By Adam Studzinski
NORMAL – The Town of Normal will soon have a bike sharing program, if the idea gets the go ahead from the Town council Tuesday night.
City Manager Mark Peterson explained many larger communities, such as Chicago, have these programs, but most of them are too expensive for towns like Normal.
“However, a company called Zagster, Inc. was developed and we were made aware of them about a year ago. Their focus is primarily on smaller communities like ours – university towns, especially,” said Peterson. “They have a different model. It’s less expensive.”
The town would pay $85,000 a year for the program, which Zagster would operate. Normal would get 47 bikes placed at nine locations in the community.
“Mostly in Normal, but a few in Bloomington because we know those can be destinations for people in our community,” said Peterson. “One on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan and one in Downtown Bloomington.”
Locations would also be on Illinois State’s campus, Uptown Normal, and Advocate BroMenn Medical Center.
“Zagster has projects that revenue to Normal would be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 a year,” Peterson said.
Peterson added Advocate BroMenn has also offered to kick in $10,000 per year as a sponsor.
If approved, the program could be operational in 30 days.
Also Tuesday night, Normal will consider a resolution to enter a $67,023 construction agreement with Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network (CIRBN) to run high speed internet cables to the northeast portion of town. Peterson said Destihl already wants to hook onto the network and the town believes this could help create more economic activity in that area.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at adam.studzinski@cumulus.com.
