Youth Bicycle Program Shuttered in Arlington
Repair Effort Had Few Participants

By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006

An Arlington program that helped teenagers learn how to repair and refurbish bicycles closed Friday after the county's Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources decided it could no longer justify the cost.

The five-year-old program, Community Spokes, gave Arlington high school and middle school students the chance to learn skills from an experienced bike enthusiast. The students met in a small, concrete building at Barcroft Park, where they repaired and rehabilitated bikes donated by the public and by a bicycle shop.

The refurbished bikes were then donated to other community programs or sold at a low cost to the public. The teenagers also repaired privately owned bikes for a fraction of the cost of a regular shop. Over the years, Bruce Hamilton, the program's director, became a friend and mentor to the teenagers, helping them with homework and serving as a role model, supporters said. About 40 students a year have passed through the program, and they have serviced more than 500 bikes, they said.

But this year, as the $17,000 community development block grant that paid part of the program's $100,000 annual cost was slated to end, the department decided that the program did not have enough participants to justify its continuation.

"It's always difficult to close a program," said Laura Lazour, chief of the department's recreation division. But she said the number of regular participants had dwindled to three.

She said the department was hoping to "re-engineer" the program, possibly by forming a partnership with the Arlington public schools or with a private bike-rental company planning to open in the Ballston area. A schools spokeswoman said she had not yet heard of any proposals.

Hamilton said he would have liked to have made a comment but had been directed to pass interview requests on to his superiors.

Supporters of the program questioned the low number Lazour cited, saying that many more teenagers used it on a part-time basis and that the program offered benefits that were hard to quantify.

"They're not only learning to fix bikes, they're learning to deal with the public. They're learning a work ethic," said Roberta Jeanquart, whose son Tommy Palmer, 15, a student at Wakefield High School, has participated in the program for the past three years. "I think you can't place a value on the mentoring relationship."

Lazour noted that the department runs several other after-school programs for teenagers. But Jeanquart said the other programs do not teach skills. She and other supporters also questioned why the program could not stay open during the re-engineering phase. They said they worry that it will lose its appeal, and possibly its director, if it stays closed for too long.

"Frankly, I don't know what a re-engineering process is or why you would close it if you are trying to continue it," said Keith Oberg, an Arlington resident who is helping to set up a similar program in Rockville.