Every town should have a pump track, right?  Imagine if every community had somewhere kids could ride bikes, learn to jump, hang out with friends and generally entertain themselves without needing a parent to drive them somewhere. And a place to get off the screens.

Of course, getting a pump track built in your town isn’t easy. Just ask Jerrett Bellamy.

Bellamy lives in Ayr, Ont., a small town just outside Cambridge. Over the past decade he’s managed to convince the town to build a skatepark and a pump track. It took five years to get the skatepark done. The pump track took even longer. Bellamy helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and attended countless yawn-inducing meetings.

“I basically just ran with everything and sent 14,000 emails trying to get money out of people,”

Now, Ayr has a new Velosolutions pump track, a project budgeted at approximately $568,000. And Bellamy has some advice for anyone thinking about doing the same thing.

Step one: Convince your municipality there’s a need

Bellamy started with a skatepark in in 2015. It opened in 2020 after gathering $730,000. That included extensive fundraising.

Even before it opened, Bellamy was thinking about a pump track. In late 2019, he approached North Dumfries Township with the idea. The first obstacle was the town’s leisure services master plan. They were developing a ten-year recreation spending strategy. That process took two years. Eventually, the plan included a pump track. That was a major first step. But just because a project is in a plan, doesn’t mean it will get built. Not even close.

Building the track in Kamloops. Colin Field photo.
Step two: Show up with a business plan

Bellamy says approaching the council with more than an idea is important.

“Basically, you just get your ducks in a row, go to the council,” he says. “They’ll want a business plan. They’ll want a proposal.”

The town will want to know what you’re proposing, where you think it could go, how much it will cost and if there’s need for it. Things that can help are letters of support, community surveys and local cycling organizations that can show the demand is there.

Bellamy has kept his project documents in a Google Drive folder and shared them with several people trying to get similar facilities built.

He also helped guide a project in North Bay.

“It’s basically dollars and cents and demand,” he says.

Step three: Find half a million dollars

Here’s where things get challenging. Ayr’s pump track was budgeted at approximately $568,000. The town didn’t have much to contrbiute. Bellamy guesses around 13 per cent. That meant his committee had to come up with $500,000.

Thankfully Bellamy was determined.

“We’re starting this and I’m seeing it through. I’m not stopping,” he recalls.

Fundraising took approximately three years.

The biggest contributions included $200,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, $100,000 from the Holman Foundation and $75,000 from local business McNeil and Dodd Pharmacy.

They also sold engraved paving stones for $250 each that sponsors could put their names on. Nearly 50 of those were sold. And beyond that, Bellamy chased smaller donations, local businesses and whatever grants he could find. LIke he said, 14,000 emails. Eventaully they achieved their goal.

Step four: Prepare for municipal bureaucracy

Bellamy didn’t establish a separate non-profit organization.

Instead, his committee signed a memorandum of understanding with the township.

Money raised was transferred to the municipality, which managed the funds and could issue tax receipts.

That mad things much simpler. But it doesn’t mean things were easy. Bellamy  recalls years of frustration, slow decisions, ghosted emails and disagreements about the pump track’s location.

But he kept at it. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience is key and persistence is key.

Step five: Location matters

One lesson Bellamy learned from the skatepark was the importance of location. Ayr’s skatepark ended up near the community centre on the north side of town. He says it’s a great facility but difficult for some kids to get to. He didn’t want to repeat that mistake.

The new pump track sits in a centrally located community park beside an elementary school. It’s surrounded by residential neighbourhoods, making it easy for kids to ride there.

And the location appears to be working. When we spoke, construction was essentially complete, although landscaping and finishing touches remained. Despite the facility not being officially open, Bellamy said 25 to 30 kids were already showing up almost every evening.

A pretty convincing demonstration of demand.

Step six: Get the design right

Once funding and location were sorted out, the township issued a request for proposals. Velosolutions and Transition submitted bids. Following an evaluation process, Velosolutions won the contract.

Bellamy loves the finished track, particularly its flow, rollers and opportunities for creative lines. But he has some regrets. During community consultation, riders requested a dedicated jump line and a large berm extension.

Velosolutions quoted those additions at an extra $42,000. But with construction already in the planning phase, the significant changes would require another tendering process. That would delay the project and simply didn’t happen. Bellamy still thinks the track is excellent, but believes it could have been better. The lesson? Establish the community’s priorities before finalizing the design and budget.

Step seven: Try not to do everything yourself

Bellamy had a small fundraising committee, but handled most of the work himself. His mother-in-law helped manage the finances, while a handful of volunteers assisted with fundraising. But the emails, meetings, grant applications and endless follow ups largely fell on him. After more than a decade working on the skatepark and pump track, he’s had enough.

“My wife cut me off,” he laughs. “This is my last project no more.”

It would be hard to blame him. The amount of organization, persistence and optimism a project like this takes is staggering. But generally it takes someone leading the charge to make these dreams happen. For Ayr, that person was Bellamy.

The payoff makes it worthwhile

There’s a fitting ending to Bellamy’s story. The new facility is being named the Bellamy Pump Track, sponsored by McNeil and Dodd Pharmacy. When the pharmacy contributed $75,000, the got the naming rights. And instead of putting their name on the park, they chose to honour Bellamy’s efforts.

He’s a little embarassed by it, but after years of working to get the place built, it’s well-deserved recognition.

So, how do you get a pump track built?

Bellamy’s experience offers a pretty clear roadmap. And generally it takes a bull-headed individual to make these things happen. And that person needs patience and determination.

Because getting a pump track built won’t happen overnight. It will take hours of meetings, tons of paperwork and an ambitious crew to raise the funds. But eventually, you might find yourself standing beside a beautiful new pump track watching a bunch of kids ride something that didn’t exist a few months earlier. And there’s something pretty satisfying and noble about that.