In early May, Mike Thompson was pleased to report the receipt of a $28,000 grant from the Chester and Muriel Dawes Foundation. Chester and Muriel Dawes of Winchester, Massachusetts and Isle of Springs loved spending summers in their cottage here. It was their granddaughter who suggested to Mike that he apply for a grant from the family foundation to support the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club’s bike loaner program, which he did in December 2015. In late April, Mike received word that his grant proposal had been accepted.

The Rotary Club has loaned up to 150 free bicycles each season to summer workers who have no other form of transportation. The bike donation program was started in 2006 by Rotarian Seth Hedgcock, and each year, the demand for bikes has grown. In fact, this summer marks the 10thanniversary of the highly successful bike loaner program. Summer workers, interns, and students flock to the Boothbay region from all over the world. Many of them have no means of transportation and are often surprised by how hard it is to get to work, to town, and back to their dwellings. Seth noticed how many of these summer workers were trudging along our busy roads and decided to launch a free bike loaner program, which has been a resounding success.

Over the last decade, Rotary club members and community volunteers have donated hundreds of hours in labor and many hundreds of dollars for parts each year to cobble together an adequate fleet of donated bikes to meet the demand. Local businesses and individuals have given direct donations to keep the program going. But as of early 2015, there were only 30 serviceable bikes left. Many bikes had rusted out, or had parts that were difficult to find and replace. And, some bikes had simply disappeared at the end of each summer.

In 2015, Rotarian Doug Roberts found a bicycle that was better suited to our seaside climate and easier to maintain, from a start-up New York firm, Priority Bicycles. Priority Bicycles makes all aluminum bikes that are easy to peddle and easy to maintain. In addition to being aluminum and therefore, rust-free, they have no chain, but use a rubber belt instead. They have only three gears. This leads to very low maintenance. They’re somewhat more expensive than traditional bikes, at $400 each, but save a lot on upkeep. In 2015, the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club ran a “Spokes for Folks” crowd-sourcing fundraiser, which enabled the purchase of 25 Priority bikes, with a follow on order of 12 additional bikes. As expected, the new bikes proved trouble-free and maintenance free. The club also instituted a new deposit policy. Now, people who want to use the Rotary-provided free Priority bikes pay a $100 deposit and those willing to use the other recycled bikes pay a $20 deposit at the beginning of the summer and receive their deposit back at the end of the season when the bike is returned in good condition. This has resulted in all of the new bikes being returned in reasonable shape.

This grant will enable the Rotary Club to expand its fleet of Priority bikes to 112. That’s still shy of the over 150 bikes that are needed each summer, but it’s a huge step forward. The Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club looks forward to the time when it will have a fleet comprised solely of Priority bikes, for ease of maintenance and lower parts costs.