OTA Leadership
Mike Maben - President
Born in Oneonta, Mike grew up exploring the trails at College Camp and Homer Folks. Mike is an environmental engineer by profession and in his spare time is the head coach of the NICA Otsego Composite high school mountain bike team. Mike has never been lost on the local trail system and had been a ride leader for most Oneonta Epic 40 mtb events.
Paul Bauer- Board Member
Paul is one of the most enthusiastic cyclists in town. He is also keen to do his share to help maintain and improve the trails. He is an economics professor at SUNY Oneonta and is both an avid road and mountain biker.
Rhea Nowak- Board Member
Rhea is an avid outdoor adventurer enjoying mountain biking, hiking and back country skiing. She is an exhibiting artist and a professor of art at SUNY Oneonta. Her experience on many committees has been helpful in getting OTA up and running.
Nancy Scanlon - Board Member
Nancy is not only a founding board member of OTA, she was involved with the very early trail scene in town. She is a mountain biker, runner, skier and someone who really loves the trails and the greater Oneonta community. Her experience with many local boards and charities makes her valuable to our organization and mission statement.
Todd Bitterman- Board Member & Secretary
Todd credits his good fortune of discovering just how vast and impressive our local trails are to the friendly and seasoned mountain bikers on the Sunday morning community group rides, and to local trail-building pioneer Al Sosa who mentored him. He shares the same core ideal and motivation to be a part of OTA as all of these board members: to constantly enlist more people to love our trails on a daily basis, and to create alliances with local governments, businesses and other organizations to value and preserve the trails for future generations.
Sam Baskin- Board Member
Sam grew up riding and maintaining the trails in Oneonta, NY. After attending college in Durango, CO, he has an example of how bigger trail organizations can handle trail maintenance and preservation for future generations. Both an avid mountain and road biker, Sam hopes to achieve similar results in his hometown.
Tom Martin- Board Member
Jon Brown- Board Member
Bill Plymell- Board Member
Bill joined the OTA in 2023 and enjoys mountain biking and doing trail maintenance.
Mark Kuhlmann- Board Member
Mark Kuhlmann has been mountain biking in and around Oneonta since before there were real mountain bike trails here. He also hikes and snowshoes the local trails and is an avid sailer and paddler.
How We Got Started
Alex Bitterman - Founder
Alex was a sophomore at Oneonta High School when got the inspiration for OTA after a very memorable run that happened to get into some sweet single track in Wilber Park that happened to have been built by his good friends Max and Emile. He realized their hard work had left a lasting legacy for the town. When a family friend visiting from Wyoming showed him the Teton trails website, he had the epiphany to create OTA.