Home Opinion Better deal for bikes

Better deal for bikes

Written by Baker City Herald Editorial Board October 07, 2009 08:16 am

We’re glad there’s a group called Baker Loves Bikes, because not everybody in Baker does.

Love bikes, that is.

In fact, every year the police department has to deal with dozens of bicycles abandoned in an alley or left on a sidewalk or just tossed in the Powder River.

For many years the police scheduled an auction when the number of unclaimed bikes became unmanageable.

For the past couple years the city has sold the bikes to a company, propertyroom.com, that auctions the bicycles online.

But Baker Loves Bikes has a better idea.

The City Council recently accepted the group’s offer to take care of unclaimed bikes. The Council also will allow Baker Loves Bikes volunteers to use part of the City Hall basement as a workshop to repair bikes. The group then will let people “adopt” the bikes.

Besides giving bikes to people who might not be able to afford them, the Baker Loves Bikes offer will spare police officers the hassle of having to impound the same bike twice.

All refurbished bikes will be registered with the city (as an ordinance requires) so when the police find a bike they can simply turn it over to Baker Loves Bikes rather than try to find the owner.