MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE A/GFTC TAC September 25, 2007
Attendees Agency Phone Fax
Members
Mayor LeRoy Akins City of Glens Falls 761-3804 761-0234
Mark Galough Wash. County Planning 746-2290
Dale Granger City of Glens Falls, DPW 761-3834
Willy Grimmke Washington County DPW 746-2440 746-2441
Harry Gutheil Town of Moreau 792-1802 792-1062
William Lamy Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
Mayor Bob Phinney South Glens Falls 793-1455 793-3063
David Rettig NYSDOT 388-0456 388-0430
Scott Sopczyk GGFT 792-1086 792-7952
Mike Valentine Saratoga County Planning 884-4705 884-4780
Walter Young LC/LGRPB 668-5773 668-5774
Others
Jeff Tennyson Warren County DPW 761-6556 623-2772
John Wheatley EDC Warren County 761-6007
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 Willy Grimmke called the meeting to
order at 10:05.
2. Visitor Issues – None
3. Administrative Items –A. Approval of last meeting’s minutes
A motion was made to approve the July 24
th meeting minutes.
MOVED BY: Mayor Phinney SECONDED BY: Bill Lamy MOTION CARRIED
B. Host agency agreement-Aaron, A/GFTC has opted to renew the host
agency agreement with the LC/LGRPB for four years beginning in 2008. The
LC/LGRPB has also passed a resolution in support of this and has forwarded it
to DOT. No additional administrative action is needed.
4. Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP)
a. Aviation Road, Aaron
Since the last meeting, there have been two study advisory committee
meetings. The public work session held at the Ramada Inn was well
attended (60+ people). The presentation to the public was a segment by
segment and intersection by intersection look at the alternatives available
based on the feedback received from the consultants. Aaron distributed a
copy of the alternatives presented at the meeting for members to look
over. The consultants are working on traffic projections, a build out
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
TAC Minutes
September 25, 2007
Page 2
analysis, etc. Roundabouts are being proposed. The study goes to West
Mountain Road/Aviation Road intersection at the request of the County.
Suggestions regarding the high accident rates at WMR included
additional advisory signage, narrowing the striping, flashers on the other
side of the road, traffic signal.
b. Access Management, Aaron
RSG is working on the revisions to the access management guidebook.
Most of the technical documentation is already in place. The educational
slideshow is complete. Aaron and Bob Chamberlin will present the topic at
the Region 1 Planning and Land Use Conference on October 3
rd. The same
topic will be discussed at the Saratoga Planning Conference on January
30
th. Aaron gave examples of some of the locations with access issues
(sight distance, approach angle) and the possibility of using medians in
some areas.
c. HSTP, Aaron
Not much has been done on this since the last meeting. Draft of the
introductory material is in place. Scott Sopczyk has had an opportunity to
review the draft. Pete Rae will also review the draft. A meeting with
Washington County has been set up for Friday, September 28. The
services that need to be improved will need to be prioritized and a project
selection methodology needs to be developed.
d. Long Range Plan, Aaron (handouts)
A completed draft of the public survey results was distributed. The
responses to the survey questions are graphically represented. Mr.
Sopczyk and Mr. Rettig have had an opportunity to review the draft.
Committee members were requested to look over the draft. Aaron went
over some of the results. Currently staff is working on pavement
condition analysis, bridge condition analysis (draft handout). A mistake
located on the top graph, locally owned bridges in Washington County are
shown as being 27% deficient but should be 24%.
e. Make the Connection applications, Aaron
This was the bike/pedestrian spot improvement. We had $200K in
unmatched federal funds available for this round of funding. Every other
year this program will be available. Four applications were received: the
Village of So. Glens Falls, the City of Glens Falls, Warren County Park and
Recreation and the Village of Whitehall. Scott Sopczyk, Mike Valentine,
Willy Grimmke and Aaron will review the applications and make a
determination. This meeting will take place after the TAC. Once the
selections are made, another meeting will be set up with the project
sponsors and Region 1 reps.
5. TIP
A. Status of TIP/STIP, Aaron
Notification was received this week that air quality conformity has been
determined for the TIP.
B. Amendments,(handouts) Aaron
Whitehall RR bridges
-when we went through the project selection portion
of developing the TIP, the Region came to us with some revised numbers
as to what was affordable. The two bridges in Whitehall are
being reconstructed to provide vertical clearance for double stacked
freight cars on the Canadian Rail. These two projects are being
reinstated. This does not impact anyone else’s bridge schedule.
TAC Minutes
September 25, 2007
Page 3
A motion was made to approve the Amendment Request by Washington County
MOVED BY: Mayor Phinney SECONDED BY: Dave Rettig MOTION CARRIED
NYS RT.197 bridge over the Hudson
-this probably qualifies in TIP jargon as
a significant scope change to an existing project. What is being proposed
by the Region is to rehabilitate rather than replace the 197 bridge
over the Hudson River (East Branch). The question raised, are we allowed
to federally fund a rehabilitation of a functionally obsolete (FO) structure
that doesn’t fix the FO? The question was asked why is there a scope
change now? It was decided to table this amendment until the next TAC
meeting in November. Mr. Rettig will bring Mary Ricard to our next TAC
meeting to answer questions.
C. Project Updates
a. Warren County, Bill Lamy
Corinth Road
, have actively been pursuing the acquisition of right
away. As soon as the master agreement is processed completely
by the State, payments can be made and property can be
procured. If everything goes as planned, bidding should take
place and construction should start in the spring.
Quaker Road Signals
, A meeting was held with Frank Bonafide
and other staff at DOT and the agreement was made that they
would go out and check the signals and hardware/software.
What is currently in place needs to be reprogrammed. DOT
volunteered to work with local representatives who have
maintained the signal lights in the past.
Beach Road Project,
a second public informational meeting was
held, received comments and sometime before the end of the
month an alternative plan should be received from the
consultant. This plan will be presented to the public.
Bridges
, busy trying to get master agreements updated, getting
cash flow in place and just have some minor engineering work to
do on some of the bridges. On October 1 consultant selection will
take place on Alder Brook Bridge.
b. Washington County, Willy Grimmke
CR 42
, moving along
Covered Bridges
, they are complete; had the ribbon cutting on
August 4th.
Whitehall Bridges
, is preparing to send design approval
CR 12
, is on hold because of schedule delay but hope to work
with DOT for an amendment to our agreement.
c. Town of Moreau/Saratoga County
Mr. Gutheil asked if there was any news regarding the Round
Lake Bypass. Mr. Gutheil realized that this a questions for the
other MPO. Mr. Rettig reported that DOT is trying to award it.
d. Glens Falls, Dale Granger
The roundabout is just about done; the trees are finally in. Mr.
Granger thanked everyone for their assistance on this project.
e. Queensbury, no representation
Mr. Wheatley had a question regarding the status of the eastern
part of Quaker Road. The project had been on the capital
program but had to be deferred because of rising costs of other
TAC Minutes
September 25, 2007
Page 4
projects. Mr. Wheatley also asked what is happening with Exit
20: A study will take place once Aviation Road and Access
Management projects are complete. Data collection at Exit 20
should take place next year during peak traffic season.
f. NYSDOT, Dave Rettig
The deadline to registeration for the October
3rd Transportation
Land Use Conference in Schenectady has been extended. The
number of people registered is smaller than anticipated. Mr.
Rettig suggested calling Pat, his secretary, to register.The
legislation that was recently signed that has to do with
congestion pricing in NY requires a form of program update. The
Department is attempting to get some input from MPOs on how
to handle this. It is not clear what “new program” means in the
legislation. This should take place by March. The STIP is very
late and needs to get out for public review by October 5
th. There
are political issues at NYMTC that are delaying their TIP. Not
delaying the design portion of the HBRR projects may turn out to
be good strategy, as it is not unreasonable to expect the
possibility of a larger bridge program that may allow delayed
projects to be accelerated.
g. Greater Glens Falls Transit, Scott Sopczyk (agenda omission)
Ridership on the trolleys was up 20%; overall ridership through
the end of August was up by 5%. Will be replacing small buses
in 2008 and larger buses in 2009. Funding appropriations are in
place for this. Still waiting on results from the community
services for transportation grant applications. This would provide
funding for operating some evening hour transportation services.
h. Other – Mark Galough- the bio-diesel facility in Hampton is going
through the final permitting process. Peckham has purchased a
facility at the intersection of 149 and the Canal. They have
applied for funding and gone before the Town Planning Board on
several occasions. Anticipate increased traffic, certainly rail
traffic, at that facility. At the Industrial Park at the airport there
are currently 3 buildings under construction on the Kingsbury
side and another one should be obtaining a building permit in the
next two weeks.
Mr. Wheatley-the Queensbury Industrial Road construction has
started.
5. Next meeting and adjourn- Next meeting will be held on November 13 at 10am.
Mayor Phinney made a motion to adjourn at 11:26 .