Pretty place to park bikes coming to Geneva

You should be able to lock your bicycle to a piece of art, by design, next spring in Geneva at the first bike rack selected and paid for by the city’s Cultural Arts Commission.

The city council, meeting as a committee of the whole, agreed to the idea Monday night.

“This is pretty cool,” Mayor Kevin Burns said of the glass-steel-and-wood design submitted by Tulane University Professor Weston Lambert. It will hold six bicycles.

“We were real pleased when we saw the submissions that came through,” said arts commission chairman Tim Vetang.

Alderman Ronald Singer asked if it was vandalism-proof. Vetang described it as more vandalism-resistant.

A city engineer was on the committee that picked the work and gave advice as to sturdiness and potential problems, Vetang said.

The artist’s design calls for the glass to be laminated, reinforced and recessed 1 inch below the steel.

Singer also asked if the colors of the glass — shown as red, yellow and blue in sketches — could be changed, but Vetang said the committee that picked the work preferred to leave that up to the artist.

Vetang said the arts commission has already planned to buy another, smaller bicycle rack, for $3,000, in a different design.

The commission gets most of its money from fundraisers, such as the “Dancing With the Geneva Stars” contest.

Fox Valley Orthopedics donated $3,000 for the rack, in honor of its 40th anniversary.

The rack will be installed in a parkway in front of the Geneva History Center, at 113 S. Third St.

It will replace a nondescript, movable rack. History center officials don’t know who put the rack there, according to Dick Untch, the city’s community development director.