MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE A/GFTC TAC January 16, 2013
Attendees Agency
Members and Participants
Brian Abare Village of South Glens Falls DPW
Stu Baker Town of Queensbury
Ed Bartholomew City of Glens Falls
Frank Bonafide NYSDOT
Mike Breault Washington County DPW
Paul Cummings Chazen Companies
Ron Conover Town of Bolton
Dennis Dickinson Town of Lake George
Ed Doughney Warren County DPW
Preston Jenkins Town of Moreau
Wayne LaMothe Warren County Planning
James Lindsay Town of Kingsbury
Scott Sopczyk GGFT
Steve Sweeney NYS Canal Corp.
Scott Tracy Washington County DPW
Michael Valentine Saratoga County Planning
Staff
Aaron Frankenfeld A/GFTC
Kate Mance A/GFTC
Monika Bulman A/GFTC
Minutes of the Meeting
1. Welcome & Introductions – Aaron called the meeting to order at 1:35.
2. Visitor Issues – Paul Cummings from Chazen Companies presented the plan that calls for
restoration and revitalization of the Route 9 Lake George Gateway Corridor. The initial
planning document was funded by A/GFTC and the Town wants to get a project listed on
the TIP. The total cost for related improvements (in 2015 $) is over $6 million.
Recently the project was awarded $550,000 from the NYS Environmental Facility
Corporation. This would fund a significant portion of sidewalk work. The Town is
looking at other funding sources. Aaron pointed out that we have about $6 million
worth of total non-preservation capital for the entire region over a four year program
period. Funding is so limited that we did not conduct a program solicitation for new
projects. We are trying to accommodate existing projects. Frank Bonafide stated that
the sponsor of the project needs to be clearly identified, reiterated NYSDOT’s
Preservation First strategy, and requested that if the project were to be included in the
TIP that it should be an illustrative project and include a notation that no funding beyond
that obtained from EFC had been identified. Paul Cummings felt if there was a budgetary
change in the future, we need to not miss an opportunity of getting this project on the
TIP. Ed Bartholomew and Wayne LaMothe both supported the notion that this project
was warranted from a regional perspective and noted its standing as a project that had
planning support. Aaron suggested that we could give it a project listing but assign it
beyond the active years of the TIP.
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A motion was made that we add this project to the post-TIP period as long as
it does not impact existing projects.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Michael Valentine MOTION CARRIED
There was a discussion regarding whether a solicitation should go out for illustrative
projects. Dennis Dickinson reiterated that the Town of Lake George is committed to this
project.
3. Administrative Items
A. Approval of 12/19 Minutes A motion was made to approve the minutes.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Michael Valentine MOTION CARRIED
B. Draft Operation Plan – Aaron At the last meeting this was briefly discussed.
Organizationally we lack strong guiding documentation. An Operations Plan would
help to formalize procedures and clarify our relationship with our Host Agency.
Whether we go forward with the Plan depends upon committee input. Does the group
wish to continue with consensus voting for the MPO or do we wish to make a change
to this procedure? There is nothing in Federal statute that says MPOs have to be
consensus. After a lengthy discussion it was decided we would continue with
consensus voting. Given that that is unchanged from existing A/GFTC procedure, the
Operations Plan will be put on hold unless necessitated by other events.
4. UPWP
A. Completed/Ongoing Activities – Aaron
The Accident Analysis for Washington County is nearly done. We received some data
from the Town of Moreau.
Safety Analysis for Crandall and Orville- there was a public hearing at the City of
Glens Falls to consider installing stop signs as a result of the technical analysis we
did at that intersection. Those have since been installed.
Crossing Guard Analysis- GFPD has taken the initiative of moving one of the crossing
guards in advance of any final report we had done. The move was based upon public
feedback and initial data collection results.
The public hearing has been set for the Town of Warrensburg prior to
implementation of the recommended changes to the subdivision and street
standards.
B. 2013-14 Unified Planning Work Program (handout)
1) Summary – Aaron, we need to approve a draft UPWP for public comment.
Aaron reviewed the handout and also pointed out that it was available online with all
of the financial tables. The reduction in carryover from FHWA is a result from a
discrepancy that always exists between staff accounting versus what FHWA has
officially released as savings. Aaron listed the new projects that were included in the
upcoming program.
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2) Approval for Public Comment – A motion was made to approve the draft
UPWP and make it available to the public for a 30 day comment period.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Ed Doughney MOTION CARRIED
5. Transit
A. GGFT Update: Scott Sopczyk – Transit had a record high ridership (343,000).
GGFT is working on an update to its capital program. Still concerned about the
impact of the Rte 4 project on Exit 20 traffic this summer. Trolleys may have to
use I-87 to bypass congestion near the Outlets. An RFP is out for roof
replacement for GGFT offices.
B. 5316/5317 Solicitation, Aaron – Discussed this at last meeting and elected to
allow NYSDOT to conduct the solicitation on our behalf. The solicitation is out
with a deadline in the Contract Reporter, but there is no information on the State
website and local parties have not been informed. There is a February 15th
deadline which does not allow much time for completion of the application.
6. TIP
A. Amendments and Modifications: Aaron – The Putnam Rail Crossing Amendment
and the Rte 9 Safety Project Amendment have both been processed.
B. Make the Connection Program – Aaron – the TAC had consented not to conduct a
subcommittee evaluation of the two projects we had received and approved them
pending DOT review. Frank Bonafide said that we could go ahead and notify the
sponsors of their successful applications.
C. 2014-19 Program Outline, Aaron – Region 1 has gone through the exercise of
identifying what is required to satisfy the preservation target associated with the
upcoming capital program. (Handout) Frank has separated out the State set-
aside needs from the program, identified an amount that is potentially available
for local preservation type projects, and identified an amount that is potentially
available for local non-preservation type projects. Aaron stated that the absolute
numbers aren’t necessarily fixed, but the order of magnitude between programs
is likely close. The Department is not seeking any non-preservation project
candidates. Due to local system eligibility requirements, the Region has made
efforts to shift as much of its program to the National Highway Performance
Program where applicable to free up STP funds for local use.
Frank – We have gone though our program and we’ve pretty much decided what
we need to do to meet the goals that we have been given. The Available
Planning Target for Preservation guide, covering a four year period, on the
handout was explained in detail. After subtracting for State system preservation
needs, the balance for local system preservation projects totals $23.289 million.
Frank also explained the funding for Available Planning Target for Beyond
Preservation.
Aaron noted that he had added the Unresolved Projects to the handout, including
CR113 over the Batten Kill, Middleton Bridge over the Schroon, CR 10 over the
Poultney and Dix Avenue rehab. All except for Dix Avenue were likely to be non-
preservation projects and thus difficult to accommodate within the new program.
Ed Doughney raised the objection from Warren County regarding the
preservation mandate, as Warren County already does preservation work at its
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own expense. He stated that while preservation-first may be an effective strategy
for dealing with State infrastructure, it was not in the best interest of Warren
County to shift so much funding away from substantial capital projects. There
was a discussion on what Warren County spends on bridge preservation. Frank
noted that there will be opportunities to transfer local preservation work to the
federal program and thus free up some local capital for other purposes. Aaron
acknowledged that there will be funds available for municipalities that choose to
advance preservation candidates but noted the unfortunate heavy-handed nature
of the programming instruction; Frank countered that this was the Department’s
attempt to preserve as much infrastructure as possible given the limited capital
resources.
Aaron asked Frank if was any committee action required given the emergence of
some internal NYSDOT programming deadlines that had little relation to the
A/GFTC timetable. Frank said that he would like a program that represents the
TIP/STIP into their database by the end of January. CDTC has a 60 day public
comment period for their TIP, and it is necessary to review the entire R1 program
as a whole. Frank was clear that this is the program being proposed that meets
the guidelines and balances the budgets. Aaron pointed out that the preservation
requirements don’t kick into our TIP until the second year. We have a federal
fiscal year of time to get some of our existing capital commitments in line,
executed and delivered.
6. Other Items
Handout – State Fiscal Year 2013 Listing Projects, Consultants, etc
Frank emphasized the importance of adhering to project delivery schedules.
7. Next meeting and adjourn
The next TAC will be March 20 and the Policy Committee will meet February 20th.
A motion to adjourn the meeting at 3:15 was made.