My Ohio MWC brethren

87manche

87manche

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Ohio
OK, here's the skinny.

The city of Ashland has about 500 acres north of town.
Currently the plan is to establish two reservoirs on the property.

mind you, they're still in the planning stages.

That's where we need to come in. There's a frightening absence of anywhere to go wheeling. Ashland is situated about an hour from Cleveland, Columbus ,Toledo and Akron.

So, I've already spoken with the mayor, he referred me to the city engineer, and the fact that we need to get involved now with the planning commission.

I'm currently gathering information about state grants for trails and facilities, and I'm getting in touch with the OMTA people.

As soon as I find out the next planning commission meeting that open to the public I'd like to see if we can't get a group together and make an appearance.

The only way this is going to happen is if we show up, present our case, and show the city that there are a lot of us. Let's face it, they're only going to buy into this if they think it will make the city money, and if we can convince them that there is enough interest and people that are willing to come and ride that the area will be better off.

Currently things aren't looking so great in Ashland, the time to strike is now. Making the argument that having a campground/riding area will bring people to the area is probably the best bet. People means money in the local economy, and that's the biggest selling point that we can offer.

So, this post is just a heads up, I'll keep you all informed of my progress. I fear that it will be an uphill battle, and the mayor, while intrigued, pretty much told me it would be.

enough of my rambling, I'd like your thoughts and opinions and any experiences any of you may have doing anything similar.
 
seanR said:
If there is anything we can do on a national level, let us know....
Click to expand...
I appreciate that offer Sean. I plan on keeping everyone posted.

I'm selfish, and I want a place to wheel 5 minutes from my house :)
 
Will there be a lot of trail building required, or does the land already have some natural topography? If it's going to be easier to dig a reservoir in a cornfield, the city will probably do that.

Not trying to rain on your parade, you didn't mention if there would be anything to do on the property other than flat land.

I'm all for supporting new wheeling areas, especially in the midwest. If we Hoosiers can do anything to help post up.
 
Im all for it...and i think i can get more ppl (trucks and toys ppl) to come to that. Just keep us posted!

This is a great idea......

And yes..What is the land like?

Chris
 
well, I'll be blunt, the property is not ideal.

It was old cattle grazing, and some woods, so not plowed flat cornfield, but not mountains either.

This is why I feel that something like this must be presented before the planning commision comes to an end. This is most definitly something that would be a long term thing, even if we could actually convince the city and county to go forth with it.

I figure this though, they'll need a place to get rid of a lot of fill, and the heavy equipment would already be on site. It's worth a shot anyway.
 
It's probably worth talking to some local town governments that have these types of areas already in place.

Politicians love talking to other politicians. If you can show the city planning commission real numbers from other localities' economies, they're more likely to listen to you.

I would also consider trying to get some information from Mansfield. They can show you how the raceway affects the local economy. One national nascar truck event there pretty much writes checks all year long.

Legally, you should get some of these lobbying groups involved. You need to present a positive outlook on insurance liability and the legalty of wheeling on publicly owned land. I'm sure NAXJA can set you up with UFWDA and their team of lawyers.
 
I think the other thing you have to consider is that the city is not going to spend 1 penny of the money required to make this happen.

You need to present a financial plan that utilizes already available equipment and personnel to provide them a cost savings of moving all that dirt.

If you can show them that moving all that dirt to other parts of the property will save them money you could pull this off. You need people who have built this stuff before to look at the land and tell you how to develop it.
 
yes, this whole thing centers around not spending any of the city's money.
Volunteers to run it on the weekends, volunteers to clean up trails, etc.
$10-$15 dollars for a vehicle to cover the liability insurance.
I'm working on the plan for trails, but I haven't met face to face with the city engineer to look at a detailed map of the property yet.
I've also been in contact with the redbird people, since it's something similar.

I've also emailed and called the State, as there is some money avaialble for trail building available there in the form of grants, but I've not yet receieved a response from them.
 
If you need some help on getting ideas for trail set up, i would like to help. Its not everyday where you can get to set up ur own ideas.

Plus if this gos through, I have run Front-end loaders and backhoes b4 lol.

Chris
 
Let me know what is going on, We have the Mountainereer offroad club here local about 1/2 hour from Ashland and I can get the WV jeepers club to show up also, between our 2 clubs we can get alot of people together for the meeting and helping out with the other stuff also, you can PM me or email me as you have information gathered so I can pass it on to the clubs
 
Im the President of the WVJC, most of us are located in the North Central WV area, but still do not have many places close to go. I would be willing to show support or help out with anything if you needed some help.


But the lay of the land and the property are a top thing in building a parkt that people are going to want to come to. The big named parks and trails arent great trails because they brought dirt in and built something up. Rocks? Trees? Slopes? where is the location?
 
Nate I'm all for your plan, but these guys are right. I don't think you can build a park by just bringing in dirt. (Well you could, but it would be an a outrageous cost.) You need the topography to support it. The impression you giving is that it's fairly flat, and needs a lot of work to spice it up. I know that the Ashland area is starting to get some hilly areas, but it's still kind of flat in regards to an off road park. Regardless I'll help in any way I can.
 
I realize that I just threw this out there, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Regarding the meeting:
I don't know, the next public meeting hasn't been planned yet.

Regarding the land:
I have only seen it from the road, it's private property, until I can see a good topo map or get permission to go and look that's about all I can offer. I can tell you that it's mostly wooded, there are a few creeks that run in that area, but I can't even say what part of the property that we would be allowed on, IF the city even agrees to this arrangement.

This whole thing is just a brainstorm at the moment. Realisitcally, even if we were granted permission, we're talking another few YEARS before construction on the resorvoirs would be done.
 
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