Mercer County Regional Planning Commission, Hermitage, Pennsylvania

 

Mercer County Transportation Planning

Mercer County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)

2005 MPO Meeting Minutes

SHENANGO VALLEY METROPOLITAN
PLANNING ORGANIZATION COORDINATING/TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
 Tuesday, February 15, 2005
10:30 A.M. - MCRPC Offices, Hermitage, PA

PERSONS PRESENT REPRESENTING

  • Marcia Hirschmann Hermitage City

  • Daniel Gracenin MCRPC

  • Dave Ryan Mayor - Sharon City

  • Terry Farren Grove City Borough

  • Jack Thompson Grove City Borough

  • Mike Wilson Sharpsville Borough

  • Kevin McCullough PennDOT, Harrisburg

  • Wayne Spaulding PBF

  • Don Hall PennDOT

  • Dave Bollebacher PennDOT, Mercer

  • Erin Wiley PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Tom Algorn PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Bill Petit PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Mariah Hanson PennDOT

  • Fred Hoffman Sharon City Council

  • Chuck Gilliland Shenango Township

  • Mark Miller Mercer County

  • Robert Davis Wheatland Borough

  • LaVon Saternow Farrell City

  • Randy Williams Farrell City

  • Pete Longiotti Greenville Borough

  • Vance Oakes Greenville Borough

  • Ron Faull Liberty Township

  • Kathy Zook Eastgate Regional COG

  • Stephen Theiss Mercer County Trails Association

  • David George West Middlesex Borough

  • Ken Seamans Wilmington Township

  • Margaret Tetuan Senator Santorum

  • Denise L. Anthony Senator Robbins

  • Gary Gulla City of Hermitage

  • Elliott Lengel Findley Township

  • James DeCapua Mercer County Regional COG

  • Bill Jones Mercer County Regional COG

  • Jeremy Coxe MCRPC

CALL TO ORDER

Ms. Hirschmann called the meeting to order at 10:30 A.M.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MEETING OCTOBER 12, 2004

Ms. Hirschmann asked for any additions, deletions, or corrections to the Minutes of the October 12, 2004 meeting. There being none, Ms. Hirschmann asked for a motion to approve. Mr. Seamans so moved, Mr. George seconded. The motion passed.

ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

Ms. Hirschmann opened the floor for nominations. Mr. DeCapua made a motion to retain Marcia Hirschmann as Chairman and appoint Tom Tulip as Vice-Chairman as officers for the year 2005. Mr. Seamans seconded. The motion passed.

APPROVAL OF 2005-2006 DRAFT UPWP

Mr. Gracenin stated that the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) needs to be approved annually. This year, $139,686 is needed to complete our work under the UPWP. He explained that there was a slight increase in Federal Highway dollars, or $78,749 total to be received. (A copy is attached to and made a part of the permanent record of Minutes.) He noted that PennDOT has requested that we get involved in a few items a little more heavily this year. One is the certification review regarding environmental justice, involvement with minority, and low income populations in the County. Also, to keep up on land use and transportation issues in regards to the County Comprehensive Plan update and Long Range Plan update. He also noted that as we develop our TIP and 12-Year Program, PennDOT would like to see that we get the community more involved in the land use component to ensure that those plans are consistent and we are all aiming in the same direction. Mr. Gracenin asked if there were any questions on the UPWP. Mr. McCullough commented that we need to get the community more involved in the TIP activities. He suggested that this Committee consider forming a Citizen Action Committee that would be made up of a different core of people from the various communities in order to get more people involved and make comments. There being no further comments, Mr. George made a motion to approve the UPWP for the 2005-2006 year. Mr. Ryan seconded. The motion passed.

FHWA/FTA CERTIFICATION REVIEW UPDATE

Mr. Gracenin explained that no one was able to attend today’s meeting from the Federal Highway. He noted that Kathy Dempsey will be our new coordinator for our region, replacing Matt Smoker. He next distributed the Federal Certification Review of the Shenango Valley MPO process which explains their final findings. Meetings were held between FHWA, FTA, Eastgate COG and Shenango Valley MPO over a course of two days. A number of items were reviewed such as how to get the public more involved, what we’re doing, what are our plans and programs for bike/pedestrian, congestion management, etc. FHWA/FTA noted that the work we are doing is fine, but they had twelve recommendations that they feel we can do to make it a little better. Overall, we were satisfactory and they did certify us on our review process noting that we are carrying out the planning functions appropriately for the area in following Federal regulations. Mr. Gracenin explained briefly the recommendation/suggestions FHWA/FTA made: 1) the S. V. Shuttle Service and WRTA should reach an agreement on the split of the Federal funding dollars; 2) Shenango Valley MPO should update their Public Involvement Policy; 3) the MPO should consider getting more minority involvement on the Coordinating Committee; 4) the MPO should coordinate their land use planning between the County Comp Plan and Long Range Plan; 5) the MPO should develop measures to identify the minority/low income and limited English proficiency people who live in the County; 6) the MPO should consider moving the MPO meetings around the County to get more involvement from other surrounding areas; 7) the MPO needs to take a leading role in identifying regionally significant projects for air quality issues; 8) the MPO needs to coordinate the Congestion Management System a little better for Eastgate COG and make it a little more user friendly; 9) the MPO should remain involved in the development of our regional ITS projects; 10) FHWA/FTA was very pleased that the MPO and Eastgate MPO had executed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize better working relationships; 11) the MPO should consider expanding publishing public meetings in other languages; and 12) the MPO should broaden the project selection of the CMAQ program. In discussion, Mr. McCullough commented that CMAQ should be targeted better in order to assist in CMAQ project ranking and selection. Mr. Gracenin explained that since we are now merged with the Youngstown, OH area, this is the first time we had to go through the certification review process and are required to go through this certification every three years.

NORTHWEST ITS ARCHITECTURE BRIEFING

Mr. Gracenin introduced Mr. Wayne Spaulding from Parkins Brinkerhoff who is under contract with PennDOT to assist them with the development of their statewide architecture in the northwest portion of the State. Mr. Gracenin explained that he attended a number of those meetings last year in Erie, PA. Mr. Spaulding explained what came out at those meetings and what the next steps would be with PennDOT and our role. He explained four objectives in the briefing and reviewed the Federal mandate. Under the Federal mandate, Regional Intelligence Transportation System (ITS) Architecture must be completed by April 8, 2005 if you are using Federal ITS funding. ITS is based on electronic communications standards. The architecture creates opportunities for those same standards and more sophisticated and advanced ones to be applied as ITS systems. Through architecture, they define which pieces can be interrelated to one another, what they are going to do and define the standards that allow the communication between the various pieces of the system to work in uniformity and be standard across the country. He noted that the technical work has been done, with a completed ITS Architecture for the northwest region. He explained that he is seeking approval/adoption of this architecture by this MPO that will allow Federal funds to continue to be used in this region for ITS projects. After brief discussion, Mr. Gracenin explained that this would not effect funding in the future. He felt that we should be following some type of set standards that we are using data so we incorporate ITS projects into the County and can share this data with other surrounding Counties. Mr. Wilson made a motion to support this agreement of this Northwest ITS Architecture and does not tie us to any specific project at this time. Mr. Lengel seconded. The motion passed.

GIS UPDATE

Mr. Gracenin explained that Phase I of the County-wide GIS project has been completed. All the aerial photography has been received. He noted that we have black and white and color photos for the entire County. He noted that the local funding match for the Federal dollars are in place for Phase II. The next step would be to set up a small consortium of future users for the GIS data so work can get started on parcelization for the County, creating road files and other files that are necessary to start operating a GIS program. Phase II should begin by late 2005. He wanted to thank the City of Hermitage for providing the vast majority of the local match on the Federal dollars for Phase One.

HOMETOWN STREETS/SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL UPDATE

Mr. Gracenin stated that back at our October meeting, a number of applications were received for the Hometown Streets/Safe Routes to School Program and a number of recommendations were made. The Committee recommended that Jamestown Borough’s project be fully funded at $154,474; that we fund the City of Sharon $134,000 towards their project and that we fund Sharpsville Borough $120,000 towards their project. All three of these projects were approved at those funding levels plus one additional item. The City of Sharon was fully funded at $805,000 to complete their entire project in the downtown Sharon area. PennDOT has mailed contracts to those municipalities to be executed. He also noted that the Greenville project was not funded at the State level, but explained that we did discuss at the October meeting that we have money left over in our local pot and it was discussed at that up to $150,000 could potentially be allocated toward the Greenville project if they did not get funded at the State level. Greenville Borough would now have to resubmit their application through the same process and submit to the MPO Committee for review and recommendation. In discussion, Mr. Ryan thanked PennDOT for all of their assistance in this project. Mr. McCullough noted that this was a cooperative effort at the Governor’s level to get all of these agencies involved. He noted that eventually we would need to add these items to the TIP. He then asked for approval from the Committee to add these projects at the approved funding level to the TIP. There being no further discussion, a motion was made by Mr. Ryan and seconded by Mr. Gilliland to approve adding these projects to the TIP. The motion passed.

2005-2008 TIP ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Mr. McCullough explained some minor technical adjustments that were made to the TIP in order to keep projects moving. PennDOT was able to obligate the right-of-way phase for the I-79/208 interchange using obligation authority from the previous year. PennDOT was also able to move forward with preliminary engineering on a number of bridges. He also noted that they transferred some funds from the final design phase towards construction for the Porter Road Bridge project in order to get this project advanced by summer. He noted that there were some minor adjustment made to the Kelly Road Bridge for right-of-ways and utilities.

OTHER BUSINESS

Mr. Gracenin stated that as we adopt our UPWP, there is the ability every year for potential special studies projects to be submitted to PennDOT for their consideration. He noted that we submitted one last year for the City of Hermitage. For discussion purposes, the City of Hermitage is planning to resubmit their project in order to get some special studies money. He noted that he received a phone call from the Borough of Mercer. The Borough is potentially looking at doing a study on the Route 19 corridor from the Mercer County Courthouse to I-80.

Mr. Gracenin stated the State Transportation Commission hearing will be held on September 22 in Erie. The time and place has not been set. Typically, this is when municipalities try to get projects on the TIP. Mr. McCullough noted that Gene Smith, State Transportation Commissioner, will be resigning and wanted to thank him for his service to this MPO and to the State of PA. It was suggested that the MPO write a letter of appreciation to Gene Smith thanking him for all of his years of service.

Mr. Chuck Gilliland from Shenango Township stated that at their meeting last evening, Mr. Larry Reichard from Penn-Northwest Development Corporation presented a proposal to the Supervisors for an interchange on Route 80 and Bethel-New Wilmington Road. He noted that this property is zoned Light Industrial. Shenango Township Supervisors feel this would be a big asset not only for the Township, but Mercer County and feel it is necessary for economic development in the Township. The Township would like to be considered in the future on the TIP. The Township will be submitting a proposal to the STC hearing for this interchange project. Also, he wanted to thank everybody for their support in the lighting project on PA 60/Rt. 318.

Mr. DeCapua explained that under the current TIP the Shenango Valley COG has a $210,000 enhancement project for the Shenango Valley Bike/Pedestrian project. It was initially earmarked at $210,000 and was funded in that amount. The project engineer has identified the project as under funded by approximately $73,000. Mr. DeCapua made a motion that the $73,000 in unappropriated enhancement monies be moved to the Shenango Valley Bike/Pedestrian project. Mr. George seconded. The motion passed.

There were comments made regarding the I-79/Rt. 208 interchange project. It was noted that this will be a 2 year project, with completion of the entire interchange upgrade around 2007. There has been some concern over the proposed development that will occur in this area and the best points of access.

Mr. Wilson next asked for an update on the Pine Hollow/Lamor Road bridge project. It was noted that the right-of-way has been reconciled and due to be let by late April of this year, with construction to start by late June. The detour that will be required once they link the new corridor to the existing roadway will not take place until late spring of 2006.

Mr. Gracenin wanted to thank Jim DeCapua for his participation with the MPO and to wish him a lot of happiness and enjoyment in his retirement.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 12:20 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Daniel M. Gracenin,
MPO Secretary

 

Mercer County Regional Planning Commission
2491 Highland Road, Hermitage, PA 16148
mail@mcrpc.com    www.mcrpc.com

 

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