Keith Andres Park is a 25 acre property in the heart of Carpentersville, Illinois within an urban residential setting. The Park had been abandoned and not maintained for the last two decades. This has caused the park to be used as an unauthorized dump and the scene of gang related activity. In addition, the oak trees are slowly being engulfed by invasive tree species. Following the successful depl
oyment of a nearby trail system at Raceway Woods the Mayor of Carpentersville approached CAMBr to see if we would be interested in building trails or a bike park at Andres Park. We have since signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the city to move forward with the development of the property. The comprehensive design will be broken into phases and built as funds are raised. The park will consist of passive playgrounds for kids, skills areas, pump tracks, downhill trail and a terrain park that will be progressive in nature. There will also be a walking/biking trail built to accommodate hikers to access all areas of the park. The park will be a welcome feature to the residents of Carpentersville who do not have many recreational opportunities and also fits in with the Village Vision of establishing a bike friendly environment with Andres Park as the cornerstone. Another goal will be to help drive out the unwanted elements that have been mis-using the park grounds. There are more and more examples of parks that are being cleaned up nationwide by adding multi-use and mountain bike trails to them. This tends to lower the crime rate in the surrounding area, which the city and local police force believe will happen here as well. CAMBr and the City of Carpentersville want to help revive from the dead, a park with beautiful terrain and make it a destination for thousands of cyclists in Chicagoland. As Chicagoland is home to 10 million people there are tremendous marketing opportunities for the parks sponsors. Lastly, we want to focus on giving a large number of underserved youth who live near the park a safe and very memorable place to gather. When this park is completed, it will do all these things and much more. CAMBr has spent nearly $10,000 on the design to date and is currently raising additional funds to complete the construction documents and begin building sections of the park. CAMBr has contracted Alpine Bike Parks to aid us in the conceptual design phase because of their significant experience and impressive design of the Valmont Bike Park. Our goal for this grant would be to utilize it to construct the first phase of the park, the Pump Track on site. This will be used to help draw additional interest to Andres Park and support the continued funding of the project. One important thing to note: this pump track is SHOVEL READY. The sooner it is built and being ridden the sooner CAMBr can gain more interest and raise more money for the additional phases of construction
