South Mountain Reservation

rlb said:
Let your representative know.
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Here's the letter I sent to congressman Bill Pascrell:
Dear Congressman Pascrell:
Apparently mountain biking in South Mountain Reservation in Essex County is somewhat of a political issue. JORBA (Jersey Off Road Biking Association) is in favor of it and,as I understand it, also the South Mountain Conservancy is as well. What is your stance? Would you please look into this? If it would be better for me to communicate with someone else about this please let me know whom that would be. Thank you.

I'm sure national defense, the budget and health care reform can be put on the back burner while congress re-evaluates the mountain biking situation on the SoMo res...
 
Congress will strike it down. Obama revoked Bush's National Park mountain biking legality. Jerk.
Our old man ex president demo's 29ers and rides a custom Trek, or current president smokes. Ugh.
Do you think there is a member of congress that knows what a single speed is? haha
 
gtluke said:
Congress will strike it down. Obama revoked Bush's National Park mountain biking legality. Jerk.
Our old man ex president demo's 29ers and rides a custom Trek, or current president smokes. Ugh.
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Any money spent on a mountain biking bill would take away from mandatory healthcare.
 
gtluke said:
Congress will strike it down. Obama revoked Bush's National Park mountain biking legality. Jerk.
Our old man ex president demo's 29ers and rides a custom Trek, or current president smokes. Ugh.
Do you think there is a member of congress that knows what a single speed is? haha
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If anybody does anything it would be something like Pascrell's aide calls the Essex Co rec department and says "What's going on with this South Mountain mt biking situation?" People start jumping when that happens. Hopefully they would jump in the right direction.

Here's a web contact form if anyone else wants to write to him.

http://pascrell.house.gov/contact/
 
ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO TO ANNOUNCE REHABILITATION
OF DIAMOND MILL POND DAM IN ESSEX COUNTY SOUTH MOUNTAIN RESERVATION IN MILLBURN IS UNDERWAY

Millburn, NJ – On Wednesday, August 1st, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. will announce that a project to rehabilitate the Diamond Mill Pond Dam in Essex County South Mountain Reservation in Millburn is underway. The dam updates will improve the control of the flow of water along the West Branch of the Rahway River and the height of the water level in Diamond Mill Pond. The project is part of DiVincenzo’s ongoing initiative to modernize infrastructure and enhance safety throughout the County.
 
Zaskar said:
ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO TO ANNOUNCE REHABILITATION
OF DIAMOND MILL POND DAM IN ESSEX COUNTY SOUTH MOUNTAIN RESERVATION IN MILLBURN IS UNDERWAY

Millburn, NJ – On Wednesday, August 1st, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. will announce that a project to rehabilitate the Diamond Mill Pond Dam in Essex County South Mountain Reservation in Millburn is underway. The dam updates will improve the control of the flow of water along the West Branch of the Rahway River and the height of the water level in Diamond Mill Pond. The project is part of DiVincenzo’s ongoing initiative to modernize infrastructure and enhance safety throughout the County.
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Nice! We can alter the natural flow of waterways killing untold numbers of bugs and salamanders, but god forbid you tread on the property with a 1.3" wide tire.
 
I was up there today and it seems that they are building some new trails to the north of Mayapple Hill. They extend quite a bit north of the reservation. They are quite a bit different than the JORBA trails which were intellegently designed The new trail seem to be built via bulldozer cutting through the woods rather than a high-quality sustainable trail system.
 
That's because you can't fit this on single track. When are they going to put 29ers on these things? :hmmm:
 
They have bids go out and contractors build the trails for somo, hilarious. That's how little support hikers give.
 
Realize I am mighty late to the game, but I just moved to S. Orange and am willing to put some time into this as I will benefit greatly if ever minds were to change. Coming from Rochester, NY, I was involved in a successful bid to open up some trails for riding a few years back...lets see if my luck can't continue...

I'm going to write Joe D. (Dont expect much) and look into some other approaches.

Was there ever an effort to get nearby businesses/business alliances to support? I imagine that SoMo could be some of the best riding within reach of NYC, and to have riders take the train out and spend a day on the trails, followed by a cold one and some food could be a boon to neighboring towns (Millburn, S. Orange, Maplewood). Was High Gear Cyclery involved before? From my experience in Roc, if there's a language all politicians can understand, its 'economic impact.'

Just a thought--perhaps not an original one.
 
Griffo said:
Realize I am mighty late to the game, but I just moved to S. Orange and am willing to put some time into this as I will benefit greatly if ever minds were to change. Coming from Rochester, NY, I was involved in a successful bid to open up some trails for riding a few years back...lets see if my luck can't continue...

I'm going to write Joe D. (Dont expect much) and look into some other approaches.

Was there ever an effort to get nearby businesses/business alliances to support? I imagine that SoMo could be some of the best riding within reach of NYC, and to have riders take the train out and spend a day on the trails, followed by a cold one and some food could be a boon to neighboring towns (Millburn, S. Orange, Maplewood). Was High Gear Cyclery involved before? From my experience in Roc, if there's a language all politicians can understand, its 'economic impact.'

Just a thought--perhaps not an original one.
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There have been a number of ways that we tried to gain access....so you don't work too hard on your own you may wish to contact Michael at somo-at-jorba.org....he can give you the 411
 
I am now living in Millburn so I am all for trying to revive something. I can talk to my uncle who is an assemblyman for essex county to see if there is anyone in specific we can speak to or there is another route we can try. It is my understanding that the older people in the neighborhood might be the ones with the opposition since they don't want new things going on in their "back yard". I am actually looking for a park to work with to start a side project so I might be able to do this here and in turn gain good favor with the local politicians. I know things have fallen on deaf ears in the past and that may happen again but its worth a try.
 
allygadget said:
I am now living in Millburn so I am all for trying to revive something. I can talk to my uncle who is an assemblyman for essex county to see if there is anyone in specific we can speak to or there is another route we can try. It is my understanding that the older people in the neighborhood might be the ones with the opposition since they don't want new things going on in their "back yard". I am actually looking for a park to work with to start a side project so I might be able to do this here and in turn gain good favor with the local politicians. I know things have fallen on deaf ears in the past and that may happen again but its worth a try.
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Interesting, you may want to reach out to Michael as well.....may revive the cause!!
 
I was involved with Michael and Don in the effort to regain access several years ago. They reached out to us in Morris to seek our input given the success we'd had with Morris County parks. We shared all our lessons learned, and even had a few of the Morris Trails Partnership hiking establishment help us present the case for multi-use to Essex County.

Mike, Don and the crew there gave it a yeoman's effort. They got themselves onto the South Mtn Conservancy, they got the IMBA TCC to show up and educate the powers that be, and to build a sustainable section of trail that is still going strong (which is more than what you can say about the legacy trails in the park, which have a fair amount of erosion due to poor, fall-line construction (do they still have those ridiculous official signs blaming the erosion on bikes, or did they finally take those down?), and they also established regular trail maintenance days (that I believe are still being held).

Alas, after all their hard work, it boiled down to politics. DeVincenzo (Essex County Exec) didn't want to deal with it, citing the Deer Management issue as his top priority. This, despite a vast amount of public support for multi-use trails. This, from a person reported a few years later to be drawing a pension and salary for the same job..

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/states_largest_police_union_ca.html

But, I digress...

That was probably about 5 years ago, and it can't hurt to at least feel the issue out again. I commend you for wanting to give it a go, and Griffo you are spot on about the local business support, this was raised as well during the discussions (and in our case, we cited Morristown as a shining example...you often see a lot of cars with bikes on them parked in Morristown on the weekend, their owners likely partaking of the local establishments before or after a ride at Lew Mo or Patriot's Path). But definitely talk with Mike and Don. If there's an honest chance that it'll succeed this time around, I'm sure you can count on support from local riders and riders in neighboring counties (me for one).
 
Will definitely put some effort in. Thanks all for the insight. Gadget, we should sync up so as not to duplicate efforts.
 
Thanks for the info guys! Lets see what we can do. If we can make this happen I am throwing an event to commemorate the accomplishment. Some times all you need is a someone thats more stubborn than a politician and I am it!:D
 
count me in

new west orange resident here. been searching the interwebs for the past hour for essex county advocacy. i'd gladly get involved in any efforts. subscribed to this thread and definitely interested to hear if there's anything i can do to help.
 
Joe D. won't come right out and ask, but he has a price. Trust me on this. That is all I can say without violating client confidentiality...
 
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