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MPO TPC/TAC Board Minutes - 10/24/201200 TRANSPORTATION POLICY COMMITTEE (TPC) MEETING WICHITA FALLS METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION October 24, 2012 Present: Glenn Barham, Mayor, City of Wichita Falls Danny Brown, Proxy for Larry Tegtmeyer, TxDOT District Engineer Jeff Watts, City of Pleasant Valley, Representative Michael Smith, City Council Representative Teresa Rose, Proxy for Russell Schreiber, City Public Works Director Joe Gambill, Proxy for Dennis Wilde, North Texas Reg. Ping. Commission Tim Ingle, City of Wichita Falls, City Council Representative Woodrow (Woody) Gossom, Wichita County Judge Donnie Arbeau, WFMPO, Transportation Planner II Jaimie Lee, WFMPO, Transportation Planner I Lin Barnett, WFMPO, Transportation Planning Director Tammy Marlow, TxDOT, Funding Specialist, NRSC Jennifer Smith, Representative for Lanham Lyne David Rohmer, TxDOT Area Engineer Sandy Munson, Streams and Valleys, Executive Director Ben (Chip) Filer, Hotter N' Hell Bicycle Race, Executive Director Michael Lytle, Representative for Congressman Thornberry Jim Henson, Lakeside City, Mayor I. Welcome & Introduction J ♦ Staff ♦ Visitors ♦ Absent Mayor Barham, TPC Chairperson, welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Everyone present introduced himself or herself. II. Public Comment on Agenda and Non - Agenda Items Mayor Barham asked for any comments from the public on any of the agenda and non - agenda items. Having signed up, Ms. Munson and Judge Gossom requested time to make comments on two separate agenda items during the meeting. Ms. Munson gave her comments on the proposed hike and bike trail projects during the 2012 -2013 Prioritized Project List review and Judge Gossom gave his comments on the TEX -21 Coalition for US 287 during Other Business. III. Review and Approve the Transportation Policy Committee's July 25, 2012 Meeting Minutes Mayor Barham asked for any comments or corrections to the July 25, 2012 minutes. Receiving none, he asked for a motion to approve the meeting minutes. Mr. Watts made the motion to WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 1 ♦ Members ♦ �W ♦ Staff ♦ Visitors ♦ Absent Mayor Barham, TPC Chairperson, welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Everyone present introduced himself or herself. II. Public Comment on Agenda and Non - Agenda Items Mayor Barham asked for any comments from the public on any of the agenda and non - agenda items. Having signed up, Ms. Munson and Judge Gossom requested time to make comments on two separate agenda items during the meeting. Ms. Munson gave her comments on the proposed hike and bike trail projects during the 2012 -2013 Prioritized Project List review and Judge Gossom gave his comments on the TEX -21 Coalition for US 287 during Other Business. III. Review and Approve the Transportation Policy Committee's July 25, 2012 Meeting Minutes Mayor Barham asked for any comments or corrections to the July 25, 2012 minutes. Receiving none, he asked for a motion to approve the meeting minutes. Mr. Watts made the motion to WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 1 approve. Judge Gossom seconded the motion, which the TPC committee unanimously approved. IV. Review and Comment Regarding the Technical Advisory Committee's October 10, 2012 Meeting Minutes —No Action Required Mayor Barham asked for any comments regarding the TAC committee's October 10, 2012 meeting minutes. Receiving none, the committee moved on to the next agenda item. V. Review and Approve the 2013 -2016 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Amendments to Section VI — Federally Funded 5307 Transit Projects: (1) the FY 2012 Annual Operating Allocation and, (2) the 2012 State Non -TMA Allocation for Construction of the Downtown Travel Center Mr. Barnett directed the committee's attention to page 20 of the meeting packet. He stated there were two amendments located in the Section VI — Federally Funded Transit Projects segment of the document. The first transit amendment pertained to the annual operating allocation for the Wichita Falls Transit System (WFTS). Mr. Barnett stated the amounts shown in the amendment were actual, verified funding amounts for use in developing the FY 2012 WFTS transit - operating grant. He stated that WFMPO staff would start developing the grant for FTA Region VI after the Policy Board approved the amendment. Mr. Barnett stated the second transit amendment was actually a duplicate of a transit grant amendment approved by the Policy Board at the July 25, 2012 TPC meeting for the 2011 -2014 Transportation Improvement Program. The original amendment was for $650,000 of TxDOT project funding directed towards construction of the Downtown Travel Center. Mr. Barnett reminded the committee that WFMPO received $2.808 million in TxDOT additional project funding from a $2 billion state allocation. After learning about this windfall, the City of Wichita Falls requested $650,000 of the total MPO amount for use in constructing the downtown travel center. Mayor Barham asked for any comments regarding the 2012 annual transit - operating grant or the $650,000 TxDOT additional project- funding amount. Receiving none, he asked for a motion to approve the amendments. Mr. Brown made the motion to approve the amendments. Mr. Ingle seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. VI. Review, Revise, and Approve the 2012 -2013 Prioritized Project List for Planning Use in the 2013 Calendar Year Mr. Barnett directed the committee's attention to the 2012 Prioritized Project List meeting handout. Mr. Barnett stated the WFMPO conducted its annual public meeting on September 18, 2012 to highlight completed and under construction projects from the past year. The public meeting also gave the public, interested stakeholders and concerned citizens an opportunity to submit project suggestions for consideration by the MPO. Mr. Barnett stated that MPO staff emailed scoring sheets, containing all the projects, to the voting TAC board members. Each TAC board member ranked the list of projects and returned their scoring sheets to MPO staff for compilation. Prior to the TAC meeting, Mr. Arbeau averaged together all the scores then presented his findings to the TAC committee. Through a consensus process, the TAC board members vetted each project, removing any considered not viable and grouping together projects considered "corridor' type projects. WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 2 The Policy Board reviewed the final draft of the 2012 -2013 Prioritized Project List and made revisions. The Policy Board recommended grouping all of the Group 5 projects together and moving them to the bottom of the High Range projects. In addition, the Policy Board recommended grouping together the Group 6 projects and taking the average score from those projects, which moved them into the lower end of the Medium Range projects. Ms. Munson advocated increasing the ranking of MPO project ID number MO -28WF, extending Barnett road to the south across Lake Wichita, thus creating a new causeway. However, Mayor Barham recommended keeping this a low priority project due to funding. Mayor Barham asked for a motion to approve the 2012 -2013 Prioritized Project List with revisions. Mr. Watts made the motion to approve the list. Judge Gossom seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. VII. Present the 2012 Update of the Alternative Fuel Study Prepared for the Wichita Falls Transit System in 2003 Mr. Barnett directed the committee's attention to the final draft of the update to the 2003 Alternative Fuel Study. In 2003, WFMPO contracted with the consulting firm Transit Resource Center to identify and analyze alternative fuel sources for the Wichita Falls Transit System. After nearly a decade, it became time to update the results of that study. Subtask 5.4, of the 2012 Unified Planning Work Program charged WFMPO staff with the responsibility of performing an in -house update to the study. Mr. Barnett presented the results of that update, located in Appendix B, to the Policy Board. He stated that while some of the technologies changed during the interim years, the Ultra -Low Sulfur Diesel fuel remained the best option for the Wichita Falls Transit System. Mayor Barham asked for any comments or questions. Judge Gossom asked about the viability of switching to electric buses and the technology behind fuel cells. Mr. Barnett explained that because of the long distances the Wichita Falls Transit System (WFTS) must cover the electric, or battery powered, transit bus was not a good option. He stated that electric bus technology had not evolved to the point where it could match the range of a ULSD bus. Furthermore, battery powered buses require frequent and lengthy recharging sessions, which requires a significant investment in power station infrastructure. Mr. Barnett then commented on the state of technology for fuel cells. He said that while fuel cells (hydrogen gas extraction) show promise for the future, they are still much too expensive, and range limited, to consider migrating the WETS bus fleet over to as a primary fuel source. VIII. Other Business: A. Discussion & Overview of Progress on Local Transportation Projects — City and TxDOT staff (Quarterly Review) TxDOT Report: Mr. Rohmer reported Phase three of the Hike and Bike trail from Hamilton Park to Scott Street, and from Allendale Drive the railroad and Johnson Road on down to Lake Wichita was now complete. He reported the mill and hot mix overlay from Archer county line to FM 369 was complete. Upgrade high mast illumination from US 281 to SH 79 would be wrapping up in approximately six weeks. He stated construction had begun on the approaches for the US 82/287 Windthorst road bridge project. City Report: Ms. Rose reported the Hike and Bike Trail from Seymour road to Barnett Road was complete. She reported the Lawrence /Call Field road realignment was complete. The 2012 street rehabilitation was ending. Ms. Rose reported the drainage project on Kemp Street was almost complete and was waiting for striping. Future projects would include crack seal maintenance on various streets, and the 2013 street rehabilitation would bid out in February. WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 3 B. MPO Quarterly Financial Report (3'd Quarter FY 2012 - April, May, June) Mayor Barham asked Mr. Barnett to give his MPO third quarter financial report. Mr. Barnett stated the MPO had spent 38.9% of its allocation for FY 2012. He pointed out that staff added a new feature to the report that detailed committed funds to future projects and MPO office overhead costs. Mr. Barnett stated the Long -Range Project Readiness Plan had encumbered $90,604 and office overhead had $9,985 committed for MPO office operations. Mr. Barnett stated the part of the Long -Range Project Readiness Plan would carry over into FY 2013. He also stated that a large portion of the FY 2012 carry over would go towards funding the Transit Oriented Development study described in Subtask 5.1 of the FY 2013 Unified Planning Work Program. Mayor Barham asked for any other questions or comments about the third quarter report. Receiving none, he moved on to the next agenda item. C. Long -Range Project Readiness Plan Development Report Mr. Barnett stated that Lori Davidson, with AMD Engineering, informed the TAC committee at the October 10, 2012 meeting about progress on the Long -Range Project Readiness Plan. Ms. Davidson updated the committee on the work done on the LRPRP, and presented the TAC with handouts of the long -range project, mid - range, and short -range project lists. Ms. Davidson requested the TAC committee review the handouts and send her any recommended changes to the project classifications. AMD Engineering sends Mr. Barnett weekly progress reports which he forwards to the TAC committee. Mr. Barnett also stated that AMD had finished compiling all of the surface transportation projects and was working on the project selection criteria that are the core of the plan. Mr. Barnett stated he hoped to have the finished product ready for presentation to the Policy Board by the April 2013 quarterly meeting. D. WCAD Aerial Pictometry Contribution (2013 UPWP - Subtask 1.2) Mr. Barnett stated the Wichita County Appraisal District was preparing to re -fly their aerial pictometry as an update to their overall data set. The total cost for the aerial pictometry update was $77,800. WFMPO will partner with the City and the Wichita Falls Appraisal District to pay its fair share of the update. The amount the MPO will contribute is $3,750 and qualifies as an allowable expense under Subtask 1.2 of the 2013 UPWP. This will allow the MPO to access the WCAD aerials in support of the Travel Demand Modeling process and in updates to the Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Mr. Barnett stated the methodology used to arrive at the contribution amount was to determine the total amount committed to the project by the City of Wichita Falls, divide that amount by the number of departments using the data (in this case four), and arrive at the final answer. Which is as follows: $15,000 divided by four departments equals $3,750 per department. E. Other Items Judge Gossom informed the committee that he had spoken with the leadership of the TEX -21 coalition, which backs the development of the US 287 travel corridor across Texas. Judge Gossom stated that the coalition asked for $15,000 from the City and another $15,000 from Wichita County to become members of their coalition. Judge Gossom also discussed the importance of US 281 as a major freight corridor since the expansion of the Panama Canal, which allows larger ships to dock at two major deep water ports along the Texas coastline. WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 4 Mr. Barnett gave each board member a copy of The Transportation Planning Process Key Issues: A Briefing Book for Transportation Decision Makers, Officials, and Staff. He informed them that the publication was an excellent reference source that he learned about while attending an MPO Director's workshop on Travel Demand Model development. IX. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m. onorable Glenn Barham Mayor Wichita Falls WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING October 24, 2012 PAGE 5