Adirondack / Glens Falls Transportation Council
Washington County Municipal Center
383 Broadway, Room A-231 Fort Edward, New York 12828
phone: (518) 746-2199 fax: (518) 746-2441 www.a
gftc.org info@agftc.org
Policy Committee Meeting
Minutes of Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Attendance:
Members
:
Ralph Bentley, Supervisor, Town of Horicon
Bill Lamy, Warren County DPW (rep. F. Monroe)
Frank McCoy, Town of Lake George
Daniel Stec, Supervisor, Town of Queensbury
Steven Sweeney, NYS Canal Corp. (rep. Bill Rinaldi)
Mike Valentine, Saratoga County (rep. Willard Peck)
William Watkins, Wa shington County
Others
:
Stu Baker, Town of Queensbury
Ed Bartholomew, City of Glens Falls
Michael Fiorillo, Village of Hudson Falls
Willy Grimmke, Washington County DPW
Robert Hansen, NYSDOT Region 1
Wayne LaMothe, Warren County Planning
Mary Anne Mariotti, NYSDOT-Region 1
Patti Miller, Warren County STOP – DWI
Scott Sopczyk, GGFT
John Wheatley, EDC of Warren County
A/GFTC Staff:
Monika Bulman, Admini strative Assistant
Aaron Frankenfeld, Transportation Planning Director
I. Welcome & Introductions
1. Introductory remarks- Chairman Dan St ec called the meeting to order at
1:38 PM
II. Visitors Issues – None
III. Administration
1. Approval of March 4, 2009 minutes
Motion was made to approve the March 4, 2009 minutes
MOVED BY : Ralph Bentley SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
2. Approval of Officers 2010-2012, Aa ron-Every two years the chairmanship
for the PC and TAC rotates between Warren and Washington County. The
Policy Committee chair goes to Warre n County for two years and the
Technical Advisory Committee chair goes to Washington County. Policy
Committee: Dan Stec, Chai rman; Mike Suprenant, Vice Chairman; and Mary
Ivey, Secretary. Technical Advisory Committee: Willy Grimmke, Chairman;
Bill Lamy, Vice Chairman.
Motion was made to approve the Officers for 2010-2012
MOVED BY : Frank McCoy SECONDED BY: Ralph Bentley MOTION CARRIED
Policy Committee Minutes
Page 2 January 27, 2010
3. Approval of Joint Cooperative Pla nning Agreement (handout), Aaron-On
November 18
th the TAC was provided with this agreement and asked to
review it and discuss it with the Policy Committee. This is a required
document that outlines the cooperative planning agreement among the MPO,
the State Department of Transportati on and the Transit Operator when
developing the major financial documents that guide the planning process.
Motion was made to allo w Aaron Frankenfeld to sign the agreement and
forward it to DOT and Transit for their respective signatures.
MOVED BY : Ralph Bentley SECONDED BY: Frank McCoy MOTION CARRIED
4. New contact information, Aaron-A/GFTC will be moving to a new space in
Glens Falls by February 10. The addr ess will be 11 South Street, Suite 203.
We will have new phone and fax numbers. The Washington County e-mail
extension will change to agftc.org. When all the contact information is in
place, it will be forwarde d to committee members.
IV. Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)
1. GGFT Report (handout) Scott Sopczyk – Capital projects included the
procurement and delivery of new buse s; completed the Transportation
Development Plan; overall system riders hip was down 6.2% last year but can
be attributed to a service change during Americade week. Mr. Hansen
reported that CDTA was down 10% but not due to one event. Mr. Sopczyk’s
transit budget took into account anticipated cuts. Mr. Hansen still feels there
needs to be synergy between Glens Falls Transit and CDTA for interregional
transportation.
2. Consultant Projects
A. Transit Development Plan (Adoption)
Motion was made to adopt the Transit Development Plan
MOVED BY : Frank McCoy SECONDED BY: Ralph Bentley MOTION CARRIED
B. Exit 20 Corridor Management Plan (Adoption), Mr. Stec told the PC
that on Monday night (1/25) the Town of Queensbury passed a
resolution adopting the Plan. Aaron said that by adopting the Plan the
concepts in the document are give n some programming weight. Some
concepts that have been speculated about for years have been put to
rest. The public meetin gs were well attended.
Motion was made to adopt the Exit 20 Corridor Management Plan
MOVED BY : Frank McCoy SECONDED BY: Ralph Bentley MOTION CARRIED
C. School Circulation Studies, Aaron-The Abraham Wing (GFCSD) circulation
study has been completed. Big Cro ss (GFSD) study should be completed
shortly. The purpose of the studies was to assist the schools in coming up
with ideas to improve the school distri cts’ conditions for elementary school
students that walk or bike to school. Safety and congestion concerns were
reviewed. The crime and safety i ssue is difficult to address from a
transportation element. Other issues resulting from the studies:
Policy Committee Minutes
Page 3 January 27, 2010
Non-standard sign placement, st aff parking, crosswalks, safety
education, crossing guard programs.
D. GIS Services, Aaron-Attempti ng to work out some technical
problems with the ridership tool used to collect data for laptop entry.
Have a very nice project visualization tool that shows where all the TIP
projects are, financial info, pictures, and programming information.
The contract will continue to the next state fiscal year to allow work on
a pavement management inventory tool.
3. Staff Activities A. Long Range Plan (Adoption), Aaron-The public comment period
closed at the first of the year. The plan has been under development
for four years and is the core planning document of the transportation
planning process. The Plan suppor ts our programming activities (TIP)
and our UPWP. Once we have MPO approval, it will be sent to
Environmental Sciences Bureau of DOT who will forward it to FHWA
and FTA. FHWA and FTA need to ap prove the air quality conformity
statement which also went out for public comment.
Motion was made to approve the Long Range Plan for adoption
MOVED BY : Mike Valentine SECONDED BY: Bob Hansen MOTION CARRIED
Aaron extended his thanks to everyone who participated in preparing and
reviewing the document.
B. Proposed Work Program (UPWP) 2010-2011, (handout),Aaron
went over some of the accomplishments in 2009 as listed on the
handoutand reviewed how our funding works. We will be getting
$312,949 from FHWA and $43,722 from a Grant from FTA. Both of
those amounts are the same we re ceived last year. Our unspent
money will increase the pot by $235, 000. The money is distributed to
four categories: Program Suppo rt and Administration, General
Development and Comprehensive Pla nning, Long Range Transportation
Planning and Transportation Improvement Program. Since there is no
large engineering study planned for 2010, the focus will go to assist
member municipalities in providing local engineering traffic consulting
services. This is how the school studies were funded. The Lake
Luzerne concept of intersection realignment and a streetscape design
project for Mr. McCoy, in the To wn of Lake George, are current
candidates for engineerin g services. Aaron would also like to get out
some safety roadside assessments contracts. The above fall under
Task 2. Under Task 3 an upgrade to the travel demand model is a
priority. An RFP is out for this. Also, hope to update the regional
bicycle and pedestrian plan. Before we can go forward with the Fort
Edward/Kingsbury Canal Corridor Indust rial Area Re-use Plan, we need
some direction from Washington Count y. Task 4 is the Transportation
Improvement Program. Project soli citation is out. Should have
projects returned to our offi ce by the end of the week.
Motion was made to approve the draft UPWP for a 30 day public comment
period
MOVED BY : Mike Valentine SECONDED BY: Frank McCoy MOTION CARRIED
Policy Committee Minutes
Page 4 January 27, 2010
V. Transportation Improvement Program(TIP)
1. 2010-2015 Transportation Improvement Program, Aaron
A. Project Solicitation-due by the end of the week
B. Allocations, the sub-allocations provided to A/GFTC are smaller
than what we are accustomed to. Adjustments will have to be
made to the program as a resu lt. We are getting some new
highway project candidates. We will have more projects than the
program can support.
Mr. Hansen pointed out that the numbers that are out now are
conjecture and we won’t really kn ow where we stand until the next
highway act comes through.
C. Program Reconciliation (discussed above)
D. Second stimulus round- Mr. Hansen, The House bill is pretty well
formulated. The Senate appears to be the sticking point. What
we can expect is probably around another $100mil for the Region,
a very short time to put a project out on the street, project has to
be shovel ready, ROWs need to be done. On Stimulus 1, FHWA is
aggressively monitoring construction specs.
2. 2007-12 TIP
A. Amendment request – I- 87/Pottersville, Aaron-Half of the project
was programmed (replacing only one of the two structures) but
now it is better to have both structures replaced at the same time.
We will adjust the Interstate Maintenance funds to comply with
DOT’s request. This amendment request was approved by the TAC
but because of the $ scale, a pub lic comment period was required.
It has been out for public comment and closed on January 23,
2010 with no comment.
Motion was made to approve amendm ent request for I-87/Pottersville
MOVED BY : Ralph Bentley SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
Aaron- We missed a TIP update cycle because of the challenges some of the other
MPOs had in putting together a TIP. Some of the larger MPOs are struggling with the
TIP timeframe again. If one MPO in the Stat e fails to deliver a TIP, then there is no
STIP. DOT has asked us to approve language in the TIP and state that the 4
th year
of our TIP program can be rolled up into the STIP.
Motion was made to change the language in the TIP from 3
rd to 4th year
MOVED BY : Ralph Bentley SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
B. Other Amendments-(handout), Aaron-one needs an administrative
change and deals with the railroad bridges in Whitehall.
The next amendment is a rail project initiative and is not a formal
amendment. This is a service upgrade.
Motion was made to approve the amendment requests from NYSDOT
MOVED BY : Ralph Bentley SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
Policy Committee Minutes
Page 5 January 27, 2010
C. Recent developments or action items for ongoing federal aid
projects
a) New York State Department of Transportation, Bob Hansen-
Batchellerville Bridge-next week CD TC will entertain an amendment
to proceed with construction.NYSDOT has replied to the Village of
Hudson Falls regarding the Rout e 4 project.Congressman Murphy
requested DOT to come up with suggestions for special line items.
Mr. Hansen came up with Main Street in South Glens Falls,
Roundabout at Burgoyne Avenue, and the Roundabout at Fort Ann.
b) Warren County DPW, Bill Lamy-Construction has started on the
Corinth Road/Exit 18 project; Milton Street has been awarded; the
second stimulus-funded bridge in Stony Creek will go to
construction this year; Alter Brook Bridge in the Town of Chester
should begin construction in 2010 ; Beach Road project should be
going to bid later in this year and construction should start in
2011.
c) Washington County DPW, Willy Grimmke-one stimulus project is
underway but is shut down for the winter, a portion of the drainage
work is complete and the bridge work will start in the spring;
County Rte 12 supplemental has been authorized.
d) Saratoga County/Town of Moreau, Mike Valentine-nothing to
present. Aaron met with Mr. Jenk ins when the project solicitation
went out. Mr. Jenkins pointed out a safety project that the
department had been planning for Rte 9. This project will be
reprogrammed.
e) City of Glens Falls, Ed Bartholomew-The City is waiting for the
official letter from Senator Schumer/DOT for the $970K grant for
So. Street.
f) Town of Queensbury, Mr. Stec- The Town is excited about Main
Street getting started.
VI. Proposed meeting schedule, Aaron-will probably have another PC meeting
in May to approve the TIP. TAC will probably meet in February.
VII. Other Items, Frank McCoy asked if he had to bring up his streetscape
project now. Aaron noted that A/GFTC should be able to provide some
assistance.Wayne LaMothe questioned whether the dollar amount of the
engineering service projects should be increased from $10K to 20K since we
do not have a big consulting project on the table this year. Aaron said we can
do this but we may not be able to do as many of them.
Motion was made to increase the small engineering projects to 20K
MOVED BY : Frank McCoy SECONDED BY: Ralph Bentley MOTION CARRIED
VIII. Motion made to adjo urn the meeting at 2:58.