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Janet Robert 11150 20th Street Court N Lake Elmo, Minnesota 55042 (612) 770-6281 May 13, 1992 Lake Elmo City Council Lake Elmo City Hall 3800 Laverne Avenue N Lake Elmo, Minnesota 55042 Re: Sunfish Park Dear Mayor and City Council Members: I am writing to ask you to support the Park Commission's recommendation to ban biking in Sunfish Park. I enjoy Sunfish Park year round. I ski weekly in the winter and hike there the rest of the year as often as once a week. All year round it is a peaceful and beautiful park, unspoilt by development where the wildlife and wildflowers are abundant. Unfortunately, in the past year I have noticed an increase in use of the park by bikers. At first it didn't bother me, because I was happy to share the park with others. But there has been an noticeable increase in the number of bikers so that it is rare to not see them in the park. I frequently encounter them on the trail especially at the noon hour when several bikes are regularly on the trail at once. The problems I have seen are: First, and most important, the bikers are causing a significant increase in trail erosion. They do not show respect for the trail conditions, biking when it is very wet and leaving ruts, and biking when it is very dry turning parts of the trail to dust. They also tend to bike the same routes over and over the same day and from day to day. The ruts left from their early spring biking are still on the trail and make, walking more difficult. Second, some of the bikers yell at each other from trail to trail (they cannot ride too close together), thereby disturbing the tranquility of the park and scaring off the wildlife. Third, some of the bikers go very fast so that I have been concerned about encountering them. Sunfish Park was not designed as the Twin Cities mecca for trail bike enthusiats who enjoy breakneck speeds and leave eroded trails in their wake. As the size of our