Just hanging around at MCSA

It’s a rare day at MCSA when something amazing doesn’t happen.

For me, however, today will be more memorable than most days.  Ray Verbraak of Verbraak Welding in Bettendorf arrived to install the four custom-made bike racks he built for MCSA. The wracks were purchased with a generous donation from the Melon City Bike Club and other private donations. But as is sometimes the case, once Verbraak started to hang them up on the Fourth Street side of the MCSA building, we discovered the fourth one wouldn’t fit where we had planned to put all of them. After a couple of quick huddles and conversations with Pam Collins, the director at Musser Public Library, we agreed to put the fourth rack there.

A number of residents in the MCSA Men’s Dorms use bikes in nice weather as their primary mode of transportation. Because of that, we anticipate they will use most of the nine hooks now installed on the MCSA building. But all four of the racks are meant to be used by anyone who bikes downtown and needs a place to park. Combined, the four racks have spaces for 12 bikes. The bikes can be securely locked on to each rack. For what it’s worth, I would expect Greg Harper of Harper’s Cycling & Fitness to sometimes ride to church on Sunday and park his bike on one of these racks. And I won’t be surprised if the rack installed at the library is used more than the other three combined.

For this afternoon, I parked one of my bikes at the library so people could see how the new racks are used. Getting them today is exciting news, if you ask me.

For several years, several of my biking friends and I have been making an annual trip each fall on the Great River Trail from Rock Island, Ill., to Savanna. On these trips, we usually stop at It’s On The River in Port Byron, Ill., which is where we first saw and used Verbraak’s bike racks. It’s exciting to finally have something like them in Muscatine. And just in time for biking season.