MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE A/GFTC TAC July 16, 2008
Attendees Agency Phone Fax
Members
Brian Brockway Town of Fort Edward 747-5501 746-1071
Michael Fiorillo Village of Fort Edward 747-5426 747-5597
Mark Galough Wash. County Planning 746-2290 746-2293
Willy Grimmke Wash. County DPW 746-2442 746-2441
Preston Jenkins Town of Moreau 792-1802 792-1062
Wayne LaMothe Warren County Planning 761-6410 761-6411
William Lamy Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Mayor Phinney Village of So. Glens Falls 793-1455 793-3063
Scott Sopczyk GGFT 792-1086 792-7952
Joe Sullivan City of Glens Falls, DPW 761-3834
Steven Sweeney NYS Canal Corp. 471-5033 471-5035
Mike Valentine Saratoga County Planning 884-4705 884-4780
Others
Frank Bonafide NYSDOT-Region 1 388-0440 388-0430
Chris DeBolt Wash. County Planning 746-2290 746-2293
Robert Cherry NYSDOT-Region 1 388-0228 388-0430
Sarah Gebbie-Measeck LC/LGRPB 668-5773 668-5774
Kevin Hajos Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Lisa Penistan Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Mayor Traver Village of Fort Edward 747-4023 747-2493
Staff
Aaron Frankenfeld A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Kristina Hong A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Monika Bulman A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Minutes of the Meeting
1. Welcome & Introductions –TAC Chair Bill Lamy called the meeting to order at
1:33 pm.
2. Visitor Issues – None
3. Administrative Items –
A. Approval of last meeting’s minutes
A motion was made to approve the February 8th meeting minutes with the minor
corrections Mr. Valentine requested.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Joe Sullivan MOTION CARRIED
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
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July 16th, 2008
Page 2
B. Personnel update
Kristina Hong announced that she will be leaving A/GFTC to attend law
school. A personnel search was conducted and effective August 4
th Sarah
Gebbie-Measeck, from the RPB, will be joining our staff.
Dave Rettig has left the NYSDOT Region 1 in for the Main Office of DOT. Bob
Hansen will be the acting Regional Planning and Program Manager.
Mark Galough will be leaving his position and Chris DeBolt, County Planner,
will be representing the Washington County Planning Department at A/GFTC
meetings.
Aaron requested a motion to endorse the hiring of Sarah Gebbie-Measeck.
MOVED BY: Willy Grimmke SECONDED BY: Mayor Phinney MOTION CARRIED
4. Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)
A. Transit
1. GGFT Update, Scott Sopczyk
There has been unprecedented interest in contacts regarding ridership
from local service, Warrensburg, North Creek, etc. Yesterday Aaron and
Mr. Sopczyk met with CDTA to look at ways to link certain operations.
Ridership for GGFT through May is up 7%. Since 2006 trolleys have seen
an increase of 27%. Despite ridership being up, fuel prices have
escalated. Transit systems around the entire country are faced with this
problem. GGFT took delivery of 4 new small buses and is in the process of
developing a specification to purchase 4 replacement large transit buses
for 2009. The larger buses are needed for service to Fort Edward, the
Mall, and upper Rte. 9. Mr. Valentine had questions regarding the evening
services. There is no evening service in the summer, but GGFT hopes to
start it again in September.
2. Transit Development Plan
The last adopted UPWP includes a task to prepare a Transit Development
Plan; the RFP is nearly complete. The Study will allow an outside
perspective to take a comprehensive look at the service routes,
frequencies and intervals.
Mr. Valentine asked how the AlterNet Rides program was working.
Aaron replied that membership to the car pooling service is growing.
Approximately 20 people are signed up. Glens Falls Hospital has
sponsored their own site. We will continue to push the AlterNet Rides
program. Mr. Sopczyk said that at CDTA, people have been inquiring
about service connections between Albany, Saratoga and Glens Falls.
3. 5310 / Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan, Aaron
This is the vehicle procurement program for transportation operations to
assist elderly and disabled clients. As part of the Plan, at the MPO level,
the recommendations we make will be given more consideration at the
State level than in the past. This MPO has 3 applications to review and a
subcommittee of the human services transportation working group has
TAC Minutes
July 16th, 2008
Page 3
been assembled to do so. They will meet on July 29
th.
4. FTA passenger mile survey, Aaron
Kristina is working to complete the data collection before her last day with
A/GFTC.
B. Consultant Activities
1. Aviation Road Corridor study, Aaron
Wilbur Smith is drafting the final document and it will be presented to the
public at a work session to be held at the Ramada Inn on July 31 at 6:30.
The recommendations from that work session will be brought before the
Study Advisory Committee for review before a final document is approved.
2. GIS Services, Aaron
The selection committee comprised of Washington County DPW, Warren
County Planning, Saratoga County Planning, Washington County RPS/GIS
took part in the reviewing the three presentations. Two of those
presentations were very strong. The committee recommended that the
contract be offered to Fountains Spatial, Inc. based in Schenectady.
Aaron requested a motion to approve the hiring of Fountains Spatial
MOVED BY: Willy Grimmke SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Grimmke pointed out that the selection process had nothing to do with
execution of the presentation; content was the issue.
3. Exit 20 Corridor Management Plan, Aaron
Out of 7 responses to our RFP, Creighton Manning Engineering was the
clear favorite once scores from various reviewing municipalities were
averaged. CME has already conducted the first introductory meeting with
the study advisory committee. The intent of this study is to come up with
a manageable, fiscally constrained short term solution that will take care
of the issues on the corridor and analyze bigger picture items that have
been floating around for a while (Exit 20 reconfiguration, 149 flyover and
the direct access to the Great Escape). CME has put together an
aggressive schedule. Hope to have this plan completed by December.
Service roads need to be reconsidered. Access management will play a
big role. Mr. LaMothe would like to be involved with this study. Mr.
LaMothe indicated that there were 27 curb cuts from Exit 20 to 149.
C. Staff Activities
1. Long Range Plan, Aaron
Draft chapters have been circulated for review. There are 3 draft chapters
left to complete: freight, bike/ped, finance. The environment chapter will
be revisited to incorporate energy independence
A brief discussion took place regarding travel trends and changes due to
increase in fuel prices. VMTs appear to be going down but not all data is
available.
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July 16th, 2008
Page 4
2. Local System Short Term Accident Reduction, Aaron
A project solicitation went out. A Road Safety Audit that we hosted
through a statewide contract with the MPO Association was performed at
the intersection of County Route 12 and Hatch Hill Road in Granville. Two
days were spent on how to conduct a safety audit and a team actually
went out to conduct a field visit and do a visual assessment. Washington
County has indicated that it will use the resulting RSA documentation as
support of an STAR-LH application. The regional solicitation that went out
offered 2 million dollars to the eight counties in Region 1. Mr. Bonafide
explained the intent of this program was to partner with the 8 counties
and find the best candidates and to look for a mechanism to determine
where there would be the most benefit based on data provided. Mr.
Bonafide encouraged everyone to go back to see if there are additional
safety candidates that have demonstrable (data-supported) accident
histories. A/GFTC will assist with this at municipal request.
5. TIP
A. Amendments, Aaron
1. NYS149 – use of toll credits
Mr. Bonafide- there is a 200 million dollar gap in State Dedicated Funds
and there is a need to find ways to move the program forward without the
money. One of the ways was to look at the State-funded projects and to
see if there were other opportunities to fund a project. NYSDOT looked at
toll roads and knew if the criteria the Feds set up was met, credits would
be the compensation. At some point the credits can be used as a match
for Federal Aid project. This results in funding changes from 80/20 split to
100% federal with the Toll Credits. A part of WAR 59 is still 100% SDF.
Local projects will not be affected by this. There will be a September 18
letting. After additional discussion,
A motion was made to approve the NYS149 amendment requeset.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Mike Valentine MOTION CARRIED
Note: Mr. Sweeney abstained from voting.
2. NYS 197 over the Hudson River bridge rehabilitation
Earlier in the year, DOT approached the committee to request a change in
scope for the project and an amendment to change the bridge
replacement to rehabilitation. A/GFTC requested that DOT re-engage the
public in reviewing options. Do we want to preserve a bridge that is
functionally obsolete for the kind of traffic it carries? NYSDOT feels that
spending 4-5 million makes it safe and useful for 20 years. Given funding
shortages and declining structural conditions, NYSDOT generally cannot
entertain functional obsolescence as a selection criterion. A new bridge
would be over 10 million. Mayor Traver questioned the possibility of
waiting five years. Mr. Bonafide pointed out that the money for a
replacement bridge may not be available in five years or even ten years.
A motion was made to forward this to the Policy Comm. for consideration.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Mark Galough MOTION CARRIED
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July 16th, 2008
Page 5
3. GGFT amendment, Scott Sopczyk
There are vehicles that were replaced several years ago, but because of
their condition they are not in service. Because of capacity, the fleet needs
to be increased and two new trolleys are required. Capital money will be
used in the upcoming grant application to FTA in late September.
A motion was made to approve the GGFT amendment
MOVED BY: Steven Sweeney SECONDED BY: Willy Grimmke MOTION CARRIED
B. Project Updates
1. Warren County, Lisa Penistan
Mr. Lamy introduced Kevin Hajos, who joined the Warren County DPW
staff on Monday.
Grist Mill Road
and Tannery, ROW acquisition and final design are in the
works; Middleton Bridge,
the will be a public meeting August 6 in
Warrensburg; Woolen Mill Bridge,
finalizing ROW acquisition; Alder Brook,
Beach Road, and Harrington Bridge all are in the design phase; Corinth
Road, the Town of Queensbury is in the process of acquiring ROW.
Mike Valentine asked about the status of the underground utilities. Mr.
Lamy told him that the underground utilities will be part of the project and
will be funded by either National Grid or the Town of Queensbury. Aaron
inquired about the Beach Road public outreach; a member of the LG Town
Planning Board had approached Aaron to indicate that he felt out of the
loop. Mr. Lamy said there had been several meetings and the department
would be happy to accept calls. Mr. Sopczyk requested a copy of the
scoping document as did Aaron. Mr. LaMothe reported that Mr. Tessier
came to the Planning Department with plans for the redevelopment of the
Gaslight Village property.
2. Washington County, Willy Grimmke
County Rte. 61 over the Battenkill,
have the state grant application;
hope to get the engineering going quickly since it was red flagged
again; County Rte. 42
awaiting approval of a change order; Clinton
and Division, there were some design revisions enhancements to
accommodate ongoing drainage issues. Mr. Brockway asked about Rte
42. Mr. Grimmke said weeds had been removed taking care of
visibility problems; once the grading is completed there shouldn’t be
an issue.
3. Town of Moreau, Preston Jenkins
Route 197 and Rte 9 Intersection,
no turn lane lights; this is a
problem; this was contracted out but nothing has been done.
Mr. Bonafide will find out what is happening with the situation. Mayor
Phinney added that next week the Village of So. Glens Falls will be
exercising the grant to resurface the Betar Byway.
4. NYSDOT, Frank Bonafide
149-Rte372
, are on track; Rte. 4, work is going on right now; Rte
4 phase 2, locally people are concerned about security and
scheduling.
TAC Minutes
July 16th, 2008
Page 6
Mr. Galough noted that Washington County
has 1 million dollars
coming in for the rehab for the Battenkill Railroad.
Mr. Lamy had a question regarding the correct procedure for bridge
and highway projects and TIP money based on planning figures
that are outdated. As the bidding phase comes up, Mr. Lamy knows
things will be higher than noted in the TIP or engineer’s estimate
and wondered if there will be money to cover these shortages and
if the process to move a TIP amendment forward is quick enough
to keep the bids valid? The issue of rising costs has been
problematic for years, but Aaron asserted that A/GFTC’s TIP
amendment processes are about as responsive as they can be.
5. Next meeting and adjourn – Next meeting will take place September 17
th
at 1:30. The meeting adjourned at 3:10.