- Good afternoon, I'd like to call this meeting to order of the MPO Bloomington Monroe County MPO Policy
- Committee Call to order for and introductions. I'll start to my left Gillian Kinsey the Bloomington
- Plan Commission Hopi Stossberg Bloomington City Council John Kennedy
- Chair and chair of the MPO Citizens Advisory Committee Andrew Seabor serving as proxy for mayor Thompson
- Lisa rich Monroe County Doug Horn for Bloomington Public Transit Corporation Board of Directors Dan
- Swofford Elchville Town Council Linnea wellings in dot proxy for Tony McClellan Nate Nicole
- Bloomington Public Works Department proxy for director Adam Wason Jason Bannock Indiana University Thank
- you approval of meeting agenda Any changes to the agenda or a motion to approve I'll motion to approve
- second We have a motion and a second. We don't have anyone online so I believe we can
- We don't need to do roll call So all those in favor for approving the meeting agenda is submitted say
- aye Any opposed motion carries moving on approval of minutes for August 8 2025 Any changes comments
- or a motion Move approval
- We have a motion and a second any public comment Seeing none all those in favor for approval of the
- minutes for August 8 2025 do so by saying aye Any opposed staying I wasn't here All right, that was
- did you get that Katie? Yeah, okay Communications from the chair and vice-chair I
- I don't have any announcements or anything. I Don't have any announcements either except that the Citizens
- Advisory Committee Recommend to the Policy Committee approval of all the tip amendments that we'll see
- today. I Also from the Technical Advisory Committee we met on August 27th and also recommended Agenda
- items that we're looking at today for approval Thank you
- I think you just took care of the reports from the officers and the committees So moving on to reports
- from MPO stuff Item a Sorry, the first item we have is The Federal Highway Administration or US Department
- of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Federal Transit Administration
- of the fiscal year 2026 2030 statewide transportation improvement program and then by reference the
- Bloomington Monroe County Metropole planning organization fiscal year 2026 2030 Trans transportation
- group program that's on page 7 and page 8 the only thing I wanted to add to that is that it was a little
- more complex this year not for us and
- but for the state of Indiana and also the Department of Transportation, simply because there are a number
- of vacancies, Federal Highway Administration Office in Indianapolis. So normally we would get this,
- normally, normally several years ago you would get this on July 1st, and then it's crept to August 15th
- around there, and this time it was by the hair on her chinny chin chin of August 28th. But we have the
- approval letter in there,
- So we're all good to go and the program that we're now operating under is the 26 to 30 transportation
- improvement program, which is posted online, the original version and the amended version, which will
- go through the amendments today. Any questions? Anybody may have? I'm not saying any questions.
- Item B. Okay, item B. Congress is now
- formulating the new surface transportation Act to the IIJA infrastructure investment jobs act And that
- is up. I mean it expires on September 30 30th of this year So Congress has been holding preliminary
- sessions On advancing the new proposal
- And then published in the Federal Register under docket number Which is on page nine of your packet?
- docket OST 2025 0468 We submitted a Comment recommendation of what we would like to see We as in the
- MPO would like to see in the new surface transportation act I don't know how many the responses they got
- thousands upon thousands, I'm sure And so far the Legislation is not advanced. It looks like everything
- will be going to a continuing resolution The issue is continuing resolution going to be a short-term
- one or whether it's going to be till January and right now it looks like January but then stay tuned
- I Recommend that you read
- was written there on page 9 10 and 11 in response to the Public publication of the National Register
- known the following pages on page 12 13 14 15 16 and 17 or what I would call all of the associated
- organizations with surface transportation planning in the United States and I'm not going to name those
- off their logos are right there and
- but Suffice to say there's substantial interest in this because the last well the current act the IIJA
- was revolutionary in terms of what they not only offered in terms of dollar amounts, but also in the
- variety of infrastructure Offerings that they had and that's all I've got on that unless anybody has
- any comments. I
- Okay on page 18 of the packet You'll find an early coordination letter that federal state and local
- entities received This is just the ones the MPO Local local federal state entities received this early
- coordination letter for in dots pedestrian upcoming pedestrian improvements that will be done at
- SR 45 and South Liberty and Hickory Leaf Drive so they plan to According to the letter just in summary.
- They plan to relocate the bus stop To the southwest quadrant Or from southwest quadrant to the southeast
- These these updates are primarily to make the bus stop accessible
- and improve the intersection for pedestrians. They also plan to install a new bus pad, construct two
- new crosswalks across SR 45. They plan to install crosswalk signals with push buttons, as well as ADA
- compliant curb ramps. They'll also construct a piece of sidewalk to lead up
- to the bus pad, and then no drainage work is anticipated at this time. So engineering and all the other
- entities listed in this letter also received the letter. I did reply with a few questions for them,
- but the likely next step is that they'll be having a meeting with the folks that sent this letter.
- Further input and construction is anticipated to start summer of 27 Just a point of clerical stuff on
- page 21 in the list of agencies that received the early coordination letters at the bottom of column one and
- Listed City of Bloomington Transit at 301 South Walnut Street If that is supposed to be the Bloomington
- Public Transportation Corporation That might be edited and then our address is is not 301 South Walnut
- Street, but Who am I to complain? Yeah
- Did you do you know if the if they received letter we can sorry, I don't know I'm I'm happy to pass
- mine on my copy on but I didn't know whether our agency should check in with identity And update this
- or y'all or what you'd suggest These letters are all electronic so it would have gone to
- Bloomington trance. I'm sure I'm trying to create some somebody nothing in the olden days It all came
- in all came in a letter form, but in the in the last nine years, everything's been electronic So I'll
- just point this out at our office then no, it's good. They do No, and we'll note that to the consultant,
- too Thank you Any other comments or questions on this item I
- Moving on to item D. Okay, I included on page 27 to 28. Oh, looks like that's inaccurate, isn't it?
- No. Okay, page 27 to 28. I just included a chart, a screen grab of a chart I have
- of projects, and it's just kind of a place to put updates for projects. Normally, we just try to verbalize
- the updates that were given by engineers recently, but now they're in this document. So a few updates
- on West Second Street project. The letting actually occurred two days ago on September 10th, so after
- this packet went out,
- a consult a contractor was Selected the bid ended up being six million two hundred and seventy three
- thousand Which was slightly more than was estimated And is and that's in the tip so additional local
- money will probably go towards that But that's to be determined I
- Paul Saturday from Monroe County also shared that Eagleson Avenue bridge over Indiana Railroad project
- will start cutting trees for the project during the October fall break The As mentioned the in dot pedestrian
- improvements project we received early coordination letter from them The SR 446 project
- which was HMA overlay, but also possibly some minor structural between Moores Pike and Third or sorry
- 46 That it's not a formalized change yet in the tip, but we've heard through email that they plan to
- That they've paused those plans for now and
- Sunrise greetings had its ribbon cutting event yesterday And the road is now open the road bridge and
- bike path. I should say are now open there is a Nice aerial image from Lisa that's in the packet Fullerton
- Pike is finishing up with paving and Probably in a few weeks will have its own ribbon cutting and
- Pedestrian Trail crossing improvements for the solar as of August late August all the signals were installed
- and To the two solar powered lights are functioning the other five were waiting for Duke Energy That
- that they may be all running by now and then
- For the old SR 37 and Dilma road intersection improvement project a design consultant was selected in
- July and early coordination meeting within dot is forthcoming That's all the updates I have on projects
- in the tip that are receiving federal funding Questions or comments
- None I've already discussed item two and three So the tip funding distribution process overview Page
- 30 Your packet page 13 31. This is a working draft This was as of Monday afternoon we've since revised
- this substantially and
- Renamed it instead. Also, it's it's more transportation improvement program flex federal funds Exchanges
- instead of a distribution process overview and we'll go into greater detail on that within the next
- couple of weeks We'll have a draft out Lisa will have a draft out to you and to Andrew as the LPAs will
- have that out to you next week early next week but it's just an FYI is all this is and
- Any questions or comments on this item Any old business seeing none on the agenda New business the tip
- amendments resolution fiscal year 2026-02 I
- So given that the tip was the 26 to 30 tip was approved. This is a set of amendments to that document
- that have occurred since March. You have seen the majority of these already as they got changed in the
- 24 to 28 tip. You just wouldn't have seen the any of the numbers in 29 years 29 and 30.
- Hopefully you looked through these so I won't go into detail on all of them, but I will highlight that
- Item number one the bridge deck overlay at heart straight heart straight Over branch shacks to feet
- Creek near Ellisville was rescheduled to a date outside the current tip Projects or items two through seven are
- New projects to the tip. However, you did see them in Updates that happened this past spring and summer
- Item nine There were some bridge program funds that
- from 2025 that weren't used up by the end of the year. And so those were moved in forward into 26. So
- they join the funding that is scheduled for the 26 to 29 inspections and inventory. Item number 12 bridge
- deck overlay on SR 46 over Stevens Creek.
- 3 miles east of sr-446 That is a new project Item number 15 Improvements to sr-45 and 10th from the
- bypass to Pete Ellis That had a cost increase small cost increase I
- Item number 22 Is a new project that was added by added to the tip Although I believe that you're you've
- already seen this one And Item 23 is nevy funding electric vehicle funding that
- Was Not initially in the the project list but then was requested to be added back in in late March just
- shortly after we looked at the the Adopted the draft in March So it was kind of unknown what's gonna
- happen with that exactly but they asked us to put it back in and
- So we're requesting approval of these changes for the now active 26 to 30 tip Questions or comments
- from the board A question on that last one on the 23 so you don't know exactly what that's for in terms
- of what kind of electric vehicle infrastructure they're going to be pursuing
- It's what's current state of Indiana has a electric vehicle infrastructure plan Which was published
- year and a half ago two years ago somewhere around that area Projects were programmed for funding and
- then with the change of national administration in January all funds were put on an embargo and
- Recently In the last month and a half two months 20 states sued US government for the release of the
- funds as an illegal impoundment those 20 states Subsequently and other states received funds. There
- was a partial release of the funds for the National Infrastructure Program and state of Indiana received
- I don't remember the exact amount but they received a substantial amount of money. There are still projects
- out there that have not been funded. One of those that's not been funded is the project which would
- be out on Jacob Drive. That was supposed to be a level three charger for Monroe County. That one has
- not been funded yet. Others around the state have been funded. What you're seeing though too is that
- a substantial amount of private investment
- has gone into charging units and that's available on a different map outside of the U.S. government.
- But the official national administration policy is they would like to cancel the electric vehicle
- infrastructure program and direct those funds elsewhere, where elsewhere is unknown at this point in time.
- But a large portion of those funds are still being held in abeyance Hope that answers your questions
- Well, I guess this the short answer might be that that I Mean is there a specific project say in 2026
- that this 19 million dollars is dedicated to Is that that one that you referred to that level three
- charging station then like Largely charging stations. Yes. Okay
- And if and if we go to that State infrastructure plan it might have more details about like where they
- are and that kind of thing. It's Precisely where they are. Okay, great and they are predominantly like
- 99% along the interstate system, right? Hope I don't think you were on this committee last year when I
- That announcement came through of all the locations that would receive a charger Bloomington the west
- side was one of them Okay, where was the exact location again? Jacob Drive And what I can do is I can
- send out we can send out to the entire committee as a refresher Indiana's electric vehicle infrastructure
- plan so that way everybody can see where they were scheduled to be located and
- And the list of try and find the list of what ones were funded also in that funding announcement came
- within the last three weeks. Yeah I would appreciate that. That would save me a little bit of googling
- if you had that at the tips of your fingers to send. Thanks. Any other questions or comments or entertain a motion.
- Another question on number 21, which is that? improvements from Well, it got amended from the bypass
- to Russell Road to Pete Ellis to Russell Road and the description doesn't mention anything about pedestrian
- improvements or the bike ped stuff, but my understanding was that that section will have improved pedestrian
- and bicycle infrastructure as well and so I was just wondering how like detailed that description is
- Actually is in terms of that project Yeah, sorry the the field is cut off and the description field
- is cut off So there's more okay, awesome. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that that was in there.
- Thanks Yeah, let me read it off from for a second here It's substantial
- Well, it's not that detailed. Wait, is it? Yeah, it's not that detailed yet because they haven't done
- design and estimates, especially for the pedestrian infrastructure kind of in the in the around the
- curve just before Smith. It's probably going to be pretty high cost. But they are also, I think,
- They may be pondering connecting the path through the neighborhood as well But design isn't is just
- now starting for it Okay, as long as there's still a plan for a better pedestrian infrastructure in
- there. That's the only thing that I Cared about in that question count count on it. Thank you If you're
- looking for a motion to approve
- Memorial County Metropolitan Planning Organization FY 2026 2030 tip amendments I would make a motion
- to approve these amendments for per resolution fiscal year 2026 0-0 to We have a motion and a second
- any comments from the board I Have a comment. Sorry. I've just pulled up the full description it for
- now that we have which is
- Intersection improvements with added turn lanes from Pete Ellis Road to North Russell Road road widening
- installation of added turn lanes installation of pedestrian facilities and other intersection improvements
- Specifics are pending the completion of design plans in 26 Thank you any public comment on the motion
- Seeing none
- All those in favor for passing the 2026 to 2030 tip amendment resolution fiscal year 2026-02 do so by
- saying aye. Any opposed. Motion carries. Do we have any communications from committee members on matters
- not on the agenda.
- Upcoming meetings. I think that we skip public comment on matters not included on the agenda agenda
- item nine. Oh Thank you for catching that do we have any public comment on matters not included in the
- agenda? I Don't see any hands on on zoom. Thank you. I
- Communications from committee members on matters not included on the agenda Okay Upcoming meetings our
- technical advisory committee meeting is September 24th at 10 a.m. Citizens Advisory Committee is September
- 24th at 530 Policy committee is October 10th at 1 30 and they are all hybrid also and I would
- and retain a motion for adjournment. Motion to adjourn. Thank you.