By Judith Roberts
The Hub is now open.
Experience Ruston, the Lincoln Parish Police Jury and Lincoln Parish Park celebrated the Grand Opening of the Lincoln Parish Park Mountain Bike Hub Thursday.
Amanda Carrier, president and CEO of Experience Ruston, said this was an inspiring day to watch this idea come to fruition.
“This hub and this trail project is the perfect example of how community partnership can spur destination development and show how destination development positively impacts this area,” Carrier said. “Throughout the years, our office has had the pleasure of working very closely with the Lincoln Parish Police Jury on several projects that are focused on destination development and community development. Their partnership has been instrumental as we aim to fulfill our mission, which is to promote Ruston and Lincoln Parish through tourism promotion and community connection.”
Park Director James Ramsaur, said he had envisioned downhill flow trails in Lincoln Parish Park about four years ago, but when he reached out to find out how much the cost would be, it added to about half a million dollars.
“And I thought, ‘Well, we don’t even have $50,000,” he said.
Then they received a grant to fund the trails, but there still wasn’t funding for the mountain bike hub. However, that’s when Carrier and her team came in.
“We shared our vision of what we hoped to accomplish here and how important this piece was. And thankfully, they agreed and were willing to fund it,” Ramsaur said. “And so now we have, and I’m biased, obviously about the finest (mountain bike hub), in the country.”
He added that the hub, however, was just the icing on the cake.
“All of this is, this hub is icing on the cake. But if the cake is no good, this is just a novelty,” he said. “It’s one thing to think, wow, we’ve really got something special. But, you know, in the couple of months that we’ve had it open, people have come from four or five states away to come and ride it. And they have concurred that, we’ve got something as good as anybody in the country right here.”
Lincoln Parish Police Juror Dan Lord wanted to thank everyone for coming together to make this happen.
“Lincoln Parish is absolutely my favorite place to be,” he said. “If anybody’s been anywhere other than Lincoln Parish, they’ll be right back. This is a great facility.”
State Senator Mike Walsworth added this hub could not have happened without individuals and entities working together.
“I’m not sure you could just say one person was a catalyst,” Walsworth said. “Everybody had to come in and join in this. And as an official, that’s what we always would like to see. And I’m glad it happened here.”
