Coatesville Bike Race-“There’s an estimated between 3,000 to 5,000 people who are going to be here.”

City of Coatesville Redevelopment Authority meeting June 1 Matt Baker, July 4 Bike Race

RDA Chairperson, Joseph Disciullo, “We would like to add to our agenda tonight Matt would like to discuss the bike race and what the RDA is doing. And people on the RDA especially with the coming bike race.”

RDA member Matt Baker, “So the latest update is; that we had Corley Pearce and David Collins who are two RDA volunteers. They… went to see the City Council and we explained what we are trying to do, got their blessing. It’s a big task. We’ve met with all of the groups; the Rotary, the City and obviously the RDA and the promoter. And we’re trying to, we’ve got a lot of things set but we’ve got a lot of things, intangibles that are in the air. We’re really working hard.

There’s an estimated between 3,000 to 5,000 people who are going to be here.  So top down looking at it you’re going to have issues with parking; parking food, water depending on the weather that day. So we’re going to need to set up in terms of… the race itself, places, stations if you will where people can get something to eat or drink. Or what the kids want. Obviously the Ice Cream Festival but also other options as well because if there is a line to the back the concern is the people will come here and they’ll be standing in line and be waiting for refreshments and leave. So together we’re trying to work to come up with a common plan.

We met with Rob Barry on Friday with Gary Rawlings; we talked about it more in depth about the concerns about the parking itself and about having overblows.  Because you’ve got a number of places that people are going to come in from, from the 30 Bypass, you’re going to have people who have never been to Coatesville before; so they’re going to come down and if we don’t have an overflow there that can go into another area we’re going to have problems.

We’re going to have people coming down 1^st Avenue from West Chester; coming the “back way” and once the City locks down that particular area, the route, we’ve got to have a backup plan, where these people can go.

The next point is; how are the people going to get to the City and how are the people going to get home? So we need to talk about the possibility of reaching out to locals, like Krapf to see if there is any interest and if they can’t. So whether or not we can reach out to the school districts. And you know, we have a lot of people who work with the school districts so it is their community and maybe we are able to use some of the school busses.

We need between right around 10 minutes or under for back and forth to get people. Because with kids and if it’s hot they’re not going to stay here long if they have to wait longer, they’re out of here.

The other part is for the fireworks. Because this year will be the first year it’s actually on the 4^th of July. So you would have people who would normally go somewhere else, they might actually stay in town and that’s going to increase the amount. We might not have a lot of people who leave at the end of the day. They might actually stay just to watch the fireworks. So how are you going to handle that?

So as you can imagine there is a lot of things going on. And obviously another part is the cooperative effort for advertising.

We have to get it out to the communities. And that doesn’t mean just like, bridge to bridge. But actually through either social media, through say, Facebook. Corley Pearce has set up a BlogSpot, a website for “To Celebrate Coatesville”.

There is a “Celebrate Coatesville” on Facebook. But more importantly the people who don’t read the Daily Local who don’t want Facebook but maybe travel from Lancaster to this area; we’re working on to see if we can get advertising on electronic billboards on Rt. 30 and also reach out to television and radio outside the City, say Lancaster, eastward over to, say Bucks County and New Jersey to get the word out."

Mr. Disciullo, “Thank you Matt.”

SEE:

Coatesville bicycle race fast approaching

Published: Monday, May 16, 2011

Some Coatesville Victorian Ice Cream Festival Photos: