Where should bike racks be located in downtown Decorah?

Members of the City of Decorah's Street Committee met for nearly an hour Monday evening with people interested in increasing bike parking in downtown Decorah.

A proposal from the Downtown Decorah Betterment Association and the Self Supporting Municipal Improvement Board calls for converting two or three downtown parking spots into bicycle parking spots.  DDBA board member David Lester told the committee that more and more customers are shopping downtown using bicycles and that currently many bikes are either being leaned up against buildings or tied to trees.  Both approaches cause problems, said Lester.

While Street Committee Chair Gary Rustad agreed "We do need to have more bike parking spaces (downtown)," he and other committee members debated the best locations for bike parking.  City council member Rachel Vagts proposed seeing where the need for bike parking is by moving temporary bike racks to several different locationds.  City council member Randy Schissel suggested using locations just off Water Street, such as two parking spaces on Winnebago Street and the city parking lot next to the Montessori School.

Downtown business owner Stan Fullerton said people will park their bikes near where they're going.  Business owners in the 400 block of West Water Street said that should be a factor to be considered when locating bike parking in that area of downtown.

Monday night's meeting adjourned without any decisions, but the Street Committee members and members of the public agree in principle that additional bicycle parking spots would be a good idea in downtown Decorah.