Metro MTB Meeting Minutes - 08/14/2024
August 14, 2024 | 7:00 PM 
Metro MTB Public Meeting
Wheel & Sprocket Franklin
6 Board Members in attendance
35 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members 

Melissa Clark, Chair
Kevin Eccles, Co-Chair - not present
John Slawny, Treasurer
Kayla Weiss, Secretary
Michael Golden, Board Member at Large
Marion Gottschalk, Board Member at Large 
Tom Hartman, Board Member at Large - not present
Ron Stawicki, Board Member at Large

Topics:

Thank you to our host, Wheel & Sprocket! 

• W&S generously offered 15% off full priced items in store.

Thank you, Trail Stewards

• Kegel- Alpha: Scott Stevens

• Heritage: Tom Hartman, Mike Vance

• Minooka: Ron Stawicki, Bob Meuer

• Pleasant Valley: Matt Weege

• Port Washington: Dwight Maynor, Alex

• Kletzsch: Craig Ruhland, Steve Giles, Nathan Allen

• Tosa: Melissa Clark, Chris Cooper, Nick Meulemans, Bill Suechting

International Women’s MTB Day 2024 - May 6th - Recap

• This event was the most successful women’s day event so far.

• Huge thanks to Angela Brooks of Brooks Adventure for hosting a mini bike clinic.

• Kayla Weiss hosted a long jump competition with two donated Ninja ramps for longest jump winners 

• Event also had a Women’s Bike Derby.

Metro Field Trip, Trek Trails in Cable - July 11-14th - Recap

• Overall everyone had a really good time. 

• Rode trails, went to town to eat, and fire!

• We would like to continue doing these.

• Thank you, Dan Kutz, for organizing!

Tosa and Kegel-Alpha Trail Work Days

• Have been meeting Mondays for a few weeks to get all the vegetation cleaned up

• Thank you Melissa for coordinating and thank you volunteers!

Milwaukee County Update from Craig Ruhland

• Craig has been the Trail Steward for River Glen Trails

• Kletzsch Park Grand Opening

• • 160 participants

  • 4 County Supervisors attended

• River Glen and Kletzsch Park combined have 2.6 miles of trail.

• Craig Met with county supervisors. 5 of 6 are very enthusiastic about new trails.

• Sledding hill is an unnatural hill and doesn’t drain well

• Ten 100 Plan - Vision Plan for 100 miles of trails in 10 years.

• • Need very active Trail Stewards to “own” the trail and coordinate.

  • County is starting their Trail Network Plan. This happens every 15 years.

  • Signature trail in the Metro area - We want something that people would drive an hour to get to. Looking at Bender Park and some other areas. Would probably need to be machine built. Looking to have 5 miles of trails. 

• New opportunities in Milwaukee County. 

• • Need to show that we are maintaining the trails we do have.

  • Bike park at Doyne Park? MMSD has not been communicating timelines to anyone on when they will be done with their remediation.

  • Potential opportunity at Havenswood - Trails on land that is just sitting there near a health facility. The health facility is interested in adding mountain bike trails. The land is currently being used by dirt bikers.

  • Need for more volunteers

Waukesha County Update from Ron Stawikc

• Agreement with the county is now renewed (Thank you Michael and Melissa.) 

• • New contract good for 3 years with a quick email to renew for up to 5 years. This will require less volunteer time renewing contracts in the future.

• WORS Minooka on 6/23 - Recap

• • It rained all day Saturday. Thank you volunteers that filled mud holes and helped drain the trail. Several comments from riders that they were surprised at how well the trails held up.

• NICA race weekend coming up 9/13 - 9/15. 

• • This event will be as big or larger than the WORS Race . Good opportunity to show off trails and set up Metro tent. Reach out to Ron Stawicki if you’d like to help with the tent.

• Giving Saturday 6/20 at the Tap Yard at Minooka Park - Recap

• • 20% of all sales were donated to Metro from noon to 3pm. Metro brought in $200 of donations for our trail projects at Minooka. This was a great day to be outside with friends after a long rainy spring.

  • Ron Stawicki led a social trail ride prior to the Tap Yard event, “Dirt Church-style.” Which folks really enjoyed.

• Minooka Monday Night Maintenance starting Monday 8/19 at 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm. 

• • If you are interested in helping, reach out to Ron and Bob. Need help with vegetation, dirt work (tread rehabilitation sections), and we have some rock garden projects. We’d like to get a head start on the vegetation before the NICA race.

• Ron talked about the “Metro Epic” where you ride Minooka, Kegel-Alpha, Tosa Trails all in one day via the Oak Leaf and other paved routes. If you drive to each trail, they call it the “Metro Tour.” 

Pizza in the Park 6/1 - Heritage MTB Trails Fundraiser - Recap

• Tom Smith donated time and materials to make pizza for attendees to fundraise for Heritage Trails.

• 40 people showed up despite the rain. Most attendees were dedicated volunteers.

• We raised over $1,000!

Heritage updates from Tom Hartmen by John Slawny

• The Heritage Trails Master Plan will be presented on 9/18. When the County originally gave us permission to build trails, they didn’t 100% understand what we were building. The Master Plan will formalize the trails and the plans for new trails.

• Survey results - 1/3 of the people using the park are from outside of Washington County.

• Parks in Washington County are self funded. Heritage has quadrupled the revenue for Heritage Trails County Park.

• We were able to purchase new tools for Heritage from the Pizza in the Park funds.

• Skills Area and Flow Rider completion possibly in 2025.

• • We’ve had a couple setbacks. The Master Plan needs to be in place before we start building again and the rainy weather has set us back.

• The Heritage Festival originally planned for 9/21 is being postponed until 2025. We need to get caught up on trail repairs and put our best foot forward. We’d like to have new trails to celebrate before the festival.

• Overall we have enthusiasm from Washington County regarding the MTB trails. Heritage was their lowest utilized park with 250 parking stalls unused.

• Heritage is now the #1 performing park after just 3 years of having MTB trails. For a park without bathroom facilities, this is impressive!

• Kudos to Tom Hartman and Gavin, and Dirt Waves for their continued efforts of working with the county and keeping the trails open for business! Dirt Waves has been out countless times repairing the trails after heavy rain.

• FlowRider Build - pictures shown.

• Thank you, Tom Hartman, for putting together a formal grant submission for the Washington County Tourism Grant. We were not awarded the Tourism Grant but now we have the framework to submit for more grants.

Ozaukee County Update - Michael Golden

• Port Washington is holding up well

• Pleasant Valley has been closed most of summer. It just finally opened.

• Rain has been a challenge

• Pleasant Valley Trail Stewar, Matt Weege, would like to have a trail day soon.

2025 Board Elections

• October Meeting - looking at holding it in Tosa

• • Board Nominations 

  • • Treasurer

    • Chair

• November Meeting - Rays in Waukesha Election

• Melissa, Chair,  will be stepping down after 3 years of serving as an Officer for Metro. 

• Kevin, Co-Chair, has been involved for the last 3 years. Board will be discussing transitioning Kevin to Chair.

Questions/ Comments:

• If anyone is interested in helping trail groom- reach out.

We Need Support:

• Manage An Event 

• Coordinate a Membership Drive 

• Support a Trail Work Day

• Be a Trail Steward or Adopt a Trail Section

• Approach Sponsors & Corporate Donors

• Design & Manage New Metro Swag

• Identify and Apply for Grants

• Host a Group Ride

• Expand our Social Media Presence

• Coordinate with NICA

• Become a Board Member this Fall!

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

March 27, 2024 | 7:00pm
Metro MTB Public Meeting
Ray’s Growler Gallery
5* Board Members in attendance

40 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Melissa Clark, Chair
Kevin Eccles, Co-Chair                                                          
John Slawny, Treasurer
Michael Golden
Ron Stawacki*
*Confirmed Board Member at Public Meeting

Topics:

Thank you to our host, Ray’s Growler Gallery!

Public confirmation of Ron Stawicki as Board Member at Large for 2024 year.

• Ron Stawicki was elected by the Board of Directors in the January Board Meeting to represent Waukesha County for Metro. Per Metro Bylaws, Board Elected Officials to fill open positions need to be confirmed at next Public Meeting.
•  Board wants to ensure all 4 Counties are represented in leadership on the Metro Board. Board didn’t have a Waukesha County rep after Chris Shay’s term lapsed last year.

Metro MTB Upcoming Event:

Reminder to check our website ‘Calendar’ and Facebook Page for Event dates and Details:

• April 6^th: Bik-E-Sha: A Social ride, casual pace in Waukesha to Fox River Park sponsored by and starting & ending at Magellan’s on Main in Waukesha. After free pizza from Magellan’s. Donations for pizza go to our trail projects at Minooka. Thank you, Magellan’s for being a long-time supporter of our trails at Minooka Park!

• April 21st: Oak Hill Trail Clean Up for Earth Day: A great family trail work friendly event to put some volunteer hours in for your local trails. Litter clean up. Gloves, garbage bags, water and treats supplied.
•  May 4th: Women’s International Mountain Bike Day: Free all-day event with ladies (all-ages welcome) non-drop group rides, Bike demonstration by Brooks Adventure, ladies competitions, prizes, raffle, burgers, and drinks provided. Donations recommended. Event is open to all but activity sessions are just for the ladies.
• June 18^th: Kletzsch Trail Opening Event: Come out Tuesday night for a social, ribbon, cutting, and ride Milwaukee County’s newest mountain bike trail. Metro will be grilling, and beverages will be provided. Donations encouraged.
•  June 20-23^rd: Minority Mountain Bikers: 4 days of activities:

Thursday at Trek
Friday at John Muir
Saturday party at Bayview Wheel and Sprocket
Sunday WORS race at Minooka.

•  June 22 & 23^rd: WORS Collectivo Classic at Minooka: Mountain Bike races for all ages and levels. Stop by the Metro tent and say Hi! Fun for racers and for those that just want to spectate.
•  July 11- 14^th:  Metro Field Trip to Trek Trails at Mt Telemark (Cable, WI):

Join us in Cable WI and the Chequamegon National Forest to ride the premier new Trek Trails Powered by OTM and the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) trail system the weekend of July 11-14.
Trek Trails by OTM are a new machine-built trail system based in the Mt Telemark Village. The Trek Trails features 16 miles of cross-country, downhill, Enduro trails as well as a skills area and a pump track.

CAMBA is a regional XC trail system featuring 130 miles of pristine classic deep-forest XC trails in and around the Chequamegon National Forest. Ride for days and never do the same trail twice.

Metro will publish times for rider meet-ups of different skill levels over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Metro will host a fire-pit social at the Home Base at Mt Telemark on one evening, and, publish a time to connect as a club at a local tavern one evening.
The lodging and travel are DIY, to keep things loose.
Stay tuned to this FB Event page for additional details

Date: July 11-14, 2024

Places:
Trek Trails by OTM at Mt Telemark Village, Cable, WI.
CAMBRA trail system
Home Base at Mt Telemark - firepit social
Sawmill Saloon, Seely - a primary social hour option
Trek Trails by OTM at Mt Telemark Village, Cable, WI.

Who: All Metro Mountain Bikers and their peeps! There are trails to meet everyone's MTB sweet spot.

Respond to the Facebook Event so we have a feel for participant numbers. Book your lodging and camping options early for the best locations!

Our goal is to keep the weekend loose and informal, while providing the opportunity to socialize and explore new trails together

• September 13-15^th: NICA at Minooka

February 2024 Trail Fairy of the Month goes to Tom Vomastic! Tom V has been out day after day to our Tosa Trails to clear Oak Hill 4 solely after the January storms. Thank you, Tom V, taking on and owning the Oak Hill 4 loop!!

Krist Crew Saw Blades Fundraiser! Melissa created a Facebook fundraiser to replace the saw blades for the famous Kirst Family Trail Fairies, that have been out clearing all the dead falls on Metro’s longest trail. The Facebook fundraiser raised over $1,200! And we presented the Kirst Family with a fleet of replacement blades. Thank you, Glenn and family for all your work!!

2023 Volunteers

• 275 Volunteers participated in 2024!
• 6,400 Hours!!! A Metro MTB record of volunteer hours!
• Recognition of our 58 Trail Fairies for 2024 (Volunteers with 20 or more hours for the year):

Steve Schoen
Tom Hartman
Gavin MacLeod
Melissa Clark
Kevin Eccles
John Slawny
Mike Vance
Jeremy Deitzel
Glenn Kirst
Chris Shay
Bob Meurer
Andrew Kirst
Steve Giles
Craig Ruhland
Andy Van Sistine
Marty Weigel
Darrin Jaeger
Kyle Ferkans
Chris Cooper
Tom Vomastic
Kayla Weiss
Mackenzie Kirst
Lindsay Carlson
Ron Stawicki
John Schultz
Maddie Kirst
Matt Weege
Dan Kutz
Cole Pfeiffer
Nathan Allen
Steven Spenner
Armando de la Torre
Danielle Cychosz
Josh Pollack
Kollin Kozik
John Buran
Harold Schmidt
Joe Schuster
John Archer
Beth Cruz
Ben Jilek
Chris McArdle
Isaac Olson
Scott Phelps
Bill Nelson
Bryan Douglas
Dave Culbertson
Maggie Attoe
Nick Kelnhofer
Matt McKenney
Scott Zinky
Chris Wold
Dave Burch
Earl Gesling
Jennine Pufahl
Nick Meulemans

Heritage Trail Updates:

• We finished 3 new trails with features in 2023!
• Mike Vance is coordinating trail volunteers for 2024, If you’d like to be part of the Heritage Trails Volunteer crew, please reach out to Mike on Facebook messenger or at : mikevancegolf@hotmail.com
• Future Trail Projects:

1. Finish the Flow Rider return trail
2. Build out the Skills Area (fundraised in 2023)
3. Improve Take on Me (the blue trail)
4. Return to Double Dragon

• Fundraising is needed for Heritage to continue building.

Ozaukee County: Introducing our new Port Washington Trail Stewards: Dwight Maynor & Alex!!!

Milwaukee County:

Kletzsch Park!  Our newest MTB trail:

•  THANK YOU:  Steve Giles, Jennine Pufahl, Nate Allen, and Craig Ruhland!!
• Approximately 1+ -mile of new built last fall and trail will be completed this spring
• Awaiting final review with Park and Signage installation this Spring to Open

We Need Support:

• Manage An Event (like tonight!)
• Coordinate a Membership Drive (online, at a trailhead, or at a public event)
• Support a Trail Work Day
• Be a Trail Steward or Adopt a Trail Section
• Approach Sponsors & Corporate Donors
• Design & Manage New Metro Swag
• Identify and Apply for Grants
• Host a Group Ride
• Expand our Social Media Presence
• Coordinate with NICA
• Become a Board Member this Fall!

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

Nov 8, 2023 | 7:15pm  Metro MTB Public Meeting
Ray’s Growler Gallery
5 Board Members in attendance

40 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair – not present                                                                 
John Slawny, Treasurer
Melissa Clark, Secretary
Kevin Eccles
Tom Hartman

Lindsay Carlson

Topics:

Thank you to our host, Ray’s Growler Gallery!

Trail Fairies Trio for the Month Award for August, September and October:  Mike Vance, Jeremy Dietzel, and Darrin Jaeger!

• These three guys have put in countless hours building and fine-tuning Young Guns, Double Dragon, Dirt Waves and Gunslinger at Heritage Trails County Park. To construct these types of trails, it takes a lot of experience and physical work. We cannot thank these guys enough for helping to make Heritage a regional MTB destination!!!

September Heritage Metro Meet & Social

• We had a beautiful day to celebrate the opening of Dirt Waves. Thank you, Low Key BBQ (Rider Tom Smith), for donating & volunteering to cook up over 90 pizzas on site to help us fundraise over $1,000 for our Phase 3 Skills Area at Heritage! Thank you, Armando de le Torre, for the great photo captures!

Dig-In Campaign – Heritage Skills Area

• We met and exceeded our $21,000 fundraising goal to raise $23,005!! Huge thanks to all 180 individuals that donated! We met our $5,000 minimum to receive our $5,000 match from the IMBA grant. A number of individuals donated more than once, and the majority of the donors were non Metro Members. We will begin construction on the skills area Spring/Summer 2024.

Heritage Trails Updates:

• Our newest trail, Gunslinger, has just opened! This is Metro’s first ever double-black diamond trail and rated for expert riders only. Thank you, Gavin and Dirt Waves, for your latest masterpiece!
• What’s next? We are working with Washington County Park on our Master Plan for our future trail projects. Gavin’s next projects include working the Double Dragon return, a new trail called Flow Rider, and the new Skills Area.

New Double Dragon T-shirts:

• Congratulations, Katie B, for the winning Double Dragon t-shirt design competition! We have shirts here with us for sale, along with new winter hats (beanies). Stay tuned for pop-up merch sales on site at Heritage to get your shirt! Proceeds go back to our trail projects.

Bik-E-Shaw:

• Thanks, Magellan’s on Main and Ron Stawicki for hosting another fun Bik-E-Shaw social ride on November 4^th. The ride raised $450 for our Minooka MTB Trails. For those that have not been to a Bike-E-Shaw, it’s a social casual ride on paved paths (some road riding) out to Fox River Park  where there’s beverages and then the group returns to Magellan’s for free pizza and a social.

2024-25 Board Member Nominations: Accepting nominations for the Open Board Positions (Chair, Co-Chair, Club Secretary and 3 Members at Large positions)

Board Nominations:

• Marion Gottschalk: Lives in Shorewood and coaches for North Shore NICA team.
• Mike Golden: Lives in Ozaukee County and expressed interest in running.
• Melissa Clark: Current Club Secretary announced she will be running for the Chair position.
• Kevin Eccles: Current Board Member at Large shared he is interested furthering help the organization and running.

Minooka Update:

• It’s Berm Rehabilitation Month! Final workdays scheduled for Sunday, 1112 and next Sunday, 11/19 from 9am-Noon. After we have volunteer, Ryan Edwards, grilling up brats and beverages to share.
• NICA Race at Minook. A record 700 kids participated in the race at Minooka. We held a post card campaign at our Metro tent and had 150 post cards filled out to send to representatives to advocate for more trails. We did a second post card campaign at the NICA Trek race and got another 150 post cards filled out which we’ll send to the event hosts and sponsors thanking them. Thank you, Kevin Eccles, for organizing and leading our post card campaign!

Milwaukee County Update:

• Kletzsch Park: Metro’s newest MTB trail is about to begin construction! Kletzsch is one of the eleven parks the County gave us to look at for the potential of adding mountain bike trails. Our first Trail Workdays are next week, Saturday & Sunday Nov 11 & 12^th. Please sign up on the link shared on our Facebook pages.
• We have a 5-year renewal agreement completed with Milwaukee County which includes provisions for 3 renewals. This is a huge gain, as previously our agreements with the County were only for one year. Thanks to all our Volunteers, Marty, for putting in years of great ground work with the County to make this possible!
• Kevin Eccles and Craig Ruhland are working to put together a bike trail opportunities for Milwaukee County.
• Glendale ARPA Funds Meetings: Not a great response. They want any pump track or bike projects to have shared funding from neighboring municipalities (Shorewood).

Giving Tuesday

• Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, November 28th. If you work for one of the many companies that gives or does donation matches, please think of Metro. We are a 501c3 non-profit organization and all the money raised will go to tools and trails equipment.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

July 12, 2023 | 7:15pm
Metro MTB Public Meeting
Wheel & Sprocket - Franklin
4 Board Members in attendance

40 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair                                                             
John Slawny, Treasurer
Melissa Clark, Secretary
Kevin Eccles
Tom Hartman – not present

Lindsay Carlson – not present

Thank you to our host, Wheel & Sprocket!

• Thanks for letting us use their space for tonight’s meeting!
• Thank you for tonight’s discounts for Metro MTB Members!
• Wheel & Sprocket has donated $5,000 for our trail building projects!

Trail Fairies of the Month Award for June: Bob Meurer and Ron Stawicki!

• The Bob and Ron duo started over a decade ago when they teamed up to advocate for dedicated mountain bike trails at Minooka Park. 10 years later, they’re still advocating for Minooka's MTB Trail, leading the trail maintenance and build activities.
• June has been a special month for Minooka with the celebration of the trail’s 10th year anniversary, dedication of the Burch Barn and approval from Waukesha County Parks to build a new section of trail for the ‘Green Bailout.’ Wasting no time, Ron and Bob, organized and led 4 weeks of June Thursday Evening trail workdays to get this new section of trail cut and completed! All we celebrated and accomplished this month is because of these two outstanding Trail Directors!
• Fun fact: It took 2,936 hours when Minooka was originally built, to build 5 miles of trail purely by hand!
• Bob and Ron, thank you for all you do for Minooka and Metro Mountain Bikers!

Minooka:

• New green bypass has been added. This was requested by NICA folks to keep the youth riders’ wheels on the ground. The green bypass was completed just in time for the WORS race to get thousands of wheels.

Milwaukee County:

• This spring we were able to mark 1 new trail a Kletzsch Park. Potentially start building this fall, depending on environmental review.
• Trails Coordinator, Jessica Wineberg, took a new position. They are currently interviewing to fill her position.
• Right of Entry Permit will be issued to Metro MTB tomorrow.
• Oak Hill 3 & 4  workday will be led by Marty on Sunday morning.
• We took Milwaukee County Parks out to Hoyt to review where trails are caving in and flagged a reroute.

Ozaukee County:

• We are looking for Ozaukee County Trail Stewards and Trail Directors. Please reach out if interested!

Heritage:

• Our Heritage Trail Director, Steve Schoen, is working on the green trail
• Steve and his crew are out working almost every weekend if folks want to get some trail work in.
• Dirt Waves volunteer crew working on some hard-core stuff:
• Young Guns trails just opened last weekend!
• We had 200 riders out last weekend checking out the new trail!
• Currently working on 3 more trails we hope to open this summer:
• Gunslingers – a true double black diamond trail, for expert riders only.
• 2 more Intermediate Trails: Dirt Waves & Flow Rider
• There will be a Grand Opening to the trails – probably this August once the trails are approved and opened.
• Phase 3: A Progressive Skills Parks: Small intermediate skills for folks/ kids to learn these skills.
• Metro has re-joined IMBA as an Affiliate earlier this year and because of this we are able to submit for IMBA grants.
• IMBA has a program called Dig-In, a Matching grant which matches up to $5,000.
• We are looking for a total of $21,000 to fully-fund the Skills Park.

Treasurer update: we have a New Treasurer, John Slawny!

• Membership remains flat. We currently have 155 current members.

We need your Help!

• We have more trails, more events, and have more to get done on more trails! Some areas where we really need more support are:
• Events: Neon Nights, Heritage Grand Opening
• Need Trail Stewards at Pleasant Valley and Port Washington Trails.
• Approaching sponsors and donors
• Coordinating with NICA
• Membership mailings
• Organizing and leading Group rides
• Milwaukee County: especially – expanding our community engagement.
• Becoming a Metro Board Member – Fall Elections for the 2024 Board!
• We have an open position right now for Co-Chair. Position’s role is to assist the Chair with the Goal that the Co-Chair will be the future replacement of the Chair.

Expanding the number of Board Member positions

• A lot of different rolls and a lot of different skills sets are needed to make our organization work.
•  Board will be voting to possibly add 1-2 more positions to the Board for 2024.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

May 24th 2023 | 7:00pm
Metro MTB Meeting
Location: Milwaukee County Park's Wil-O-Way Underwood facility in Tosa 
5 Board Members in attendance

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Chair
John Slawny, Co-chair                 
Melissa Clark, Secretary
Kerry Norman, Treasurer – not present
Tom Hartman
Kevin Eccles
Lindsay Carlson – not present

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Raised Grain Brewing, John Slawny, Nick & Shaunie Meulemans and Melissa Clark for tonight’s refreshment donations

Recent Events Recaps

April 22nd Earth Day Trail Clean Up

• We had a great turnout of 30 volunteers to help us clean the litter up on our Oak Hill trails.
• Trail Clean-up days are a great opportunity for families/ youth to get Metro MTB trail volunteer hours.

May 6th International Women’s MTB Day Event

• We had at least 100 attendees and another 2-dozen or so Volunteers and vendors.
•  Event included: Pre-ride stretch with Today Wellness, Mini-women’s skills clinic with Revolve MTB, Long jump competition hosted by Ninja Mountain Bike Performance, Non-drop women’s rides for 3 skills levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). 
• Minooka Night riders volunteered to do our grilling and food serving and bike maintenance. Thank you, Night Riders!
• Event was hosted at Southern Kettle Moraine’s John Muir Trail this year, a non-Metro trail. Attendees were very pleased with John Muir trails being a great central location between Milwaukee and Madison. The trail system offered something for all levels/ all skills.
• SKORR (the new Southern Kettles Off-Road Riders) group was there and the trails were in great shape! We encourage folks to follow SKORR and become Members to support these great trails! Note: Metro MTB and Leadership was involved in building and creating this trail system. Many of our Volunteers are also part of SKORR and maintaining the Southern Kettles trails.
• An Event feedback survey was emailed out to attendees earlier this week. For those that joined, please complete the survey for a chance to win prizes from Ninja MTB.

IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) - MMB is now an IMBA affiliate. 
Metro was Charter Member of IMBA in the past. Why we left IMBA:

• Cost was significant per Member to be part of IMBA. Much of the Charter cost was for their website, membership tools and insurance. When Metro became a 501(c)3 non-profit, we had obtained our own Website, Membership software and Insurance. So, we were double paying for these organizational expenses being an IMBA Charter Member.

Metro re-joined IMBA this month as an Affiliate Member. 

• Affiliate Membership allows us to manage and keep our Membership dollars and donations, while benefiting from IMBA’s expansive network of resources. 
• Important – IMBA is NOT taking over dues - all dues go to Metro, and 100% stays with Metro.
• Re-joining IMBA allows us to submit for IMBA grants and utilize them as a resource. 

We encourage Members to follow IMBA on Link-in and social media. A lot of great resources. Download the new book for Free from IMBA’s website- geared more for landowners.

May Trail Fairy of the Month: Kayla Weiss!

• Kayla did her first ever trail work day at Heritage Trails MTB Trail at the end of last year and she hasn’t missed a weekend Heritage trail work day since! She currently holds Metro’s best Trail Work Day streak outside of our Trail Directors!! In fact, her new found love for trail work led her to creating a Facebook Group for sharing regional MTB trail work days: WI MTB Trail Work Network! Join and help sustain and maintain your favorite local trails! 
• For those that made our event at John Muir, Kayla was there with Ninja Mountain Bike Performance! She planned and led our longest jump competition! She also reached out to Athletic Brewing Company for the N/A beer raffle package and free samples for our event!
• Metro is 100% Volunteers, and when a friend of Metro reaches out to say, “hey! Can I do some fun jumps competitions at this years event? And BTW, I’m reaching out to this company for a donation for your raffle.” - this is HUGE!

Milwaukee County Trails Update

• We have a 5-year renewal with potential 15-year contact.
• New clause in this year’s agreement for Metro MTB to use machines.
• Parks gave us a list of 11 Milwaukee County parks to look at for future bike opportunities (trails, pump track)
• Craig Ruhland has volunteered to be a new Trail Steward for our River Glen MTB Trails.
• The County is working with us for trail expansion at Kletzsch park.
• We would love to move more towards a bike preferred lines like we did with Kegel-Alpha 2.0.
• We’d love for someone from group join Friends of Kletzsch Park to help approval process for more trails.
• Milwaukee County Parks has budgeted for 2 staff to go this year’s IMBA summit. This is a great investment of staff for mountain biking trails.

Heritage Trails Mining Proposal – change of plan

• Washington County and Lannon Stone are not moving forward with a mine at Heritage Trails Park. The mining project would have funded our mountain bike project. Now that there will not be mining revenue, Washington County has stated that they want to help fund mountain biking at Heritage Trails Park.
• We have 3 flow trails we are finishing once we get the County to approve.

Waukesha County - Minooka updates

• We have an approval for a Green re-route to the finish, the new “Green Bailout.” from Waukesha County. We have an okay to re-do redo some features.
• Erik’s employees are volunteering to cut green exit. 
• Ron and Bob will be scheduling some mid-week June trail work sessions.
• Next Tuesday Erik’s is hosting a Demo day at Minooka.

Club Positions – Help Wanted

• Trail Stewards for Ozaukee County trails (Port Washington/Guenther Park and Cedarburg/Pleasant Valley)
• Membership
• Social Media
• Events
• Treasurer & Co-Chair Roles

Insurance Renewal

• Overall insurance cost remained the same as last year.
• Cost for Events (non-race events) increased considerably. Prior our Members were no additional costs for events, non-members were an additional $3 per event.
• Our renewal quoted us a $8 per person cost, regardless of membership status, for Events such as Women’s Day and any social group ride we lead.
• We listed 3 events for the year in our insurance renewal. We will be unable to host additional social rides due to the cost increase per person for any events and rides we host.

Non-Metro PSA’s:
June 17th – West Allis Bike Rodeo looking for children’s skills instruction and bike repair volunteers . 67th & National; 10am-Noon
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050d4facaf2ba5fc1-west#/

July 8-9th – WORS race at Minooka “Colectivo Coffee Bean Classic”
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/wors/colectivo-coffee-classic/

 July 18  - Ride to Ferda Balls (Minooka Night Riders) https://facebook.com/events/s/ferda-balls/211855168289818/?mibextid=Gg3lNB

Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm

Nov 16, 2022 | 7:15pm  Metro MTB Public Meeting

Raised Grain

4 Members in attendance

45 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Chair

John Slawny, Co-chair                                            

Dan Kutz, Treasurer       

Melissa Clark, Secretary

Tom Hartman

Isaac Olson – not present

Lindsay Carlson – not present

Eric Hackbarth, Ozaukee County Representative – not present

Topics:

Ron Stawicki presented Metro a $920 check representing donations collected from the October Bik-e-Shaw social ride and June’s Bike for Bruch ride. Thanks for Magellan’s on Main Street in Waukesha for hosting these community social rides, providing pizza, to fundraise for our bike trails at Minooka.

Minooka Storage Shed is currently being permitted and precured. An image of the prefabricated shed was presented. The shed model and color was selected to go with aesthetics of existing park buildings.

Donations

•  Washington County have given Metro $13,000 this year for our Heritage Trails
• Wheel & Sprocket has given a Metro a gift of $5,000 and continues to be a great partner
•  Metro received an anonymous $5,000 donation
• Trail work at Heritage is currently mostly donated by our trail builder, Gavin.
•   We are currently at $37,000 in donations for the year which is phenomenal!

Hugh Jass Fat Bike Race Series overview

• Started in 2014 for people to get out and ride in the winter months by Wheel & Sprocket
•  3.7” or wider tires needed to podium in the races. Narrower tires are allowed to race but you need to have a fat bike to win.
• 5 events per season
• t’s the State of Wisconsin’s biggest fat bike race series
• Usually, 200-300 riders per race
• Hammerschlagen occurs after each lap (drive a nail into the stump at the end of each lap)
• First race is this Saturday at our Metro’s Kegel-Alpha Trail in Franklin, flannel theme
• $40 registration per race

Trail Fairy of the Month Award presented to Andy Van Sistine. Andy has been leading weekly night rides at Minooka for 5 years! All are welcome. Andy has hosted riders ages 3-72 on the same group ride. Social rider every Thursday at 7:30pm. Typically 20-30 riders/

Don’t Ride Mud Trails

• The annual problem during this freeze and thaw time of year when the trails take the worst abuse.
• Chris Copper shared a fantastic Facebook post about freeze thaw (copied below):  

A reminder for those that have been around for a while and a little education for those folks newer to the best sport ever. Enjoy. Throughout the winter, but especially in the late Fall and early Spring, you'll often see Freeze/Thaw in the trail conditions. When the temperature is dropping at night, but near or above freezing during the day, the trails can be either fabulous or terrible, so please keep the following in mind:
• Most of the soil in this area is clay. When this clay soil freezes, the water in the soil expands. When it thaws again, the water contracts and the soil has been aerated. This aerated soil holds more water and becomes mud.
• When mud gets ridden through, tires push it to the sides of the trail creating ruts. When it freezes overnight then thaws again the next day, riders push the mud further to the sides, creating deeper ruts.
• After a few cycles of this, the trail is permanently cupped, holding water all the time. With every storm, it erodes more and then trail volunteers must spend valuable time repairing it.
• As soon as trails start to thaw, which can even happen well below freezing if trails are in the sun, they'll turn into a particularly soupy form of mud and do the most damage to the trail.
Please only ride the frozen trails early in the day or after dark and avoid anywhere you're leaving a rut and you'll be rewarded with trails that are fast, grippy, and fun. Your trail volunteers and fellow riders will thank you!

Snow Grooming Update

• Metro will be snow grooming at Heritage, Minooka and Pleasant Valley this winter
• Please speak with Bryan Douglas if you’d like to help with grooming: douglasbd14@gmail.com

Metro Winter Riding Event in the Works

• Neon Nights – “Lets Glow Crazy”
• Save the date for Saturday, January 14^th, at Minooka
• Family event
• Drinks, food, glow sticks
• Different group roll outs at different times

Outgoing Board Members & Trail Director Recognition

• Dan Kutz, Treasurer: Thanks DAN! Dan also led our insurance policy renewals each year.
• Isaac Olson, Board Member at Large: Managed everything on our website, Trail bot app system, all our of on-line donations. Isaac has served 8+ years on Metro’s board. He is also one of the original trail builders at Minooka.
• Eric Hackbarth, OCMB (Ozaukee County Mountain Bike) Club Leader for 6 years: Managed all our trail work in Ozaukee County. Our Trail Director at Pleasant Valley.

2023 Election Results

• Kerry Norman elected as Metro's new Treasurer
• Kevin Eccles elected as Board Member at Large

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm

Oct 19, 2022 | 7:15pm

Metro MTB Public Meeting

Ray’s in Tosa

7 Members in attendance

62 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair                                                             

Dan Kutz, Treasurer       

Melissa Clark, Secretary

Tom Hartman

Isaac Olson

Lindsay Carlson

Eric Hackbarth, Ozaukee County Representative – not present

Topics:

Finance and Membership

• Metro is fundraising $6,000 for a storage shed at Minooka
• Heritage fundraising for equipment upkeep and to continue building new trails

Memberships and Donations are our primary source of funding,

Trails Update

Milwaukee County:

• Trail Work Day this Saturday, 8:30-11am to work on berms at Kegel-Alpha
• Chris Kegel Foundation working on plans and fundraising on a trail and bike park at Washington Park in Washington
• Conversations about bike trails development at Milwaukee County’s Doyne Park
• Hoyt trail re-route from trail erosion from this summer’s flooding is waiting on Milwaukee County Parks’ plant review before trail re-route can be approved. May take weeks or a month. Once approved, the reroute will take a couple work hours and a couple volunteers to re-route.

Minooka

• We are currently fundraising for storage shed, $6,000
• A couple trail work days for entry re-route maybe a berm work session is fall.

Ozaukee County

• New features at Port Washington Trails

Heritage

•  Our trail builder, Gavin, has been busy working away. He’s built a fly-over and working on a large cannon.
• Built a bypass over the steep downhill and uphill on switch back on the blue trail.

Trailbot App for Trail Status

• Metro has joined the Trailbot app, which has other Wisconsin and a lot of Minnesota trails on the app. The plan is to get out of the work of updating images on Facebook banners and to use Trailbot for trail open/ closure status.

New Wauwatosa Parks Project –116th Street Park

• Has Public support
• Open House, October 27th, 5-7pm open public input/ charrette on park design at the Tosa Department of Public Offices.

Washington Park Bike Park Loop/ Skills

• In Milwaukee
• Sarris foundation has earmarked money for this park
• Median household income is $27,000 in around the park. We want to bring cycling to an underserved community.
• Pump track, skills features, and also a green/ blue 1 mile loop around the park.
• Brainstorm session Nov. 6th at Wheel and Sprocket – we will share with on Metro’s Facebook page.
• Why Washington Park? The Urban Ecology Center is there and they already run youth programs and rent bikes out to the Community.

Membership

• Join Metro and be sure to renew if your membership is expiring.

Swag (“Stuff We All Get”). Metro is currently taking pre-orders for 3 merchandise items. Proceeds from mech sales goes to our trails:

• T-shirts
•  Carhartt stocking hat
• Sweatshirt

New Board Nominees

• 1 Open Board Member at Large and Treasure position
• Nominations are Open and we are taking nominations until Nov. 2nd:

o   Kevin Eccles was nominated.
o   Brent Railsback was nominated
o   Nick Meulemans was nominated
o   Ken Cole was nominated

Snow Grooming

•  Looking for folks to volunteer to operate snow dog
• Will be grooming 3 trails: Pleasant Valley, Minooka and Heritage
• Winter bike events in the works
• Metro currently owns 2 snowdogs
• Please contact Bryan Douglas at: douglasbd14@gmail.com or on Facebook if interested in joining Metro’s Snow Grooming Committee.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

July 28, 2022 | 7: 30pm

Metro MTB Public Meeting & Kegel-Alpha 2.0 Opening

Wheel & Sprocket, Franklin

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair                                                             

Dan Kutz, Treasurer       

Melissa Clark, Secretary

Tom Hartman – not present

Isaac Olson- not present

Lindsay Carlson

Eric Hackbarth, Ozaukee County Representative – not present

Vote for Open Co-Chair Position:  John Slawny voted in as new Metro Co-Chair

County Updates:

Minooka Trails

• Gateway signage installed, re-directing trail entry through gateway.
• Working on getting e-bikes allowed on the trail officially

Milwaukee County

Relationship well with the Parks Department

Kegel-Alpha 2.0 Update: 

• Original lap open 25 years ago. Realized that shortly after opening the that the trail that ran along the river was an issue as it often was flooded

• Metro worked with the Parks Department, environmental analysis, and County Supervisors to get the revised lap open.
• Downhill switchback were professional machine built by Gravity Logic when the Rock was looking at building a downhill MTB park
• Trails are not done. We are getting feedback. We will be adding berms.

Doyne Park, 9-hole golf course which is now closed. County currently getting input for what to do with the park. Would be a great location for a bike park. Can read more here:

mkecountyparks.org/future-of-doyne-park.

Ozaukee County

• Storage shed installed
•  Trails are in good shape

Washington Co

$20,900 forecasted contributions in 2023 for Mountain Bike trails from the County.

Heritage:

• Single use, one-directional trail.
• Fantastic relationship w/ Washington Co.
• Opened Jump Line flow Trail on May 5th
• New News:
• Double Dragon extended another .5 mile on July 3^rd
• Added another drop
• Added 9+ jumps
• Now total of 16 jump
• New Section of trail opened last night back to the parking lot.
• What’s Next? A Continuous jumpline along blue to the south. Mandatory progressive jumps, no ride around.
• Heritage is fundraising priority this year

Treasure/ Budget Update: Most of this year’s expenditures are supporting Heritage, Snowdog and Insurance.     

New Award:

• Volunteer of the Year of Award 2021 awarded to James Mattox!
• Introducing the Inaugural Volunteer Year Award, named after Marty Weigel. We awarded Marty Weigel with Metro MTB’s Lifetime Volunteer Award!

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

May 25, 2022 | 7: 00pm

Metro MTB Public Meeting

Ray’s in Tosa

4 Members in attendance

Mission Statement: Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair                                                           

Dan Kutz, Treasurer       

Melissa Clark, Secretary

Tom Hartman – not present

Isaac Olson- not present

Lindsay Carlson

Eric Hackbarth, Ozaukee County Representative – not present 

County Updates:

Minooka Trails

• o   Trail head signage has been installed
• o   Metro Storage shed is in progress
• o   Metro communicated to Waukesha County Parks Department that we are not able to fund a parking lot at Minooka as previously agreed to. The Club targets raising $50,000 annually and a $200,000+ expenditure would preclude any trail development for about four years.

Milwaukee County

•  Oak hill 4 is completed. Signage will be coming in next couple of weeks
• Kegel-Alpha
• Scheduled works days to be announced.
• 3-hour works days, Saturday workdays starting at 1pm
• Kegel-Alpha trail extension should be completed this weekend
• Eagle Scout signage is ordered; signage install should happen in June. Eagle Scout Go-Fund me to be up and shared soon.
•  There’s only a few Milwaukee Co trails: Kegel-Alpha, Tosa and River Glen. All multi-use.
•  New Facebook group BIPOC of MTBers (now renamed MKE Urban MTB Connection) working to bring trails to more urban locations. Metro made a major push for Milwaukee River Trails years ago. Lots of tough obstacles. May be worth a revisit now.
•  Parks department announced they’re closing the golf course at Doyne Park. Milwaukee Co is seeking input on future use. Great spot for a multi-sport park including MTB, BMX, cyclocross and pump track. Central urban location may help with previous topic.

Ozaukee County

• Storage shed installed
• Trails are in good shape

Heritage Trails

If you haven’t been up to Heritage Trails, get up and ride the trails! The County relationships has been great! Mountain Biking is the #1 priority for Heritage Trail Park. Heritage has SE Wisconsin’s first flow trails and jumps.

We just opened the new Black Line, Double Dragon. The new flow trail getting all the attention which has 7 jumps and 4 drops!

What’s coming up this year?

• Adding another ¾ of a mile this year to Double Dragon
• Adding dedicated jump line
• Take on me, steep decent will get a bi-pass bridge
• Training features- on agenda to get added built like the wood features borrowed from Pleasant Valley for the International Women’s MTB Day Event
• Winter grooming, adding bi-passes for the steepest assent and decent for winter groomed trails.

Thanks to Washington County Parks! Their Parks are 100% park admissions passes funded, zero tax dollars go the Parks.

Plan is to have our trails at Heritage built out in the next 1-2 years. Goal of Club, what is next after Heritage is built out? Where do we want to build trails next? What Counties?

Question about liability? Drops?

• Safety is our Club’s #1 Mission. We were not allowed to open the trail until we had emergency markers every 8th of mile. Every jump had to be properly signed with bypasses. Part of it is us educating others, educating the community. County has the liability. The state of Wisconsin has recreational liability statutes. Metro doesn’t operate the trail; we donate to build and maintain the trails.

Treasure/ Budget Update:

Larger 2022 expenses:

• Liability insurance
• Heritage Trail Development
• Gateway signage at the trail heads

Revenue

• Donations double where we were last year, largely in-part of the second Snowdog purchase this year
• Membership is essentially flat

International Women’s Day Event at Heritage: Great turn out! 71 riders, 15 volunteers. Had 7 join Metro MTB at the event!

Website Refresh: (see attached presentation showcasing website updates!)

Announcing our 2021 Trail Fairies! (see attached presentation) Trail Fairy awards go to Volunteers that put in at least 20 hours for the year. Thanks for all 200+ trail volunteers for 2021!

Grand Total for Volunteer hours for 2021: 4,408 hours = $125,796 in value!!

How can YOU help Metro Mountain Bikers?

• Open co-chair position             
• Social media coordinator
• Workday trail volunteers and/ or workday support (help with refreshments, food for volunteers)
• Social events
• Grant writing
• Legal advice
• Equipment operators, skilled excavators

Open position: Co-Chair position is currently open. Voting will occur at our next Public Meeting in July. Please send nominations to any Metro Board Member.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm

Mission Statement 

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of  mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling  opportunities. Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail  maintenance. 

Board Members 

Chris Shay, Co-Chair  

Dan Kutz, Treasurer - virtual  

Melissa Clark, Secretary  

Isaac Olson – virtual  

Tom Hartman  

Lindsay Carlson  

Eric Hackbarth – OCMB  

Attendance: 25 in person + 3 Virtual 

Minooka Update- Ron Stawicki  

Snow has melted, trails currently icy, be sure to have studs. Hoping to schedule 6 trail work days this  year. May host another clean-up work day before the trails open, early spring, to get folks amped up for  year. If we have enough time after our trail work days, we may look at adding a couple of new features.  

Be sure to have a Waukesha County Parks pass. This year Waukesha County Parks is going by license  plates and will ticket folks that come in after hours that don’t have a pass.  

Questions/ Comments:  

• Request to bring back the old trail exit. Not everyone wants to go back up and do that  new last bit of trail extension that was added last year.  

• Can we add “an upper, upper powerline berms”? NICA does this for their trail races.  

Event Updates: Melissa Clark  

Photo slide show presented, attached. 

Hugh Jass New Fane Race Snow Grooming  

Waukesha Janboree Fat Bike Demo: Great turn out. We had about 80-100 folks out to demo fat bikes.  Some folks had never been to Minooka Park before!  

Pleasant Valley Fat Bike Ride: Good turnout of about 30 riders. Fermentorium Brewing was there  offering beer samples. 

Snow dog – Bryan Douglas  

We have the second snow dog! See attachment for photos #SnowDog2022  

Heritage Update – John Slawny 

Digital presentation presented, attached  

We are excited to bring in machine groomed modern trails to the area! Last year’s volunteer efforts  have a combined value of over $60,000! Metro is working on a RTC DNR grant asking for $86,000 grant  for further trail development and expansions. Opening of the flow trail is pending installation of signage.  Official Opening Event will likely be in June or July to ensure trails will be dry and open. Trail work days  cadence typically alternates Saturdays and Sunday.  

2022‘s projects include the flow trail return line and bike park  

Other future projects:  

• Green line, “experiential features”. 10’ of armored climbed. Putting in skinny bridge.  

Milwaukee County update – Marty Weigel  

Oak Hill 4, built last year, will be finished this week. Typically trail work starts around April, figure 4 more  trail work days.  

Kegel-Alpha Trail: Kegel-Alpha 2.0 was essentially approved 2 years ago and trail work will begin this spring.  

Reminder that all Milwaukee Co trails all need to be non-directional and multi-use trails.  

Other Updates:  

Third Space Brewing wants to do an event in the city. Reach out to Bryan Douglas on Facebook if you’d  like to be involved in planning an event.  

Metro is in need of a Volunteer Coordinator to track all our volunteer hours for the year.  We need Operational Directors for the Milwaukee Co Trails.  

Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm

Here is a complete PDF containing presentation materials as well.

https://metromountainbikers.com/resources/meetings/2022_Feb%203%20Metro%20MTB%20Meeting.pdf