Metroparks Toledo took action Wednesday to finalize a long-standing deal it has had with the city of Toledo to assume ownership of Toledo Botanical Garden while also setting the wheels in motion for the city to assume sole ownership of the bike-sharing program that the park district helped establish in the downtown area last fall.
Metroparks has effectively been running the 66-acre Toledo Botanical Garden since 2006, when the city stopped funding it and allowed it to become one of the park district’s affiliate facilities.
An ownership transfer, proposed by Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, was approved in 2018 by Toledo City Council but not acted upon by Metroparks Toledo’s board of park commissioners until its monthly meeting at Side Cut Metropark on Wednesday. The deal is subject to approval by Lucas County Probate Court Judge Jack Puffenberger before it becomes final.
Fritz Byers, Metroparks board vice president, said the botanical garden is “a precious resource.”
“We feel strongly about its presence and our role in our community,” Mr. Byers said.
The bike-share program began in earnest a year ago when Metroparks Toledo entered into an agreement with the city on June 12, 2018, to negotiate services and equipment from Gotcha Bike LLC.
The equipment includes 100 bikes, 150 racks, 18 signs, and other items that Metroparks agreed to declare as surplus and donate to the city after being reimbursed for expenses. The park district said it got its final reimbursement recently from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Emily Ziegler, the park district’s chief of planning and capital projects, said the bike-share program was saddled by its untimely release in late fall, weeks before cold weather set in, and by this spring’s unusually heavy and persistent rain.
But information generated through May by Gotcha, which is based in Charleston, S.C., shows users have been more apt to rent bikes at Middlegrounds Metropark than other locations so far.
Next up in terms of popular hubs of origin are Hensville, followed by the Owens Corning world headquarters and Promenade Park. The National Museum of the Great Lakes, Locke Branch Library, and Civic Center Mall are so far the least desirable places to begin a rental.
Early ridership stats also included 828 member sign-ups through May, with 1,125 total trips between about 1.3 and 2.5 miles. Most trips have been between 18 and 52 minutes.
Gotcha has bike rentals in more than 30 major U.S. cities, with machines equipped with GPS to track movement.
Long-term usage data is to help local transportation officials learn more about how and where people bicycle in urban settings.
First Published June 27, 2019, 12:14 a.m.
