Council talks Dripping Springs Mountain Biking Team

DRIPPING SPRINGS — At its July 16 meeting, Dripping Springs City Council discussed the future of a local mountain biking club's use of Dripping Springs Ranch Park. This comes on the heels of damage found at the park following a Trail Maintenance Day that took place earlier this year on April 23. The gathering was hosted by the Dripping Springs Mountain Biking Team (DSMBT), however, the city and DSRP staff were unaware of the scheduled event. The next day, on April 24, Parks & Community Services Director Andrew Binz noticed displaced dirt, boulders and trees in the ravine located behind the Ranch House, according to agenda documents from a previous meeting on May 7. Upon further investigation by DSRP Manager Emily Nelson and DSRP Assistant Manager Lily Sellers, it was determined that the mountain biking team created an unsanctioned trail in the ravine, resulting in a large amount of tree trimming along with entire trees being cut down, agenda documents continued. There was a dramatic drop off that would be very dangerous for mountain bikers, equestrians and hikers. Even more extensive trail destruction was found, such as improperly cut limbs and enhancements of unsanctioned trails. They also discovered that the trail work had continued down the environmentally sensitive ravine, which resulted in a lot of trees being cut down that provided structure for the ravine’s rock edge. Nelson contacted Lindsey Thomas, one of the DSMBT coaches, immediately to make sure a cease and desist on all trail work occurred. Thomas stated that the team had been working in that area, but she had asked them three times to stop, according to agenda documents. The mountain biking team came out to remedy the ravine unsanctioned trail to the best of its ability, but some of the damage could not be fixed. City staff and the DSMBT Board met on April 30 to discuss how the damage happened to the trail system without adult intervention. According to Nelson, the team showed interest in correcting the improper trail maintenance that had taken place. Prior to the club’s use agreement and settlement agreement being brought up again before council last week, the DSRP Board of Directors had the Dripping Springs Mountain Biking Agreement on the agenda at it's June 12 meeting. As presented at the July 16 meeting, the following is the communication timeline between Nelson and Thomas. • 5/28: Email from Nelson requesting a meeting. • 5/29: Email from Thomas saying she would speak with the DSMBT Board. • 6/17: Email from Thomas requesting a meeting to be the week of Aug. 5 because the board is traveling and has summer plans. • 6/19: Email from Thomas pushing to the week of Aug. 12. • 6/20: Email from Nelson to Thomas discussing the delicate timing and the possibility of delaying the season due to pushing out so far, as well as requesting the insurance policy. Nelson suggested that the entire board didn’t need to be in attendance. • 6/21: Email from Thomas saying, 'That is fine," and that they are more comfortable waiting for the full board. • 6/21: Email from Nelson still requesting insurance. • 6/22: Email from Thomas stating they don’t name the city of Dripping Springs on their policy. • 6/24: Email from Nelson requesting a copy of their insurance anyway. “I don’t have an update to the agreement yet because we have not met with [the DSMBT], so we do not have agreement in place yet or a new agreement — none of those items have taken place,” Nelson explained to the council. “Any agreement that we are able to compose once we’ve met with them for the first initial meeting would have to go to the [Dripping Springs] Ranch Park Board and then city council. They are expecting their season, I believe, to start in October. So, the timing would be very tight.” Mayor Bill Foulds said that he believes that the council as a whole is in support of the mountain biking team, but the situation needs to be resolved. “I think we need to forward a letter to the [Dripping Springs ISD] superintendent to make sure she is aware of the situation because if it’s not resolved in time,” Foulds said, “I feel like this council — and again, I am not trying to speak for everybody — is going to say, ‘Let’s put a hold on it until we do resolve it.’ We are not taking a vote, but I think that is a general consensus.” Council member Travis Crow said the team members should be taking responsibility for their actions in order to continue using the park. “I think we have bent over backwards trying to help the mountain biking club by saying this many hours and community service we need in the summer to help the cost of what they did. And for them to not respond or push this back, they were up here in force with 30 or 40 of them when they realized they messed up,” Crow said. “But not to take that kind of responsibility to help us out when we needed it during the summer … It's just very frustrating to me. I have a real problem with them getting on that park until they make up financially, [community service] hours or whatever they need to do.” Council member Taline Manassian asked if the team typically uses the park during the months of August and September. Nelson responded that they do have practices and recruiting sessions prior to the season officially starting in October. Also, Manassian questioned whether council is deciding that there will be no official use of the park until there is an agreement made. “It’s my understanding that we are still under an agreement with them. It’s getting the settlement agreement done. So, there’s two agreements,” Binz responded. “There’s a use of the park and there’s a settlement.” Foulds clarified that the Dripping Springs Mountain Biking Team is currently in breach of the agreement — and city staff agreed. City Attorney Laura Mueller said that the city has the option to terminate the agreement, as there is no expiration date. She also explained that the city could tell the team that as long as it’s in breach of the agreement, the bikers could not use the park at all or the trail for mountain biking until they do the agreement and hours. “It’s so important that they say that their season is going to start in October, but if they are not going to meet with us until August, they are not going to have very long to do those hours,” Mueller said. Manassian questioned if the team members, who are students, would be able to work off the hours during the school year, even after the season has started. She also asked if there would be enough time to negotiate an agreement during the period of mid-August to Oct. 1. “They’ve had time. They’ve had months. And for their board not to meet until August when we try to bend over backwards, I take that as an insult. We are all busy in the summer [and] we still come up here … and they don’t have time to meet and do something? I find that personally insulting,” Crow responded. “If they didn’t meet their timeframe, that is their problem. They’ve had three months to do this and it wasn’t important to them to do it.” Foulds said that right now, there is nothing that states that the mountain biking team has accepted responsibility and will remedy the problem. While there was extensive discussion, there was no action taken on the item. The council brought the item into executive session, however, did not make any vote following that period when the meeting was opened again to the public. To listen to the full discussion, visit bit.ly/4d37YSx . The News-Dispatch reached out to the Dripping Springs Mountain Biking Team for a comment, but no response was given as of press time.