Bill 926 stalls in Salem

Just read on the bikeportland.org website that there is a problem in Salem. Mary Nolan (D- Portland) of the Ways and Means Committee has some reservations about using state lottery funds to pay for the velodromes here in Oregon. She has said that she has not heard from enough supporters
In order for Oregon to get three new velodromes and an opportunity to enhance the experiences of all cyclists, we need Rep. Nolan to pass the bill along to the committe by the end of the session.
For more info on this, you should check out this post on bikeportland.org

Three Velodromes in Oregon

No you didn't just read the headline wrong, there is enough interest in Oregon for 3 velodromes. Along with the one in Portland and one in Southern Oregon, the good ol' people Eugene are also looking to get one too.
I have been reading posts on the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association website that people thought there was enough interest in Eugene that they could use on as well. Sen. Floyd Prozanski showed up to a senate hearing in Salem and added Eugene to the bill that would receive money from the grant. It sounds as though there is valuable political support that we greatly need for everything to go through.
You can read more of this story on bikeportland.org.

Bill 926

This is the actually bill that will go through the state to determine whether we get the funding for the velodromes. The context of the bill as it stands now is right here. Jonathan from bikeportland.org was able to meet with Sen. Atkinson and sit down with other legislators in Salem and talk about the bill and here is what he had to say about the experience.

Where is the money coming from?

Measure 66. In 1998 Oregon Voters passed Measure 66 that allocated 15% of net lottery proceeds to fund new parks, beaches, salmon, wildlife habitat, and watershed protection. Of that 15%, half was dedicated to create/maintain state parks, ocean shores, public beach access areas, historic sites, and recreation areas. The other half is meant for single agency to administer funds to protect native salmon, wildlife habitat, and watersheds. Measure 66 only uses 15% of lottery proceeds for funding of parks while the other 85% of the proceeds already go to job creation, economic development, and public education.

What can we do?

There are lots of things we can do to help lend our support of getting a velodrome here.
If you have not checked out the article in the Rogue Valley Mail Tribune, it talks about what is already happening and things that we can do to show our interest. We can also write our state representatives to tell them what we think about the idea. Here is a link to that place. A third thing is we could get some outside funding for this project, even a little bit helps.

Southern Oregon Velodrome

Hello everybody, welcome to the blog. This blog is here for informational purposes on getting a new velodrome here in Southern Oregon. If you don't know already, there is a movement to get one here. Senator Jason Atkinson is in the process of writing a bill that would receive money from Measure 66 that would make all this possible. It would be possible with the money from Measure 66 that there could be two new velodromes in Oregon. One of them being in Portland where they are also in need of an indoor facility. Although Southern Oregon is not as big as Portland, the Rogue Valley does offer many other cycling related activities. If we were to get a velodrome down here, that would only add another direction that cyclists could enjoy themselves.
Thank you for looking and check back often to see what might be going on.