LCAT meeting plans for the future

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Mountain biking, elections, and Trails Day planning were items of the agenda at the Lincoln Communities Action Team regular meeting Jan. 30.

Marcia Hurd of Caliente takes over the presidency from Holly Gatzke, and Gatzke moves to the vice-president?s chair. Keith Larson remains as Treasurer, Barbara Rhode grants administrator, but a new secretary has not been chosen to replace Trudy Faulkner.

In a telephone interview following the meeting, Gatzke said Caliente Mayor Stana Hurlburt reported the International Biking Association has been to the city and looked around the area to see the best places to develop new biking trails. The organization is planning to come back in June and talk about all of the different sites that they looked at in the area.? ?There was a lot of excitement,? Gatzke said, ?because there is possibly going to be a family route, plus trails for intermediate riders and some for the most advanced, experienced riders, and the biking association has to figure out how and where, and that?s the plan they?ll be bringing back.?

She said LCAT is definitely going to be major supporter of the biking association?s work in Lincoln County.

?Trails Day will become more of an event that we can do in state parks and maybe on the Silver State Trail,? Gatzke noted. ?We just don?t have enough time this year to work with BLM to deal with their issues regarding off road motorized vehicles, and the Silver State Trail is already approved for that type of thing.? Nationally, Trails Day is the first Saturday in June, but Lincoln County may decide on a different day.

LCAT is searching for a Trails Day Coordinator and/or Assistant, Gatzke announced. ?There is a great past record of planning from previous organizers and the event will be ran simpler this year. We already have a general plan and many of the volunteers to run individual activities: hikes, bike rides, and off road. The role of the coordinator would be to be ensure that the events are coordinated and promoted. This event brings in a number of people to our county and provides a great range of activities for locals. This volunteer activity is highly valuable to the community.?

Persons are asked to reply to Gatzke email, [email protected], or call her cell number 775-962-1300 to help with the project in any way.

Beginning planning earlier in the year for the 2014 Cookie Crumb Trail was another item on the agenda. Gatzke said the Caliente BLM office has received phone calls from people wanting to come to Lincoln County to get Christmas tree permits and also wanting to know what events might be happening in the County at the same time so they could partake of them while here Christmas tree hunting. ?All these years we didn?t know we had that kind of impact,? said Gatzke. ?The people that do that use our flyer to decide what weekend they come here and do things, so we want to work with that and create a better list of things, because it does make a difference to those people coming into the County.? In addition, getting the LCAT website updated soon will also help with some of that, she thought.