until a self-contained loop of trails for bicycling, pedestrians and other non-motorized traffic around the city is completed.
It's the central component to a plan to make Sault Ste. Marie much more pedestrian and non-motorized traffic friendly.
Does lightning strike here?
The SSMRCA board passed a motion today to strike a deal with Pelmorex Media Inc. to become an official Weather Channel lightning locator.
Rhonda Bateman reported that the authority has been approached by the cable nwtwork to see whether it would count lightening strikes.
Bateman said that Pelmorex, which operates the Weather Channel, is setting up its own network of lightning locator sites because it's cheaper than accessing Environment Canada's data.
She said the network plans to install two one-metre-tall antennas on the zugar zhack at the SSMRCA's office building on Fifth Line.
Pelmorex also wants to install a computer server on which data gathtered by the antennas will be stored.
"They want to have it put in by late April or early May," said Bateman. "They will pay for and install the equipment, including an uninterrupted power supply for the server, and give us $100 a month for electricity and Internet access."
