By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
It took some time but the city of Hoisington hopes it was worth the wait. In January 2021 the city received the 15 bicycles for its Cardinal Cruisers bike sharing program. On Monday, the program officially went public.
"It's such a neat opportunity and it wouldn't have been possible without a bunch of generous donors," said Hoisington City Manager Jonathan Mitchell. "Our hospital took the lead with this, with the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant they received. They gave a significant amount money toward this project, and so did the Golden Belt Community Foundation. It's really come together. It's been a cool deal. It's taken a little longer than we'd hoped, but we're excited to finally be going live with it."
All the bicycles were purchased from Golden Belt Bicycle in Great Bend. Darren Stanley with South 281 Custom Upholstery painted the bikes a matching red color, and First Class Auto Design handled the decals.
The 15 bikes will be available for free checkout at one of four locations throughout Hoisington: the city billing office, the Hoisington Public Library, the Hoisington Rec Commission at the Activity Center, and Rodeway Inn & Suites. Using a shared document at those locations, the city will keep an updated list of which bikes have been checked in or out and from which location. It's a lower-tech but much cheaper version of some app-driven share programs.
"We looked at those and there are some cool bikes that are available, and some other communities in the state have them, but they were like $1,500-$2,000 a year and you would just lease the bikes," Mitchell said. "Here, we were able to raise the funds to get the bikes all donated. We bought them locally, they were painted locally, First Class Auto Design did all the decals for them. We were able to do all that locally for less than what it could cost to lease a bike through another program."
While most of the bikes are of the standard single-speed variety, the city did mix it up with a side-by-side trike and two tandem bicycles.
Parties interested in checking out a bike must be at least 18 years of age, have a photo ID, and sign a waiver. Minors that are at least 12 years of age may check out a bike with a guardian who can sign a waiver on their behalf and provide a photo ID. Helmets are recommended but not required.
The bikes will be available for checkout during the riding months but will go back into storage from Nov. 15 until March 15, 2023.
"What we heard from other bike-share programs around the country was they highly recommended pulling them inside for the winter months to extend the life of the bike," said Mitchell. "That will give us a chance to get them all tuned up before they go out again in the spring."
The Cardinal Cruiser program is just another new feature for Hoisington, which also opened its new swimming pool in July.
"We're just grateful for all of our partners helping to make this possible," Mitchell said. "I feel like we're rolling out a lot of new things for our community and that wouldn't be possible without the support of a lot of folks."