Classy bike racks - first of 50 installed downtown

Mount Emily and a camas flower are incorporated into the design of bike racks being installed in the downtown area. Observer photo/BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH

That changes beginning this week, thanks to La Grande Main Street and the city of La Grande. Tuesday morning, the first of 50 distinctive bike racks for the downtown area was installed on Adams Avenue.

Jason McNeil, a city intern who coordinates Oregon Main Street projects and activities, said the racks are important in ways beyond functionality.

as he watched city workers set the first rack in concrete in front of the Mountain Works bike shop on Adams Avenue.

Last February, La Grande was selected by the office of Gov. Ted Kulongoski to participate in the Oregon Main Street Program, a statewide initiative aimed at improving central business districts.

Shortly after the selection was announced, local volunteers stepped up to serve on design, promotion, organization and economic restructuring committees.

Later, the La Grande Downtown Development Association reorganized itself into La Grande Main Street, a group that will work closely with the city on Oregon Main Street projects.

Anita Metlen, who with her family owns Mountain Works, joined the design committee at its inception and has been a member ever since. She was instrumental in getting the bike rack project off the ground.

“The committee was looking for projects, and this kind of evolved. I’m not sure who suggested it, but I certainly supported it,” she said.

Through various contacts Metlen knew that bike rack projects like the one the design committee envisioned had been completed in Missoula, Mont., and Stevenson, Wash. She visited both those cities, taking pictures and gathering information.

Back home, she and the committee began putting together a La Grande-specific project. One of the first orders of business was to come up with a bike rack design.

Committee member Taylor Moore, owner of Taylinn Signs, stepped up, donating his time and drafting two designs to be incorporated into the racks. One shows Mount Emily and a camas flower, the other Mount Emily and a wagon wheel.

Metlen said local people identify closely with Mount Emily and feel it is Union County’s trademark image.

“Maybe one of 25 people I talked with said they didn’t think Mount Emily should be a part of the design,” Metlen said.

Next step was to find a contractor to make the racks. The job went to Barreto Manufacturing, a La Grande- based rototiller manufacturer that also does steel fabrication work.

“We kept everything local, and the design is in keeping with the area,” Metlen said.

The city of La Grande, which is fostering the Main Street Program but will eventually step aside to let private citizens take over, agreed to fund the $5,000 project with money from the Urban Renewal Agency budget.

“It isn’t overly expensive. Cleaning and sprucing up downtown doesn’t take a lot of money,” Metlen said.

Metlen said the city plans to install four bike racks per block along Adams Avenue, and others on side streets branching off Adams. The whole job should be complete by the end of the year.

As the owner of La Grande’s only full-service bicycle store, Metlen said she knows the new racks fill a need.

“With the downturn in the economy and the price of gas, more people are riding bikes than ever,” she said.