Waite Park and St. Joseph’s grant-funded Bike Share program that launched last August is back and ready for summer 2021.

The bike-share program originally started in 2019 as a pilot program that was funded by Stearns County Public Health from the Statewide Health Improvement Program. It then officially launched with the bikes being available to the public in August of 2020.

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The bikes are located at both River’s Edge Park in Waite Park and at the Lake Wobegon trailhead in St. Joseph. There is an electronic locking system that you unlock by renting the bike through the Movatic mobile app. The bikes are really inexpensive to rent at just $1 per hour, and there is no time limit. All bikes also are adjustable and have a basket for storing personal items while you bike. What's great about the app system is that you can check to see if a bike is available before you head to the location to rent one.

The Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) program "supports community-driven solutions to expand opportunities for active living, healthy eating and commercial tobacco-free living." Their program was starting 2008 by lawmakers in Minnesota who realized it would be more effective to control health care costs if chronic diseases were stopped before they start. Since SHIP started they have created 5,250 partner sites and awarded millions of dollars in grants to 41 counties and 10 tribal governments.

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