Pedal Power: Greenfield Rotary expands city’s bike share program once again
GREENFIELD, Ind. (DAILY REPORTER) — Greenfield’s bike share program continues to grow thanks to yet another grant from the Rotary Foundation and the Rotary Club of Greenfield.
The club has pledged to donate $7,000 to add three more bikes to the bike share program this fall, bringing the total number of bikes to 15.
The Greenfield Parks Department first launched the bike share program in May 2023, thanks to a Leadership Hancock County team, which not only designed the program through a bike share vendor but raised the $20,000 needed to make it a reality.
The bikes are available to check out through a mobile app with a credit card and are free as long as they are returned.
“At each bike share location we have about twice as many open racks as we do bikes so that people can check them out at one location and can return them at another,” said Greenfield Parks director Ellen Kuker.
The initial installment included four bikes at Depot Street Park at the center of town, four at Brandywine Park on the south end of town, and two by the Riley Park splash pad.
Four months after the initial launch, the Rotary Club of Greenfield provided another grant of nearly $3,000, which paid for the addition of two new bikes at Beckenholdt Park on the north end of town.
Kuker said the Rotary’s latest grant will enable the department to add one bike each to Beckenholdt, Brandywine and Depot parks.
“The bike share program has been insanely popular. I think it has exceeded everyone’s expectations,” she said. “Because it’s so popular there was a need for more bikes, and with this grant that will get us probably to the place we need to be for the size of our community.”
Kuker said there’s a cost associated with each bike to cover maintenance and upkeep, which is performed by the Family Bike Chain shop in downtown Greenfield.
A staff member is tasked with checking on the bikes a couple times each week when the bikes are in use – from roughly April through October – and taking care of any maintenance needs before the bikes get serviced over the winter.
Kuker said there’s currently a bike maintenance station set up at Depot Park where bike riders can air up their tires or make small repairs, like tightening a chain or seat.
“We wanted to get a maintenance station at each of the bike share locations, and some of the funds from the Rotary Club’s latest grant will allow us to do that, so we’ll be adding maintenance stations at the splash pad (in Riley Park) and at Brandywine and Beckenholdt,” she said.
Greenfield Rotary’s president, Hart Summeier, who was part of the Leadership Hancock County team which created the bike share program, is happy to see how well received it’s been over the past 16 months since it first launched.
“The Rotary likes to be a part of investing in a program that serves the community, and the city has done a great job of running with it. The parks department has been awesome in providing the manpower to make things happen,” he said.
Summeier especially likes that the bike stations allow riders to go from park to park, enabling them to pick up or leave the bikes at various stations.
He pointed out that the two local Rotary grants that have supported the bike share program have been a result of the Greenfield club’s partnership with the Rotary Club Foundation, which provides 50/50 matching grants for various projects.
The latest $7,000 grant included $3,500 from the foundation and the other half from the local club.
Kuker expressed her thanks to the Rotary Club of Greenfield for their ongoing support of the community.
“The Rotary of Greenfield has always been generous to the parks and continues to want to make a difference in our community,” she said. “We continue to be appreciative that Rotary trusts the Greenfield Parks to be good stewards of their generosity.”