CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

No Bicycle Committee Meeting This Month; Date Uncertain For Council to Extend Group’s Tenure

Today is the first Monday of the month — typically the day that the city’s Bicycle Safety Committee would hold its regular meeting in the Central Library.

But the group’s meetings are suspended indefinitely because the group’s tenure expired on Jan. 10; its last meeting was held on Jan. 7 — read our story here.

City staff is “working through the renewal process,” said Tara Finnigan, a city spokeswoman, in an email. There is no date scheduled when the item will be on a City Council agenda, but if the Council votes to renew the committee’s tenure, they would then seek applications and later vote on new members before the committee would begin meeting again. At least one member of the former committee said he would not seek a new term, and committee member Tony Petros has been elected to City Council.

In a Jan. 8 vote, the Council named Petros as the chairman of the bicycle committee, replacing Nancy Gardner, who first suggested the creation of a Bicycle Safety Task Force in 2009. After the task force completed its term, the city created a Bicycle Safety Committee. Petros served on the Bicycle Safety Committee and the Bicycle Safety Task Force.

At a January planning meeting, the City Council agreed that bicycle safety should be a priority in 2013 and city staff should begin developing a Bicycle Master Plan; read our story here.