Bike School

 By Vyto Starinskas Originally Published: November 22, 2021 4:31 p.m.

(Editor's Note: This story appeared in the "Verde Independent" newspaper on Wednesday, 11/24/2021.  It is Copyright Verde News and located behind a paywall.  Occasionally, we feel a Verde News article needs and deserves much wider local circulation that the paywall permits.  Therefore, we occasionally take the liberty of reformatting an article so that it can be shared with the proper credit and this disclaimer. We realize this may cause some heartburn at Verde News but we are proceeding under the mantra, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.")

CORNVILLE – The late Sen. John McCain will be remembered for spending summers by the Oak Creek with his family in Page Springs.

Now the community is remembering the late statesman by naming a new mountain bike park at the Oak Creek School after him.

The Trek Trails at the John S. McCain III Memorial Bike Skills Park is set to be open next Earth Day, 2022, explained Principal Naya Persaud of the Oak Creek School in Cornville.

“The McCain family did give us permission to name it that,” Persaud said. Trek donated a significant amount of money to get the park up and running.

Persaud said they have just put the fence in, obtaining final permits and hopes to have the park open on April 22, 2022.

They will be breaking ground later this year assuming they get all the county permits, to Verde Valley Wheel Fun Treasurer Kevin Adams said.

This is the second bike park built by the nonprofit group, Verde Valley Wheel Fun. The Mountain View Preparatory Bike Skills Park, possibly the first such park at any Arizona public school, was completed last year.

Verde Valley Wheel Fun raised the funds to build both parks and the projects did not cost taxpayers any money. Both parks will be open to the community as well as student riders.

Trek was the biggest funder of the Oak Creek School project with a $60,000 donation, Adams said. There were numerous corporate contributors and private contributors such as Rural Arizona Healthcare and the Arizona Community Foundation of Yavapai County and Sedona.

The Cornville trails will be built by Flagline Trails LLC in Flagstaff, which worked for six to eight weeks at the MVP Park, according to Adams. The company builds bike trails all over the western U.S.

He said the skills park at MVP cost about $110,000. The Oak Creek skills park will cost about $145,000, Adams said on Thursday, Nov. 11.

The Oak Creek bike park will be fenced, have two zones, downhill and cross-country, he said. It will be open to the community as well as students just like MVP.

Adams attended the Oak Creek School’s Earn a Bike Program flag raising on Thursday, during which bikes were presented to students by the Wheel Fun organization.

They awarded six bikes on Thursday to students who needed bikes and did well in attendance, citizenship and conduct, during a flag-raising ceremony.

The group raises the money for the bikes and purchases the discounted Trek Bikes through Verde Valley Bicycles in Cottonwood.

The nonprofit group has presented bikes at other schools this year – Dr. Daniel Bright, Mingus High School, Mountain View Prep - and has five more schools still to go.

Verde Valley Wheel Fun, an IRS-designated, nonprofit organization, began going into schools in the Verde Valley to teach kids bike skills in 2018 and 2019, Adams said.

The group runs after-school bike clubs and provides everything the school needs – bikes, helmets and hydration packs

This fall they will be in 13 schools, including the six clubs at the different Cottonwood schools, he added. They are also in Camp Verde and Sedona.

Email Vyto Starinskas at vstarinskas@verdenews.com or call 928-634-2241, ext. 6031.

Source: https://www.verdenews.com/news/2021/nov/22/cornville-school-name-bike-park-after-late-sen-joh/