Clarksville, TN – Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan cut a ribbon Monday to open one of Clarksville’s two new bike share stations.
The ceremony, at the Pollard Road trailhead on the Clarksville Greenway, included Clarksville Academy students, Community Health Foundation board members and Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department leaders.
A second new station, at Public Square and Franklin Street in Downtown Clarksville, also opened Monday.
“We want to offer healthy opportunities to help our citizens live the best life possible,” Mayor McMillan said. “And this fantastic partnership involving students, our local health foundation and Clarksville’s Parks and Recreation Department allows us to do that. We’re moving toward our goal of making Clarksville the healthiest City in America.”
The bike-share program, which now has four stations in operation, is the result of grant proposals written by students in the Clarksville Academy’s Challenge Based Learning program. The requests were approved by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Community Health Foundation, which was created in 2006 to promote health initiatives and manage property and assets generated from the sale of the community’s public hospital.
Joanne Askew, director of Challenge Based Learning at Clarksville Academy, said the group of students involved in the bike share grants gained plenty of real-world experience that will help them in their academic careers and beyond.
“These students were involved throughout the whole process, from grant writing, managing correspondence with the foundation, to helping assemble the bikes,” Askew said. “This was truly what we call cross-curricular content.”
A survey asked riders where they would like to see additional stations, and they indicated a preference for adding B-Cycle on the Clarksville Greenway and in Downtown Clarksville. The new 10-bike stations dedicated Monday are similar to the ones opened in January 2016 at Liberty Park and the Cumberland Riverwalk.
Jennifer Letourneau, director of Clarksville Parks and Recreation, said she expects the two new station to build on the early success of the B-Cycle program.
The Clarksville B-Cycle bike-share system allows riders to check-out B-Cycles from kiosks or through a cell phone app. The program offers 24-hour memberships for $3.00; 30-day memberships for $15.00; and annual memberships for $50.00.
Memberships entitle the rider to unlimited 60 minute bike trips. Usage fees are applied to trips lasting more than an hour. Riders may check-out bikes from one location and dock them at the next station.
For information about Clarksville BCycle, visit www.clarksville.bcycle.com or contact Clarksville Parks and Recreation at 931.645.7476.
About the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department
The mission of the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department is to provide a variety of positive recreational experiences to enhance life values for individuals, families, and our diverse culture.
The Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department offers a wide variety of recreational facilities and activities for all ages, maintains more than 700 acres of parks and facilities, provides 22 park facilities that offer a variety of amenities, including playgrounds, picnic areas, walking trails and pavilions or picnic shelters and maintains three community centers with year-round programming for youth, adults and seniors, as well as four public swimming pools
The Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department is located at 102 Public Square, Clarksville.
To learn more call 931.645.7476.