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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 09/20/2006MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD September 20, 2006 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins Municipal Building 215 N. Mason Street — Community Room FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Brent Thordarson VICE CHAIR: Gary Thomas STAFF LIAISON: Mark Jackson ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Langren BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Tim Johnson Don Edmondson Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Rick Price Ed Robert Brent Thordarson Gary Thomas (via conference call) CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Kathleen Bracke Randy Hensley Mark Jackson Cynthia Langren Marlys Sinner Timothy Wilder 679-2165 482-7125 416-2029 224-6058 ABSENT: James Clausen Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Kevin Westhuis OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Margaret Long Jenny Shock Nancy York 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6.10 p.m. 2. AGENDA REVIEW No changes. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 15 Transportation Board September 20, 2006 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (August 2006) There was a motion and a second to approve the August 2006 Transportation Board meeting minutes as presented. Chair Thordarson noted that on page S, under ADJOURN, "Vice Chair Thompson" needs to be corrected to "Vice Chair THOMAS." The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6 — 0. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 6. ACTION ITEMS a. NORTHWEST SUB AREA PLAN - T. Wilder Timothy Wilder, Advance Planning, gave a presentation on the Northwest Sub -Area Plan. Highlights of the presentation included: • Plan Purpose • Vision and Big Ideas • Plan Goals • Land Use and Framework Plan • Open Land and Trails Plan • Action Plan Jackson added that Dave Averill, Transportation Planning, has been integral to the development of the Plan throughout and that Transportation staff endorses adoption. Board Discussion/Comments: Price: You mentioned future local neighborhood connections. Can you define that a little better for us? Wilder: What we intend by that terminology is to connect either near to the neighborhood, like subdivision to subdivision or a subdivision to another entity such as a school. Price: The follow-up question is, most of these trails appear on the City's bike map for example. I assume some of those trails exist now. I assume some of the others don't exist yet, but you see some potential. Would some of the ones that you're talking about appear on the City's bike map? There is a trail that's used off of Wakonda Drive that serves as a wonderful east/west connector for cyclists coming from Overland Trail. It's not connected all the way through there on your map, and yet, for someone who is not familiar with the area, it's a wonderful asset if you know it's there. That's something that I think should be on the City bike map. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 3 of 15 Jackson: If it's in existence, we'd probably like to add it to the bike map. It's the type of thing that we'll be working on either 4th quarter or early 2007. We've run out of the old bike maps and it's time to revamp it so we will definitely pass along this feedback to Dave who will be responsible for that. Johnson: I would like to follow up and support what Price is saying because if you're from another part of town and you're coming up here to do something, it's nice to have ways to work through a part of town that you're not familiar with. You might look to get easements from some of these landowners. That's another option for the long-term. Jackson: We'll pass these comments along to Dave and DK. Thordarson: I think it's good for the residents of the area as well. If you drive all the time and one day you think you may want to use a bike, but you don't know how to get around, perhaps if you had that available to you, you could do some route planning within your own area as well. In terms of the map, is there a way to designate between say a collector trail like we do with the street map; collector streets versus arterials? You know, have major bike paths versus minor ones? Jackson: That's exactly what I was talking about in terms of if we wanted to go a different direction. Dave's looking at not only on -road types of classifications, but also what are the routes and how do you prioritize routes for the type of riders and such. Robert: I need a little education here. Policy 1.4 under Transportation is about bus stops being improved. In this area, I would have to think that some of the bus stops might not be well lit. I was wondering what we're looking at. Educate me as to what a bus stop is that meets current standards. I see benches in darkened areas around town. Jackson: Whenever we put a new bus stop in, we need to make sure that it's safe, well lit and comfortable for the user. Robert: Well this implies to me that every one is going to be an improved shelter with a bench and bike racks and I would like to see lighting if at all possible. Johnson: With regard to future development, how does that interface with the 100-year flood plain? Wilder: This is an interesting area because most of this area is owned by LaFarge and right now they're gravel mining this whole area up in here. The intent is to mine it and when they're done mining it, I've heard that it will be used for water storage. What we actually think is going to happen, in most cases in this area is that it's going to remain as gravel mines. The possibility of residential development up here is very small, but we have to show something on the map. We can't just leave it blank. In reality though, most of this area is going to remain undeveloped as these gravel mines ...(inaudible). So this area probably is in the flood plain (referred to flood plain map). The risk of development is fairly small. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 4 of 15 Thordarson: The feedback you've gotten from residents in the subarea, are they generally satisfied with the current roadway network? Are there any opinions that they might want to improve the throughways between arterial streets or is that not really something that's being looked at? Wilder: Early on in the process, we heard a lot of fear about that issue specifically. The fear was: is the City going to come in and shove streets through our subdivision? The county has a particular position that we may not agree with, but one they're implementing and that is, if it's in an area like Wakonda and the residents are maintaining that street, they feel like they can't open it up and can block it off from the general public. So that's their philosophy. In this process, what we've said is that if it's a City subdivision, we're going to need to make those connections if we can. We're going to be context sensitive so we're not going to try and shove it through an existing subdivision where there is a current connection, however, we're going to try and provide those trail connections as an alternative if we can't have a street there. I think most people felt fairly comfortable with that. A little wariness over that position, but with an understanding that it's context sensitive, that we will look at the surroundings and see if it really makes sense first. I think there's been a lot more satisfaction with that then there had been when we started the process. Robert: If a developer came in and wanted to put in a series of streets, will you have them follow the guidelines for the sub -area plan and try to encourage connectivity? Wilder: That is policy that we'll use, part of City Plan. We're not changing City Plan in terms of that kind of connectivity. We're not even changing our regulations. The way the regulations are written right now give us that flexibility. In this case, we're clarifying them I think mostly for residents that are out there and for developers. We want to create connections whenever we can, however we recognize that in some cases we're not going to be able to do that. It's sort of stating what we already have to a large degree. Jackson: A lot of it's covered in the Urban Area Street Standards, the document we share with Latimer County. Thordarson: One more question about the connectors; is there any way to put any additional connectors in the area around Irish in the east/west direction? Basically to the west of Irish. Jackson: We can do a safe route to school analysis for this school. I'll let Kurt and Dave know. Johnson made a motion to recommend that City Council adopt the Northwest Subarea Plan. There was a second by Hallock-Solomon. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6 — 0. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 5 of 15 b. BUDGET UPDATE — R. Hensley Jackson explained that it is up to the Board whether they take action tonight on two budget related items: Dial -A -Ride and the Transportation Maintenance Fee (TMF). If the Board opts to make a recommendation, staff needs to have it to the City Manager's office by noon tomorrow to include in the Council packets. Hensley went over the latest numbers the City Manager has in the recommended budget. In summary, there are three strategies to balance the budget: • Reduce Costs - Employee compensation $1.00 Million - IT Consolidation $0.25 Million • Cut Services -City Manager Recommended Cuts $3.10 Million • New Revenue $2.90 Million - Park Maintenance Fee - Transportation Maintenance Fee Recommended Reductions: • Pavement Management $700,000 • Dial -A -Ride to ADA Minimums $600,000 • Building Systems/Energy Mngmnt $195,000 • Library Services $176,149 • Police Radio Replacement $150,000 • Trail Maintenance $125,000 • Finance System Equip Repl. $100,000 Other Recommended Reductions: • Reallocate expenses to non-GF sources • Park and cemetery maintenance • Senior trips program • 0' of July activities, not including fireworks • Deferred maintenance (various) • Equipment Replacement The Solution: • 2007 Project GF Shortfall -$5.8 Million • Add'1 Resources Needed -$1.5 Million • Total Funding Gap -$7.3 Million • Cost/Service Reductions +$4.4 Million • New Revenue +2.9 Million • 2007 GF Budget BALANCED APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 6 of 15 DIAL -A -RIDE BUDGET ISSUES: Sittner acknowledged Vice Chair Thomas and Transit Planner Karen Schneiders who were connected to the meeting via conference call. Sinner said that the City Manager is going to be recommending to Council a reduction in paratransit services, which is a very difficult thing to do. She explained that she would start by talking about what led up to DAR being in its current financial situation. She then began a presentation via PowerPoint. Highlights of that presentation were: • Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (what the basic rules are) • Comparisons of ADA Requirements versus Dial -A -Ride Service including Eligibility, Service Area, Fares, and Days and Hours of Service were explained. • This year there were some financial issues: Less income than what was projected and DAR expenses are increasing due to growing demand. • ADA Compliance Concerns • Colorado Peer Comparison • National Peer Comparison Exceeding ADA Paratransit • Impacts of only meeting ADA requirements • Budget Crossroads = Current Policy which is "To continue existing service requires over $1.1 M: $600k as approved in the 2007 budget, plus an additional $500k" versus ADA Only Policy which is: "Limit service to ADA mandate for a budget surplus of $600k" • A Different Approach: - Funding new Transfort routes - Harmony & Timberline are the top service requests - New routes bring additional revenues (fares, fees, and advertising) to off- set operating costs • Why move to Fixed Route? - The three routes would carry 275,000 Transfort trips annually and 13,000 DAR trips - Additional passengers directly increase annual FTA formula funding - Adding fixed route service expands mode choices for the entire community - Transfort moves forward with the Strategic Operating Plan Phase II, originally scheduled for 2004. Why these routes? Directly addresses the 2005-2007 City Manager's Work Plan for Improving Transportation Connects key social services, medical and employment centers Provides real transportation alternatives for citizens Board Comments/Ouestions: Robert: When you expand to a fixed route system to satisfy employers of that area, such as Timberline or Harmony, is there any chance of getting financial support from those employers? APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 7 of 15 Sittner: When I first started here about eight years ago, there was at that time a pubic/private partnership for bus service on the Harmony corridor. Schneiders: We're also talking to several foundations for the potential for getting some grants. Jackson: In 2006, through the SmartTrips office, a feasibility study for transit management association and we feel strongly that the Harmony corridor is a very good candidate for this type of thing. It also looks now like the large retail center for the Corbett and Harmony area is going to go in so there will be a large employment base there as well as the ones already out there. We feel very optimistic that there's a good possibility of establishing some sort of a corridor association that may choose to help. Sittner: I'm not sure if I made it clear that the City Manager indicated in his presentation yesterday that in his recommendation to City Council, it will include reducing the DAR service to the ADA mandates, but adding all the fixed route services that you saw tonight, with the corresponding DAR services to go with it. He intends to make that as part of his recommendation for all three of those routes. Price: Do I understand this correctly that this budget crunch provides an opportunity to redirect budgeting or finances that were generously extended to DAR way beyond ADA requirements, but to get back on track with transportation policy of increasing the grid for transit. Is that a basic summary of what you just told us? Sittner: Yes, that's very well said! Price: Okay, now that I understand that, I have a question. How do the communities handle this? If you cut back 50% effectively of the DAR or the trips that you're offering, this puts us in a league with other communities. How do the clients that you now serve get served in other communities? What is the alternative? What are people going to do? Sittner: I'm sure that many of them are served through programs just like the one that Thomas operates — the SAINT program. One of the things in our particular community, one of the major trip generators that would not be in the new service area is Foothills Gateway. They do have some of their own vehicles and their own drivers. Potentially, I would think that there would be some opportunity there for them to either expand their current transportation or perhaps look to contracting with us for a level of service as well. That would be one of those public/private type partnerships that can be developed. It's always difficult when you have a larger service and then you try to reduce that. Many of the other communities went with the ADA mandate to begin with. Thomas: I'm not entirely certain, but I think that one of the reasons that Fort Collins has the broad service that it does actually goes back to the late 60's when the Care -A -Van program was up and running. Fort Collins was a much smaller town then and not realizing the implications of the change in the size of the city, with as big as it's gotten. Back to the question on what do people do in other places and I get this question all the APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 8 of 15 time because SAINT has limited service areas, in fact even less than DAR service today. The hard truth of it is, you can only do so much. Hallock-Solomon: Do we need to add the all fixed routes in order to meet the ADA requirement and where does the extra $.5 M come from if only $600k of it is in the existing budget? Sittner: We don't actually have to add any of those fixed routes in order to meet the ADA mandate. That was just additional service to show you can either provide your paratransit service at the existing levels, but those same dollars, if looked at from a fixed route perspective, here's what you could do with those same dollars. And that put that Harmony service in there, which by adding Harmony fixed route, it actually expands the DAR and is less negatively impactf it on people. But if you just went back to the ADA mandates, it would definitely have a larger impact if you don't have paratransit service along that corridor. Bachman: Simply put, the purpose of the exercise was to explore and to demonstrate to Council what alternatives they might have for the same amount of money. Edmondson: An observation: one of the first things that you can do to reduce expenses for DAR service is just have everybody pay the $2.50 fare. Because when you're allowing people free fare, that is a recipe for trouble. People don't value things they don't pay for. The first recommendation I would make is to make the fare $2.50 and everybody pays for it. If there are some who can't pay it, there are other agencies who are supposed to take care of that, not Transfort. Second, in your cost per trip, is that absorption cost? Is that taking all of the allocated costs or is it just incremental cost? Sittner: What that includes is our operating cost. There are some overhead cost that aren't even associated with that. Edmondson: What would happen if you took all of this out for public contract? Sittner: There would be some cost savings, but there would also be some quality of service issues. I've been in this business for a long time and I've seen where you've had services that are contracted out and you have a higher level of customer concerns and complaints and so entities will bring in house and have their own drivers and vehicles and the quality of service does improve, but then the costs are up. Federal Transit Administration does have a regulation that if you receive their dollars, you cannot put transit employees in a worsened employment situation by contracting out their work. We cannot lay off drivers to give it to a contract. Edmondson: But if you're going to expand your fixed route service, then you have a cushion to be able to do that. Johnson: Gary, could I ask you if you could give us 2-3 of the strongest reasons you see favoring this proposal and what negatives you see? APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 9 of 15 Thomas: Sure. I have to say that when I first heard that they were contemplating taking $1.1 M out of DAR, I was ready to organize mass protest against that because that really was going to hurt a very dependent part of our community. But when I saw the counter proposal, I saw the balance of things and this, in my mind, makes the most sense. The pluses I had for it is first, there is an organization called PTAG and early on we had quite a few social workers and other individuals coming in talking to us about what are the transit needs in the community and they said the Harmony corridor was clearly a place where it made sense to have transportation. We heard of people who went back to jail because they couldn't get to their probationary officers because they can't drive and there was no transit by the detention center. There's an economic payback to getting transit by the jail. The second reason is that the Harmony campus is probably second only to the Senior Center in terms of places we take people just because there's no other way to get there. It's a high volume area and I think that it just makes sense for both transit dependent and frankly, people who just want to take the bus as well! The third reason and this is probably going to sound like hearsay, but I'm counting on the library thing passing and there being some money available and I'd like to see ... (inaudible) committed to these routes and if there's more money available, maybe we can add things back to DAR, such as night service again. I think in the long run, the needs of the few versus the needs of the many, the trade off here makes the most sense. Now I would caution one thing and that is if the Transportation Board takes a position, I think it's all or nothing. I would recommend that we require all three routes or give us DAR back. Price: Gary, would you like to make that a motion? Thomas: I'm not sure procedurally if I'm there or not, but I move that the Transportation Board recommends to City Council adoption of the Dial -A -Ride proposal that's been presented tonight in its entirety. Johnson: Just in case there's a procedural problem, I will make that my motion. Is that okay Gary? Thomas: Yes, because I'm not sure if have to physically be there. Hallock-Solomon: I second the motion. Discussion: Edmondson: I'm going to oppose that motion because one of the things I think we need to do is cut DAR back to what's required by ADA, no more, no less and secondly that the fares ought to go to $2.50 for all users. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 10 of 15 Johnson: We are going to the ADA requirements. That's one of the major elements that's happening here. Your proposal with regard to the fares, I don't object to that, but I don't see that as a derailer of this. Sittner: For clarification, what the City Manager is proposing is that we go to the ADA minimum requirement which includes that everyone pays the $2.50. Edmondson: I didn't understand that. That's fine then. My objections are dissolved so I will support your motion. Chair Thordarson: So this recommendation in effect means that somehow the budget has to be readjusted so another $500,000 is found to fund this plan. Is that correct? Bachman: In the summary that Randy gave you, the City Manager's budget does include that money. Chair Thordarson: It does sound like a wonderful opportunity to really improve the existing Transfort system and to get us back on track with the plan. Shock (w/PTAG): If this passes, what is the timeline for the fixed route implementation? Sittner: As I understand it, the City Manager's budget would go into effect January 1 of 2007. Bachman: As long as we get all our logistics together, it would start at the beginning of the year. Shock: And would there be any accommodations for people who currently live outside of ADA standards who rely on DAR in that meantime? Sittner: It's my understanding that once the budget goes into effect, that DAR service area would be reduced at the same time. Thomas: I'd like to add that there are a few United Way agencies that have some money that can be given in vouchers for cabs. I would think that for at least a temporary transition period that this might help. Sittner: We do have a meeting scheduled with Tim O'Neill of Foothills Gateway to meet with him and hopefully find some solutions for his agency. Shock asked an additional question about service to the Bull Run apartments on Vine, which staff answered to her satisfaction. Chair Thordarson: Just one other question, does this require purchasing more buses? APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 11 of 15 Sittner: What it may require is for us to purchase used buses. Currently, we have a fleet of 23. At peak times we have 18 buses out. We need to add four more buses, so yes, we'll need to purchase some used buses. We do have some federal grants available that we can use for capital purchases, so we'll be looking into that. Chair Thordarson: I call the question. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6-0. PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM/ TRANSPORTATION MAINTENANCE FEE Chair Thordarson said that he would like to the start the discussion with a statement about Pavement Management: If we look at the $700,000 cut in maintenance that's planned for next year and say maybe that it's okay if it's taken in conjunction with funding the Pavement Management program review, which sounds likely to happen and that in conjunction with any operating efficiencies that might be identified as a result of that study, that the program is restored to full funding as soon as possible which we'll have to say is 2008 would be desired and we'll accept the cut for this year in conjunction with getting back on track as soon as possible and if the efficiencies are such that maybe we can make up for whatever we are behind at this point in time. The Board discussed the statement briefly. There was a motion by Edmondson that the Board would be supportive of the proposed $700,000 one-time cut in Pavement Management if it is done in conjunction with the 2007 Pavement Management Program Efficiency Study, and if the results of that study are used to restore the program to full funding level for 2008 and the Board urges Council to keep in mind the time and money that will be saved by fully funding the Pavement Management Program. There was a second by Chair Thordarson. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6 — 0. Jackson stated that he will compose a memo with this motion and the one on Dial -A -Ride and distribute it to Chair Thordarson first thing in the morning for his review and approval. Johnson stated that if we have any significant dependence on the General Fund, I would encourage this board and the council to keep alive the issue of the TMF to make sure that the streets are fully funded. Jackson said that if the board would like to add this comment to the memo, this is the time to do it. Hensley clarified that TMF is part of the City Manager's recommended budget and that the General Fund subsidy would go away to the extent that the General Fund backfills any exemptions to the fee. Johnson made a motion that the Board acknowledges that these one-time funding sources we have relied on in the past to fund the Pavement Management Program will disappear in 2007. The Transportation Maintenance Fee must therefore be included in the budget equation so that Pavement Management can be fully funded in the future in a stable, consistent manner. There was a second by Price. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6 — 0. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 12 of 15 Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Vice Chair Thomas ended his participation in the conference call at this point. 7. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. MASON TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR—K. Bracke Bracke stated that the grand opening is Friday. Bicycle bells were distributed and Bracke thanked the board for their years of continuous support of the project. b. SB-1 TRANSIT GRANT AWARDS UPDATE — K. Bracke Bracke reported that the State Transportation Commission officially approved the Senate Bill 1 funding for two phases of the Mason Corridor project. The total is $8.5 M and is programmed for 2008-09. The competition for this funding was incredible so it was amazing that the City of Fort Collins got not one, but two projects funded through this process. The $8.5M is a combination of funding for the South Transit Center east of the Mason Corridor and it not only helps the Mason Corridor Bus Rapid Transit, but it helps existing service on College Avenue and the existing FoxTrot service between Loveland and Fort Collins and also can help be a hub for that Harmony Road service. The other project is the downtown portion of the Bus Rapid Transit which is the first phase of operation starting from the Downtown Transit Center across the street and traveling to CSU and back on Mason. Bracke said that staff has been working with the Federal Transit Administration over the years as part of the New Starts Program. This year, FTA came out with a new program called Small Starts and is geared for communities our size and for projects that are of the scope of the Mason Corridor Project so we're not continuing to compete with Miami and Chicago and other major metropolitan areas throughout the country. The best news that comes out of the Small Starts Program is that they're looking at an 80/20 funding split. A few months ago, staff was looking at a funding split with FTA of 50/50 for the Mason Corridor and now it's 80/20 split. And even better news is that the new State funding is $8.5M counts in the local side for the 20%. Over 12% of our local match is covered by this new State funding. In addition to that, the land that the City purchased a number of years ago as part of the overall Mason Corridor work is the land that the South Transit Center will be built on. The land value counts as our local matching funds toward the South Transit Center so pieces of the puzzle are adding together. At one time, the funding gap was $33M and it's now only $4M. Johnson made a motion that the Board send a letter of thanks to Karen Wagner and to staff for all the efforts on securing funds from the State Highway Commission for the community. There was a second by Price and the motion carried unanimously, 6-0. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 13 of 15 c. DOWNTOWN RIVER DISTRICT PROJECT UPDATE-K. Bracke Bracke gave an update via PowerPoint. She spoke about the latest information on public outreach efforts and the schedule for taking the item to Council. Alternatives for Willow Street were presented. One of the issues is how to best provide on -street parking there. Robert asked if it was the intention of the project is to require on -street parking or is the reason we're putting in on -street parking because we don't know where else to put cars? He suggested that getting parking off those streets would be intracal. Perhaps like Estes Park where there is loading/off loading and that's it. It's safer and more pedestrian friendly. Bracke said that much of the feedback staff is getting from the businesses there are that they really feel off-street parking adjacent to the businesses is very important. Chair Thordarson added that he would support maintaining a 15' sidewalk as a minimum as opposed to getting down to 10'. Keeping the pedestrian space maximized would be a great benefit. Price suggested that if we're ever going to use shared lanes in Fort Collins, this whole project is a perfect place to use shared lanes where the motorist is put on notice that there are bicycles in the road and to watch out for them. He encouraged Bracke to consider that as a design option; put a bike lane down the middle of traffic lanes. Bracke then talked about the Linden, Lincoln and Jefferson alternatives. Jefferson is the most controversial due to the proposal of a roundabout as one of the intersection improvement options at Jefferson and Mountain. It was shown to the Downtown Business Association and they were excited about it. They feel it will be a nice gateway into downtown and seemed positive. Bracke encouraged the board to email any comments they may have about anything related to the proposed project. She will be back in October. 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Johnson: Thank you. I want to thank the council from back in 1996 that set the Mason Street project on its way by putting it before the voters in Building Community Choices. Sometimes it takes a far sighted group to put something together for the next 50 — 100 years. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 14 of 15 Price: Thank you: I'd like to thank the staff for the tremendous work that they've been doing that's come together with a variety of announcements this evening that Kathleen made. Ever since I've gotten involved in this stuff I've been impressed and will never hesitate to express that I think our Planning staff in Transportation are doing a great job. Hallock-Solomon: City Web Site. I like the way the new web site looks for the City. The only thing that I would add, and I don't know if it's working, on the left, is the Traffic simulation page. Jackson: I've noticed there are some things missing and I'll check it out. Robert: Traffic Operations. I would like to get educated on how we paint lines on the streets, trails, lanes, etc and then would like to come to the board to talk about it in terms of consistency. Thordarson: Taft Hill. I've had a chance to use Taft Hill almost every day and would have to say that it turned out nicely and in a timely fashion. A really good job was done there. Mason Trail. I had a co-worker in Loveland who was having a car worked on in Fort Collins and was going to ride his bike up to pick it up and I suggested that he try the Mason trail. He came back the next day and said how wonderful it was and how mad he was at Loveland for not pursuing projects like that and he now wants to move to Fort Collins! Roundabout. I took a few spins around our new roundabout and have to say I'm really impressed by how people scaled it was. It was not intimidating at all. It seemed much smaller than I expected it to be. Price: I took a spin around it on my bike and also found it very friendly. b. STAFF REPORTS Bachman: Timberline will be open October 2 and Prospect Road the end of October. Jackson: Recruiting Postcards. Earlier I handed out postcards for board vacancies. This board will have two vacancies at the end of December. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please share it with them. SmartTrins. As of Friday afternoon, the department is no more. Next A¢enda • Downtown River Discussion • US 287 South • SH 392 • IGA Fort Collins/Windsor Interchange • Board Retreat Planning APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board September 20, 2006 Page 15 of 15 • Price requested an RTA update in either October or November from the MPO 9. OTHER BUSINESS None. 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 9:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, _ t0 X4 Cynthia Langren, Executive Administrative Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services