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, November 15, 2005
10:30am - MCRPC Offices, Hermitage, PA

PERSONS PRESENT & REPRESENTING

  • Marcia Hirschmann Hermitage City

  • Daniel Gracenin MCRPC

  • Jeremy Coxe MCRPC

  • Kevin McCullough PennDOT

  • Don Hall PennDOT

  • Bill Petit PennDOT

  • Erin Wiley PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Deborah Schreckengost PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Mark Miller Mercer County

  • Robert Hannigan PennDOT

  • Ronald Viglio Wheatland Borough

  • Jerry Anderson PennDOT

  • LaVon Saternow Farrell City

  • Tom Paxton Pine Township

  • Vance Oakes Greenville Borough

  • Terry Farren Grove City Borough

  • Mariah Hanson PennDOT, District 1-0

  • Ken Seamans Wilmington Township

  • Margaret Dutkowski Senator Rick Santorum’s office

  • Jennifer Young Congresswoman Melissa Hart’s office

  • Brad Gosser Greenville-Reynolds Development

  • Dan Blair Greenville-Reynolds Development

  • Stephen Theiss Mercer County Trails Association

  • Don Reed, Jr. SVCC Transportation Council

  • Elliott Lengel Findley Township

  • Bill Jones Mercer County Regional COG

CALL TO ORDER

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

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MEETING AUGUST 16, 2005

Ms. Hirschmann asked for any additions, deletions, or corrections to the Minutes of the August 16, 2005 meeting. There being none, Ms. Hirschmann asked for a motion to approve. Mr. Seamans so moved, Mr. Lengel seconded. The motion passed.

APPROVAL OF 2006 MPO MEETING SCHEDULE

Mr. Coxe distributed a handout noting the 2006 meetings for the MPO Committee. The meetings will be held on the following days: Tuesday, January 31st; Tuesday, April 11th; Tuesday, July 18th; and Tuesday, November 14th. He also noted that a meeting will need to be scheduled for early January regarding the Safe Routes to School/Hometown Street funding program. It was the consensus of the Committee to have that meeting on Tuesday, January 17th. Mr. Coxe noted that all meetings will begin at 10:30 a.m. and will be held in the conference room of the MCRPC. A motion was made by Mr. Seamans to approve the 2006 MPO meeting schedule and adding the meeting for January 17th to that schedule. Mr. Lengel seconded. The motion passed.

2005-2008 TIP ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Mr. McCullough distributed a three page handout. He noted that the first page explains an amendment which needs formal approval from the Committee. The amendment involves moving $370,000 plus the local match out of the STU fund into the Mercer County GIS Project in order to move forward with this project. Over the past couple of years, the MPO has approved the movement of those funds. Mr. Gracenin explained this a little further. After discussion, a motion was made by Mr. Jones to approve this amendment. Mr. Hannigan seconded. The motion passed.

Mr. McCullough noted that page two and three explain the TIP administrative actions that had taken place. Under the Chestnut Street Bridge, moved $10,000 out of construction to restart the design on this local bridge project. Next, he noted that $3.5 million is in the Betterment line item for 2006. PennDOT distributed funds amongst a number of projects in order to get a number of projects ready to go and let in the spring. Next, he noted that in the spring, we received money from the Governor and explained that PennDOT has distributed funds from the Highway Bridge line item for maintenance on some of the bridges.

2007-2010 TIP UPDATE PROCESS INFORMATION

Mr. McCullough gave a power point presentation on planning and programming summary. He stated that this quick overview will update everyone on the basic understanding on planning and programming, project implementation, federal and state funding, etc. He explained that in the future, if anyone has any questions, PennDOT or Mr. Gracenin would be happy to help provide information.

OTHER BUSINESS

Mr. Gracenin explained that we just received a draft of the Long Range Plan and will post it on our web site. He also stated that we will need to adopt the Long Range Plan at one of our next MPO meetings.

Next, he noted that we will be working with the District office over the next few months in order to come up with a draft TIP listing of projects. This project list will be presented at the January MPO meeting to discuss, come to an agreement, take a vote and then send it to PennDOT as a first cut draft for PennDOT to review.

Next, he explained that Mr. Coxe and himself attended a Planning Partners meeting in Pittsburgh in October which distributed the Financial Guidance handout that was developed by the fiscal work group of PennDOT. Under this financial guidance handout, he noted that there was a decrease shown under the 2007-2010 TIP for the Shenango Valley Area Transportation Study. The fiscal work group recommended to PennDOT that they take the interstate maintenance off of our hands and everybody else across the state so that we would no longer be responsible for providing TIP dollars to maintain improvements. He noted that if it is capacity adding to the interstate, then it will come off of our TIP. Mr. Gracenin stated that there are concerns regarding this issue, not only with Mercer County, but Northwest Regional and Erie.

Next, he explained that we will be updating our MPO voting list, which includes 21 municipalities. A letter will be sent to the municipality requesting them to appoint or reappoint an individual to the MPO to be the voting member and to select an alternate, in some municipalities.

In other business, it was noted that PennDOT received a bid for the Greenville project, which was over budget by as much as $100,000-$150,000. He noted that PennDOT is working with Greenville Borough on how to correct this problem.

Next, there was discussion on the PA 60/Route 318 interchange. It was noted that State Route 60 was designated as an interstate in the future, and in order to bring that particular interchange up to an interstate standard would significantly increase the cost of that interchange. He noted that a diamond interchange was anticipated for this interchange at a cost of about $2.8 million. He stated that a partial clover leaf, which would be required if we went to an interstate condition, would cost about $13.25 million. It was felt that this will be a problem when we review our next TIP for the region.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 11:55 a.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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