DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Dayton is one of 11 communities under consideration to be the new home of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

The Ohio Bicycle Federation and Wright-Dunbar Inc. submitted a proposal last month that cleared the first hurdle of the review process, said Bill Brunner, the hall's search committee chairman.

Local advocates want to save the old Gem City Ice Cream Building at 1005 W. 3rd Street — the Wright Brothers first bicycle store — which is in disrepair.

The hall was founded in 1987, is currently housed in Somerville, N.J., and contains mostly memorabilia donated by its more than 100 inductees. Brunner said the organization is looking for at least 15,000 square feet of climate-controlled and secure space in a community that can provide support, draw in visitors and is bicycle friendly.

Brunner said none of the applications met all the standards, and every community will receive a letter asking for clarifications or pointing out areas "where they need to step up their proposal."

The 11 communities include three cities from New Jersey, of which Somerville is one, as well as Madison, Wisc., and Davis, Calif.

The last two cities could pose significant competition. Davis, long known as a cycling mecca, is one of only three cities in country to have earned the League of American Bicyclists' top ranking for bicycle friendly communities. Madison has the second-highest ranking by the league. No Ohio city currently has a bicycle friendly designation.

But Brunner said the committee will also look at the physical location, the community's demographics and its cycling heritage.

"Dayton certainly has that heritage," he said.

Ohio Bicycle Federation Chairman Chuck Smith,who pushed for the hall of fame proposal as a way to help save the building, said the location is ideal because it's a block away from the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and only three blocks from the Great Miami Recreational Trail.

"And of course saving the site is a great thing in itself, because it's one of only two original Wright Brothers locations left in Dayton," Smith said.

But the project won't be cheap. Smith said the estimated cost of bringing the building up to the hall's standards is more than $1 million and will require a communitywide campaign.

Just stabilizing the building and demolishing the a section in the rear will cost $450,000, said Idotha Bootsie Neal, president of Wright-Dunbar Inc.

"We want to do that whether we are selected or not, because this is a great building," Neal said. "We're interested in it as a gateway to Wright-Dunbar, and we think it's an important part of our history."

Contact Ken McCall at (937) 225-2393 or kmccall@coxohio.com.