TRUMAN — On Friday, May 4, there will be a Bikeable Community Workshop in the city of Truman. The workshop is made possible because of a SHIP (Statewide Health Improvement Partnership) grant Truman had received. There will be presentations by the Minnesota Department or Health, Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.

The event will be begin at 9 a.m. in the Community Building and end at 3 p.m.

The different departments will give presentations on safe designs, education and the health benefits of having a community with good access for bicyclists, explained Pat Jones, who is a member of Truman Active Living.

After the presentations, those wanting to will go on a bike ride around town in order to assess good areas for biking and other areas that need improvement in order to make it safer for bicyclists, vehicles and pedestrians.

“Bikeable Community Workshops have been powerful tools for building teams and focusing work to move communities quickly on the path to being more livable and bikeable places to live, work and visit,” said Nick Mason, Deputy Director of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.

Following the bike ride around town, there will be a lunch provided at the Community Building.

“The afternoon will be spent coming up with ideas that might be workable in the community as far as who might be responsible for it, what the benefits would be and some obstacles that we may have in trying to get some things done,” explained Jones, adding, “Our ultimate goal is, we would love to have a bike trail going out to Perch Lake Park. And I know one of the goals in the counties is to try to connect the communities.”

Jones spoke about the parks and campgrounds in the area and how many people bring their bikes with them. She said that having trails to bike on is a good way to connect the communities and bring people to the area.

“We applied for the workshop and then had to do our grant application so we applied for the money to sponsor the workshop and I think they’re only doing maybe eight of these across the state,” Jones said.

Jones said that as far as representation goes, individuals from the following groups plan to attend the workshop: city engineer, city police, city health department, city council member, county commissioner, Heartland Senior Living, Lion Club, school personnel, former chamber member, Truman Tribune and other individuals who just like biking.

Jones said that the workshop is open to anyone who is interested in learning more or wanting to see something like this in Truman. She just asks that anyone interested call her at 507-236-4433 so she knows how many people to expect.