MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE A/GFTC TAC November 18, 2009
Attendees Agency Phone Fax
Members
Stu Baker Town of Queensbury 761-8222 745-4437
Brian Brockway Town of Fort Edward 747-5501 746-1071
Chris DeBolt Wash. County Planning 746-2290 746-2293
Willy Grimmke Wash. County DPW 746-2442 746-2441
Bob Hansen NYSDOT-Region 1 388-0456 388-0430
Wayne LaMothe Warren County Planning 761-6410 761-6411
William Lamy Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Joe Sullivan City of Glens Falls, DPW 761-3834 761-3874
Steven Sweeney NYS Canal Corp. 471-5033 471-5035
Mike Valentine Saratoga Co. Planning Bd. 884-4705 884-4780
Others
Robert Cherry NYSDOT-Region 1 388-0228 388-0430
Kevin Hajos Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Mary Anne Mariotti NYSDOT-Region 1 388-0439 388-0430
Keith Oborne Town of Queensbury 761-8265
Jeff Tennyson Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Staff
Aaron Frankenfeld A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Sarah Gebbie-Measeck A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Monika Bulman A/GFTC 746-2199 746-2441
Minutes of the Meeting
1. Welcome & Introductions –TAC Chair William Lamy called the meeting to
order at 10:08 am.
2. Visitor Issues – None
3. Administrative Items –
A. Conformity MOU, Aaron- This was an item already approved by the TAC via
mail ballot. FHWA suggested the MOU be developed between A/GFTC and CDTC
and basically outlining the planning relationships and responsibilities that need to
happen within the air quality non-attainment area. This document has been
reviewed, approved and with Mr. Lamy’s signature today will be sent to CDTC.
B. Joint Cooperative Planning Agreement, Aaron-(handout) This is a federal
requirement requesting us to develop an agreement among DOT, the transit
operator (GGFT) and the MPO to identify the joint responsibilities and develop
financial plans related to the federal transportation planning process. Mr. Sopczyk
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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November 18, 2009
Page 2
was not able to attend today and indicated a preference to be present for any
substantial discussion. Aaron suggested the TAC review the agreement and get
back to him with comments or suggestions. If there are no additional comments,
Aaron will sign the agreement.
Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)
A. Consultant/Staff Activities
1) LRP update, Aaron- The draft LRP was approved by the TAC via ballot.
Going public with the draft long range plan hinges on the Interagency
Consultation Group (ICG), a statewide committee of resource agencies and
transportation organizations that is tasked with oversight of the air quality
conformity process. We are seeking conformity determination approval on our
document by stating that we are not having an impact upon conformity by not
having any substantial capacity related projects listed in the Town of Moreau.
We hope to be able to go out for public comment soon.
2) Exit 20 Corridor Management Plan, Aaron- This Plan is complete.
Copies are available on our web site and we have a limited number of paper
copies. The Plan accomplished what was intended. The consultants looked at
several of the bigger concepts that have floating around for years such as new
interchanges and a direct connection to the Great Escape. Mr. Lamy asked
what the next steps were to implement the study’s recommendations. The Plan
identifies some solutions and it now comes down to programming,
prioritization, and balance. The next step is to get TAC approval for the Plan
to be submitted to the Policy Committee to formally adopt the Plan. A motion
was made to have the Plan referred to the Policy Committee, DOT and to the
Town for their consideration.
MOVED BY: Wayne LaMothe SECONDED BY: Stu Baker MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Valentine asked if the Plan could be implemented in segments. Aaron
remarked that this is a very small corridor and there are various alternative
recommendations and does not feel this should be taken on in phases. A
brief discussion followed regarding if the involved parties have the will to
move forward with the recommendations/alternatives in the Plan. This plan
did not have a preferred alternative. Mr. Hansen pointed out that because of
the current financial turbulence facing New York State, there are no
guarantees when or if this project could even move forward.
3) Abe Wing/Big Cross Pedestrian Circulation Assessments, Aaron-These
school access studies were taken on as part of our local traffic engineering
assistance program. The Abe Wing document is completed. There are good
recommendations in the study and the school district is very interested in
some of them (crosswalk delineation, moving advance warning signs for
pedestrians around, changing the signalization of adjacent signalized
intersection). We are working on a similar document for the Big Cross School.
This is in a different school district (Abe Wing is in the FG Common School
District while Big Cross is in the GF Unified School District) and the process is a
little different. Hope to have a PTA meeting for Big Cross in December to
present some of the recommendations. The maximum cost for each of the
studies was $10K with no cost to the municipalities.
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November 18, 2009
Page 3
4) Lake Luzerne intersection analysis, Aaron-This is a candidate project
for the local traffic engineering assistance program. The County Planning
Department brought his project to our attention. The request is to get
engineering assistance for redesigning an intersection to make it a more
conventional configuration. Mr. LaMothe presented the request on behalf of
the Town of Lake Luzerne. The County is working with the Town on a
streetscape program and the redesign of their main street. We have three
consultants on call for the local traffic engineering assistance program. The
TAC approved this study as a candidate project but Mr. Lamy wished to discuss
this project with Aaron before involving an outside consultant.
5) Travel Demand Modeling, Aaron-An RFP has been sent out to get an
outside consultant to come in and look at our traffic model in anticipation of
the non-attainment designation for the two-county area. This necessitates an
expansion of our current model from beyond the urban area (Exit 17 to Exit
23).
6) GIS Services/Website update, Sarah-Fountains Spatial has been
creating a ridership application, a program that will allow staff to ride the
transit buses and count the riders getting on and off and record the
information on a laptop. This replaces the old system of recording the data on
paper, coming back to the office and entering the information to the computer.
The program is currently being tested in-house to work out any possible
problems. Fountains Spatial has also done a web application that will give us
better transparency of our TIP and the TIP projects so the public can get a
better idea of what we are doing, when, where, how and why. This application
is ready to go and we are waiting for the A/GFTC website to be reformatted.
Sarah asked the committee to visit A/GFTC’s website and give us ideas on how
they think it can run better. The intent is to improve the layout, format, make
it user friendly, par down information. Mannix Marketing is our consultant.
7) iPoolNorth, Sarah-About seven months ago the iPoolNorth website was
set up. There are 68 members and the hope is to increase the membership to
100. A free give-away (reusable shopping bags) is offered as incentive to get
people to signup. Ads have been put in the newspapers and we are using other
resources to get people to participate in the program. One of the tools on
iPoolNorth is a commuter calendar and people using the program enter
information. The results from people using this tool: $1,000 has been saved
in fuel, over 2,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide has been prevented from entering the
air, and 90 trips were eliminated. Not all of the iPoolNorth users record
information on the commuter calendar.
The boundaries for iPoolNorth are for those commuting in or out of Warren,
Washington and Saratoga Counties. The program does interact with the
Capital District’s web site (iPool2). Other commuting boundaries were
discussed.
B. Transit
1) GGFT Update-Mr. Sopczyk was not in attendance
2) Transit Development Plan, Aaron-This study was recently completed
by Nelson/Nygaard. Elements reviewed: transit’s routing structure, public
surveys for transit riders and non-riders; scenarios for future funding.
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November 18, 2009
Page 4
N/N came up with good recommendations; some of them are already being
considered for implementation by Mr. Sopczyk.
3) NX Connector Survey, Aaron-Sarah and Aaron have started surveying
passengers that are using the existing NX. This is a coach bus that goes
between Exit 17 (South Glens Falls Park and Ride Lot is on Marion Avenue
just west of Rte. 9) and downtown Albany. There is a stop in Clifton Park.
An attempt is being made to determine if the passengers would have an
interest in a local bus connection to the Park and Ride. GGFT has agreed to
try this as a pilot if we can demonstrate that there are a reasonable number
of riders willing to pay for it. Brief discussion regarding fare boxes, unified
swipe cards, single-seat rides and CDTA involvement took place.
5. TIP
A. Make the Connection Program, Sarah-Five applications were received; three
will be fully funded and one will receive partial funding. Fully funded: Town of
Granville to do work on their rails to trails; Town of Warrensburg to do some
sidewalk replacement; Village of Whitehall to do sidewalk replacement and
Partial funding: Town of Lake Luzerne to do some sidewalk installation along
Route 9N. There were more applications asking for money than there was
money available. Aaron had a discussion with Mary Anne Mariotti regarding
letting dates for this program. Because of the success of this program, it may
become an annual program.
B. Project Updates
1) Warren County, Kevin Hajos-Bids have been opened on Corinth
Road; opened bids last Thursday for the Milton Street project; Stony Creek
and Grist Mill were completed about a month ago and work on the
Warrensburg Road Bridge will resume in the Spring.
Joe Sullivan reported on the Bay Street stimulus project. The project is
70% completed from Sanford Street to city line. Seeding. installing curbs and
site work left to be done. Paving will take place in Spring 2010. The project
should be completed in June.
Jeff Tennyson- Beach Road will be let next fall; additional money will
be needed (2-3% increase); looking to add a ROW portion to the project; TIP
amendment will be needed. Aaron had suggested to Mr. Tennyson the
completion of a new TIP application rather than an amendment.
2) Washington County, Willy Grimmke-Mr. Grimmke started with the
stimulus projects. The bridges in Whitehall have been contracted and
awarded; the bulk of the work will not start until spring; the two 1R projects
will be delayed, due in part to a FHWA audit); Cty Rte 12 supplemental to
include the Lower Turnpike Bridge rehab; County 61 over the Battenkill is in
the process of progressing design and working on ROW.
3) Saratoga County, Mike Valentine had a question about the progress on
Rte. 9 and Cty. Rte. 24 Spier Falls. Mr. Hansen did not have the material with
him to answer the questions.
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November 18, 2009
Page 5
4) NYSDOT, Robert Hansen – Congress is looking hard at a potential
second stimulus package for roads and bridges; discussion has taken place
with Hudson Falls about the ongoing Route 4 project; there are two projects
coming up before the end of the year, assuming the budget doesn’t collapse
completely – I-87 Rte 9 in Pottersville and Rte. 372 over the Battenkill.
C. Amendments and Modifications-none
D. Next TIP Update
1) Allocations, Aaron has no numbers yet. Projects have to be ready to
go if and when the stimulus package becomes available. This raises the
question whether we want to introduce more design for more projects earlier
in the process without necessarily putting construction phases in because we
don’t have the money. Mr. Grimmke brought up the concern with the Brooks
Act and the ramifications. We have no allocations and we don’t know what we
are dealing with yet, but we need to get projects ready. Aaron would still like
to receive from project sponsors new applications whether they are already in
the TIP or not.
2) Selection Procedures: (handouts) The process went fairly well the last
time. The projects were easy to score. People were generally satisfied with
the results of the scoring process. Ms. Mariotti said she had developed some
selection criteria for bridges and would be happy to share them with us.
Aaron wanted to point out to the municipalities that we have to be in a
position to entertain federal funding for pavement rehabs. Local
municipalities have not usually approached us with this.
3) Solicitation for TIP and UPWP projects: Aaron wondered whether we
should be dong a solicitation for TIP or UPWP projects and if there were big
planning projects that require assistance from A/GFTC, locally or regionally.
Aaron would like to see the annual planning program going in the direction of
smaller projects (school studies, safety assessments).
6. Other Items- Wayne LaMothe thanked Warren County DPW for the
work done on the canal trail along the Feeder Canal. The trail was resurfaced.
Bob Hansen-Aaron received some information about the state finance plan for the
remainder of this year and was advised where there may be an issue regarding
temporary restrictions on new federal and state authorizations unless they are
under $100K.
7. Next Meeting schedule and adjourn- Aaron asked if he sent out a project
solicitation could he reasonably expect to get project applications back by end of the
year. The end of January was suggested. A meeting will be scheduled in February.
TIP should be updated by the summer of 2010 for a final committee-approved
document. Aaron also brought up E-STIP. All the MPOs will feed their information
into standardized software that generates the STIP from the TIPs.
Mr. Valentine made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:50 AM.