SHP assists MAFOTT with bike trail improvements

For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD — “We are about getting others onto bikes,” Marshfield Clinic Health System Associate Radiation Safety Officer Shari Mask, RRPT, said of the Marshfield Clinic Health System Cycle Club.

Part of getting others onto bikes, she said, is keeping a vibrant and useful trail system in place. One need identified along the trails in Marshfield is a bike repair station and Mask said she made it her mission to help fund a project the Marshfield Area Friends of the Trails (MAFOTT) had underway to purchase this repair station.

Mask organized a donation drive among members of the Marshfield Clinic Health System Cycle Club and raised $850, but the cost of the repair station is closer to $2,000; so, Mask nominated MAFOTT for Security Health Plan (SHP)’s Employee-Driven Corporate Giving Campaign. Mask said she is not involved with MAFOTT herself, but said as president of the Marshfield Clinic Health System Cycle Club she has an overlapping interest with MAFOTT.

SHP will invest $1,000 in MAFOTT, whose mission is to promote a fully integrated, non-motorized trail system that supports improving health and providing recreation and commutability within Marshfield and the neighboring communities.

MAFOTT president Jack Farris said the organization focuses on trail improvement, maintenance and expansion, so the organization is excited to be able to add the repair station, which he calls a bike fixation station. The station includes various tools needed to make minor repairs and adjustments on a bike. Mask and Farris both said the tools on the repair stations will help fix little things that would normally send a rider home in the middle of their ride.

“With the fixation station they can stop, tighten this or secure that and continue on their ride,” Farris said.

Farris said with the Marshfield Parks & Recreation Committee approval, the fixation station will be installed at the Steve Miller Park near the public restrooms, and water fountain.

He said he sees MAFOTT’s role as “assisting” the city in promoting, maintaining, and adding extra features to the existing trails.

MAFOTT meets at the Everett Roehl Marshfield Public Library, on the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m.