A Community Donation

MONTICELLO, Ark. – The Monticello Police Department agreed to donate bicycles to the University of Arkansas at Monticello Aug. 30.

Police Chief Tommy Free showed campus representatives approximately 30 bicycles stored in the bottom of the old Post Office. While some of the bicycles only have frames, others look nearly ready to ride.

“We want to do everything we can to work with UAM,” Free said.

Gary Marshall, Buck DeFee and Ron Sitton drove down to the old Post Office Friday afternoon to decide which bikes would be used for the Wandering Weevil Wheels program. Upon arriving, Mars and Sitton noticed some of the bikes seen previously were now gone. Free said a few were being used to prepare a four-man bicycle patrol in Monticello.

Though less than 10,000 strong (not counting the university community), Monticello acts as the cultural hub to the timberlands of Southeast Arkansas. Pronounced Mon-tih-SELL-oh to you folks outside Arkansas, the community perseveres through sheer will while victimized by industry layoffs including the Coca-Cola bottling plant. A proud people, this region tends to vote conservatively though economically it would make more sense to vote progressively. So it’s nice to see progressive ideas accepted.

The idea of a bicycle program is not original by any means. Similar programs work in Oregon, Minnesota and South Dakota, as well as all over the world. Sitton first encountered the idea in the ski town of Telluride, Colo., which recently received a $2 million grant to build a federally-funded bike path.

Mars and Alice tried starting a bicycle program previously, but the administration at that time was not interested in bringing the bikes on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The idea recycled at their Prom Party, then followed up on the return to campus this fall. Tom Richard, an associate professor of art, said the Art Club can also help.

“We’ve got the paint,” he said.

The current administration, led by Chancellor Jack Lassiter, seemed excited about the idea. Vice Chancellor Clay Brown is currently looking for a place to work on the bicycles. Members of the campus community are pitching in to help. OfficerJeff Peebles has already worked up possible rules and regulations for biking on campus.

“Buck” DeFee, an assistant professor of spatial information systems in the School of Forest Resources, regularly rides his bicycle to work. He contacted Sitton immediately following the article publishing in the Voice, and offered to help get the donated bikes into working order. During Friday’s pick-up, he inventoried the bicycles and determined which ones could be fixed and which ones would be cost-prohibitive.

Mars talked with students in the Creative Society and in some of his speech classes about the idea. They’ve been brainstorming about possibilities, including coming up with a idea to also paint the bike racks around campus to make them more noticeable.

Lori Andrews recently scoured the campus to locate the current racks and will publish their locations in next week’s Voice. Another student journalist, Marcus Roberts, offered to help tear down and reassemble the bikes since he previously assembled some for his job.

As you can see, it’s truly turning into a campus-wide effort. 🙂 So to recap, a little initiative seems to be working with the “Wandering Weevil Wheels” program. Though originally considering approximately 30 bikes, the number of serviceable bikes was whittled to six for the inaugural program.

It remains to be seen how the campus community will react once the bikes are ready to roll. They still need to strip them down, prime them and paint them. Alice is putting together a palette for students to paint the bikes in Weevil colors. With any luck, they may be ready to roll in time for this year’s homecoming. Stay tuned.