It was a sunny Friday afternoon when Sally Sears, a Cache Valley coffee shop owner, stood to address the nearly forty people gathered at the corner of Church Street and Federal Avenue in downtown Logan. Sears stood beside the new bike hub, beneath a sign that read, “Randy Wirth Bike Shelter,” memorializing Wirth as a conservationist and roast master. The crowd sipped Caffe Ibis coffee and ate cookies to celebrate the product of months of collaboration among Sears, Logan City Public Works and Baer Welding.
Sears, who was married to Wirth, shared the same message the two of them had shared as part of the cycling community in Cache Valley: be safe and be seen.
“It’s extremely important to be seen by cars and other motor vehicles. You know, you kind of lose sight of the fact you’re looking at cars, and sometimes you don’t see people and you don’t see bikes,” Sears said. “So we’re trying very hard to do the things that we need to do to be safe and be seen.”
Three years ago, Wirth was killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle in Millville.
Named in his honor, the new bike hub includes an air pump and a bicycle repair station. Designed and built by Baer Welding of Providence, the covered structure can accommodate ten bicycles, meant to support those who bicycle in Cache Valley year-round. Sears said that she and her late husband cycled in Cache Valley at least 10 months out of the year. She said it was one of their favorite things to do together, and while they’d cycled throughout the intermountain west, Cache Valley was their favorite place.
“The fact that Logan City and our community is so willing to honor Randy and his memory with this bike shelter, and have it be where everybody in the community can use it, is so important,” Sears said.
