Tonight's UC Freeholder Meeting - CANCELLED!!

stilluf

Well-Known Member
THIS IS NOT FAKE NEWS - Call it divine intervention, but a water main break in front of the freeholder building has forced a cancellation of tonight's meeting. A new date will be posted on Monday.

http://ucnj.org/

With this reprieve, let's continue to keep the pressure on the freeholders!

Thanks, as always, for your support.

#freewatchung
 

Xler8

Well-Known Member
This gives time for people to clear their calendar and allow them to join the rescheduled meeting. We need everyone to come. Standing room only!
 

TheLonerider

Well-Known Member
I wrote the following on their comment page:

"It has come to my attention that there is a resolution pending that would kill proposed mountain bike access in Watchung Reservation. I must go on record as saying that this should not be allowed to happen.

As a citizen and cyclist who has been involved in the process of trying to get trail access for three years, I am well aware of both the nature of the mountain bike ban, and the issue of mountain biking at Watchung.

The ban itself has shameful origins, being created in a backroom by the unelected, in 1995, without, by the county's own admission in response to my OPRA request, without any public input.

Worse, the county said "it had been determined" that mountain biking had to be banned because of trail problems and user conflict, but could provide no documentation of any. When pressed in repeated OPRA requests they provided only a handful of news articles about mountain biking disputes at other parks -- one as far away as Connecticut.
None were about Watchung. They also provided a trail study -- of two trails at South Mountain, a park in another county. Not only was this not about the situation at Watchung, it also post-dated the decision to ban us by almost a full year.

While there was never documentation of a reason to ban mountain biking in 1995, however, there is ample evidence now, 20 years later, and in the intervening years, that mountain biking is not a problem. Virtually every other county in New Jersey allows it to some degree, state parks as well. The NJ DEP, Department of Environmental Protection, even has links regarding mountain biking on its web site and endorses the activity.

I was there in February at Galloping Hill Golf Course when county officials and a rep of contractor CME promised mountain biking access at Watchung. However, in the intervening three years cycling taxpayers have watched as, time and again, the county failed to make good on the words it uttered. I was there at many freeholder meetings when Freeholders, including Chairman Bergen, said they supported the idea of mountain biking, and promised access by Spring of 2017. It is well into Spring of 2017, yet there is no access, Instead, freeholders appear to be considering a proposal to kill access by mountain bikers.

As I said at one freeholder meeting, an error only becomes a mistake if you persist in it. The error of this ban, concocted hastily 20 years ago, in an end run around the electoral process, has gone on far too long. It is time for Union County to end this shameful ban and finally allow some fair park access so that Union County cyclists can enjoy just a small fraction of what citizens in normal counties take for granted as their right: The ability to use the parks they pay for.

I ride, I vote, and I AM NOT GOING AWAY."

Ride on,

Lonerider
 
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