- Let's do it differently let's start at the back and swing around so I'll just
- add to you if you're a proxy for anyone just please let us know who you're
- pinch-hitting for today. Yes, please. Ryan Roebling, proxy David Hiddle.
- Lisa Salyers, area 10 real transit proxy for Chris Myers. John Connell, Bloomington
- Transit.
- Brian Falkowski, Bloomington Transit.
- Jackie Dillon, Monroe County Planning Department.
- Cheryl Gilliland, City of Bloomington deputy controller proxy for Jessica
- McClellan, controller City of Bloomington. Linnea Wellings, NDOT proxy for
- Rebecca Packer. Hunter Jackson, proxy for Breanne Gregory, Monroe County Auditor.
- John Baton, GIS coordinator Monroe County. Megan Blair, GIS manager City of
- Bloomington. Kelly Whitmer, Monroe County Parks and Recreation. Paul Satterly,
- Monroe County Highway Engineer. Nate Nichols, City of Bloomington Public Works
- Department. Neil Copper, proxy for the Bloomington City Engineer.
- Jane Flieg, City Bloomington Utilities. Pat Martin, MPO staff. Katie Andi, MPO
- staff. Okay, do we have anybody online? Yes, there is one person online. Do you want to
- go ahead and introduce yourself? Joe Van Diemener, Director of Street
- Operations, City of Bloomington. Okay, moving ahead on the agenda, approval of
- today's meeting agenda. It's an action item so I'll need... Move approval. Thank you, Jane.
- Okay. Thank you, Neil. Any public comment on today's agenda? Okay, appearing
- none. Staff for vote. Nate Nichol. Yes. Linnea Wellings. Yes.
- Jackie Jelen. Yes. Jane Fleague. Yes. John Connell. Yes. John Baten. Yes.
- Megan Blair. Yes. Kelly Whitmer. Yes. Joe Van Deventer. Yes.
- Hunter Jackson. Yes. Lisa Sawyers. Yes. Cheryl Gilliland. Yes. Motion passes. Oh, sorry,
- Neil Copper. Yes. Motion passes. Paul Satterly, yes. Oh, Brian Roebling, sorry. Yes.
- Did we get everybody? Yes. Motion passes. Okay, thank you, Katie. Moving ahead to
- election of calendar year 2025 technical advisory committee officers and do we
- have, well, how about we start with vice chair? Anyone interested in vice chair
- for 2025? I'd like to nominate John Baten, Monroe County GIS. Thanks, Paul. I'd be
- happy to take that role.
- Oh, we definitely appreciate your service as vice chair for past several years and
- John, it'd be great to have you. Anyone interested in the chair spot? I've done
- it for the last few years. I'm happy to continue doing it this year, but if
- anybody would like to grab the torch this year, I won't fight you off.
- I'll nominate Nate Nichol for chair. All right, thanks, Neil. Happy to do it again.
- Okay, any comment on that or we can, I guess, we can go to, we'll need a vote, a
- motion and a second on this one.
- I'll second both of those.
- Second from Ryan's motion. Thanks, John. Any public comment on the 2025 slate of
- officers? Hearing none, back to Katie for roll call vote. Linnea Wellings? Yes.
- Cheryl Gilliland? Yes. Brian Roebling? Yes. Jackie Jelen? Yes.
- Joe Van Deventer? Yes. Hunter Jackson? Yes. Kelly Whitmer? Yes. Neil Copper? Yes.
- John Connell. Yes. Jane Flake. Yes. John Baten. Yes. Megan Blair. Yes. Nate Nichol. Yes.
- Lisa Sawyers. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item is approval of minutes from our last
- meeting on October 23rd, 2024. Do we have a motion to approve our October minutes? Motion
- to approve. John, do you have a second? Second. Thank you, Neil. Any public comment on our
- minutes from October? Okay, hearing none, back to staff. Kelly Whitmer. Oh, never mind.
- Kelly Whitmer. Yes. John Baten. Yes. Megan Blair. Yes. Oh, Paul, I missed you a couple
- times sorry about that. Paul, Paul Satterly. Yes, yes and yes. Thank you.
- I'm sorry. Linnea Wellings. Yes. Nate Nicol. Yes. Lisa Sawyers. Yes. Cheryl, Cheryl Gilliland.
- Yes. Hunter Jackson. Yes. Joe Van Deventer. Yes. John Connell. Yes. Jane Fleake. Yes.
- Neil Copper. Yes. Brian Roebling. Yes. Jackie Jalen. Yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Okay.
- Next item is communication from the Chair and Vice Chair. Paul, any updates to pass
- along? Yeah, sure. We've our Fullerton project and our Sunrise Greetings or Vernal Pike Connector
- project are coming along. Hopeful to set beams on the Vernal Pike Connector in February sometime
- and then hopefully finish up construction by I think it's scheduled for August of this
- year. Fullerton Pike, we got the bridge pretty much in. Still need the pedestrian railings
- but they're going to be starting on the sound wall in the middle of February. And we got
- about 26 truckloads of sound wall panels being delivered at this time. So if you're interested
- in what they're going to look like, they're out on Fullerton Pike at Rockport Road to
- take a look if you're interested. And that's pretty much it for this week.
- And I'll just say thank you for Paul for being vice chair of these past several years. Much
- appreciated. He's done a great job pinch hitting when I haven't been able to be at a meeting
- and looking forward to having John on board as vice chair and serving as the chair for
- 2025. Okay, moving ahead to reports from officers and committees. Anyone have an update or report
- to pass along? Okay, hearing none, we can jump the reports from MPO staff and we have a couple
- here. Sure. Why don't you guys flip a coin? Okay, I just wanted to point out that in the
- packet there is the 2025 meeting schedule for all of the committees, for the MPO. It was
- also emailed out to everyone. There are meeting invites that I think I have invited a lot of
- you to so that it's on the calendar, but those are kind of annoying sometimes. So if you don't
- want it on your calendar, feel free to let me know and I can remove you. But I do change
- the meeting invites to say canceled whenever a meeting is canceled. Otherwise, if you don't
- want the invite on your calendar, you'll just have to rely on the emails for cancellations.
- This was the only rescheduled meeting of the year, I believe, except for Thanksgiving.
- A TAC meeting was moved up one week because of Thanksgiving. So if anyone has any questions
- about that, feel free to bring it up.
- Katie, you have the calendar online, right? Does anybody can access this?
- Oh, yes, it is also posted online. If you go to the MPO web page and then click on the
- TAC box, it is linked on that page. Yes.
- This is in your packet.
- This was substantially updated this year over previous years,
- given legislation, recent legislation,
- and recent action also on the state level.
- This is intended for new members
- of the Technical Advisory Committee,
- and I don't see any new members here.
- Thank you all for coming back.
- But it also serves as a sort of a primary, if you will,
- for the Policy Committee members,
- the new ones where we have turnover in that,
- and then also for any Citizens Advisory Committee members
- or citizens who are tuning in from home
- or attending here in the audience.
- I'll be happy to answer any questions you have
- if you've got any on that.
- If not, I'll move along
- to the Transportation Improvement Program,
- the Draft Transportation Improvement Program.
- We submitted that to the Department of Transportation
- in November, public comment.
- We had a 30-day public comment period.
- We had a handful of small comments on the draft itself.
- The Indiana Department of Transportation took,
- and Federal Highway and Federal Transit Administration
- took almost 60 days to respond.
- They got us comments at the end of December.
- Our focus on this meeting, though, however,
- was on Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
- So we will return to you next month
- with a final of the Transportation Improvement Program.
- One other thing we had, too, was projects.
- We did not have fiscal constraint in the draft program
- because the numbers that were given to us
- by the Department of Transportation were preliminary.
- We now have final numbers,
- so we'll have to go through the issue of fiscal constraint
- for city and county projects.
- Those are the highway projects.
- And so we'll be getting with you on that.
- Other than that, the document is more or less done.
- It's just a matter of us doing the fiscal constraint issue.
- We've also requested what are called
- transportation improvement program numbers
- for the transit projects.
- They reordered, well, they wanted to reorder
- all the numbering on all the projects
- or the project assignment identifications.
- We requested that two weeks ago,
- and we haven't got a response yet.
- So Monday morning, we'll be calling them
- to obtain all of those.
- For the highway-related projects,
- I believe we have DES numbers on everything, don't we?
- Yeah, we have DES numbers on every project,
- every local project and every state project.
- So if you have any questions about that,
- please feel free to contact us
- and we'll share what we've got.
- The next item, the unified planning work program.
- We prepared the unified planning work program also
- in November, October, November.
- Went through a 30-day public comment period.
- Didn't receive any comments at all on the work program.
- The budget numbers were preliminary to begin with.
- They have since given us final numbers.
- We received a decrease in planning funds
- and this is because the state population grew,
- but Bloomington's proportional share of that population
- remained constant.
- And the reason it remained constant
- was because of the 2020 census
- when all the students went home.
- And so there was effectively
- what I would call an undercount in Bloomington,
- but in the non-university towns of the rest of the state,
- their population grew in proportion to us.
- So we're looking at somewhere around a 15% cut
- in our planning funds,
- which will make us tight in fiscal year 2026,
- starting July 1st, but we're okay for this year.
- And we will bring to you next month in the February meeting,
- we'll bring to you
- the final transportation improvement program,
- and we'll also bring to you for adoption
- the final unified planning work program.
- That's all we have right now.
- Any questions for staff on that, or any of those items?
- Bye, Jack.
- A quick question for Pat,
- and I know Katie joined us late last year,
- but we had been working on the complete streets document
- and that rubric to help us with the tip amendments.
- Are we still gonna restart that process
- just as a working group?
- We will restart that as a working group
- pending what's happening on the national level,
- because Safe Streets and Roads for All
- is one of the programs that was identified for scrutiny.
- The word scrutiny is the word they used.
- And complete streets was another one selected for scrutiny.
- Any, well, just about everything was identified for scrutiny,
- but yeah, we will be going back to complete streets.
- The complete streets focus
- will probably change substantially
- because of the Safe Streets and Roads for All plan
- that was adopted by the Bloomington City Council
- in December, December 13th, I believe it was.
- And then the plan commission,
- City Bloomington Plan Commission, re-adopted it also on,
- oh no, they adopted it on the 13th of January.
- It was somewhere around December 6th or 7th
- for the City Council.
- But that has in it a whole appendix on public involvement.
- And that public involvement process and complete streets,
- we will probably throw scoring out
- and instead we'll go with a different type of metric
- if that helps answer the question, okay?
- Thank you. - Yeah, sure.
- Any other questions for staff?
- Okay, and if you think of any next few days,
- you can always reach out as well.
- Moving ahead, no old business to consider
- so we can jump to new business.
- And it looks like we have several
- proposed tip amendments here.
- Yes, there are three proposed tip amendments.
- So the first is related to the Special Safety Projects Award
- that the county received.
- It is for road reconstruction and rehabilitation.
- They're going to do high friction surface treatment.
- They were awarded the money in December of 2024.
- So that needs to be added to the current tip.
- They have two years to complete the project.
- And so here are the funds that will be added
- per that award.
- (silence)
- The second tip amendment is an addition
- of a new INDOT project.
- Let me go back real quick.
- So,
- now I have to re-share.
- These are the locations of the High Friction
- Surface Treatment Project for the county.
- Okay, the next amendment is a new INDOT project
- for soil repair.
- Letting of September of 25.
- And they only have given us one location so far
- at the I-69 and SR-37 interchange.
- This is two million in fiscal year 26.
- The third amendment is the City of Bloomington's
- special safety call awarded project from December of 24
- for downtown curb ramps phase four.
- This was an existing project in the tip.
- So it's just an amendment of funding
- due to the award that was granted.
- So here's the current and proposed funding.
- The totals are going from 1,025,000 to 1,091,000.
- So we are seeking approval for all three
- of these tip amendments.
- Let me know if you have questions.
- Any questions for staff?
- Okay, hearing none, is there a motion to approve
- the three proposed tip amendments?
- Motion to approve.
- Thanks, John.
- Do I have a second?
- Thanks, John.
- Any public comment on the proposed tip amendments?
- Yeah, the high friction surface treatment project
- for Monroe County is on Fairfax Road.
- We're gonna be putting that treatment
- on four curve locations where we've had
- the highest number of off-road incidents.
- So that's the purpose of that project.
- Thanks, Paul.
- Katie, I think we can turn it over to you
- for a roll call vote.
- Yes. Paul Satterly. Yes. Linnea Wellings. Yes. Kelly Whitmer. Yes. John Baten. Yes. Jackie
- Tracy Jelen.
- Yes.
- Ryan Roebling.
- Yes.
- Nate Nicol.
- Yes.
- Lisa Salyers.
- Yes.
- Cheryl Gilliland.
- Yes.
- Joe Van Deventer.
- Yes.
- Hunter Jackson.
- Yes.
- Megan Blair.
- Yes.
- Jane Fleake.
- Yes.
- John Connell.
- Neil Copper.
- Yes.
- Motion passes.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, Katie.
- Okay, moving ahead to the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation
- Plan, looking for final adoption today.
- Thank you, Nate.
- The 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan
- represents our high-level overview of where we are,
- where we wanna be, how we'll achieve the goals
- that we want to achieve over the course
- of the next 20 to 25 years.
- Under current federal regulations, we're required to have,
- we, the urbanized area, are required to have at minimum
- a 20-year plan vision outlining our guiding principles,
- performance, existing conditions, stakeholder involvement,
- and a number of other things.
- And what I'll do is I'll briefly walk through you
- on a high-level, higher level.
- What I call this is a 40,000-foot view
- in terms of where we aspire to be by the year 2050.
- This was prepared for us by Burgess and Niple,
- consultants and also Foursquare ITP and Tool Design.
- This is the first consultant-prepared
- Metropolitan Transportation Plan we've had in eight years.
- This was a joint venture between Monroe County
- and City of Bloomington staff in terms of funding
- the project, funding the study itself,
- the Metropolitan Transportation Plan at a cost of $200,000.
- We went through an extensive public involvement process,
- and I'll go through that too.
- If you just look at the table of contents,
- the guiding principles, well, the study area has changed
- in that from the last Metropolitan Transportation Plan
- because of the 2020 census,
- expanded our urban area to the south
- to include some area down by the Lake Monroe area,
- which in the census department's view
- will become urbanized by the year 2030.
- We have some questions on that,
- but that's what the census said.
- So our urban area remained what I would call 98% the same
- with small addition to the south.
- Guiding principles, our vision, goals, and objectives
- remained identical to what they were in the,
- or what they currently are
- in the 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan
- and also what they are or were
- in the 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan,
- where our focus is on safety, preservation, maintenance,
- and then added capacity in new facilities
- are our lowest priority.
- But safety, safety, safety, I can't say that enough.
- That's our vision and our goals and objectives there.
- Chapter three, the performance-based planning.
- This is relatively new from the last five years
- in that we're required by legislation from Congress
- to show performance-based planning,
- where we establish performance measures,
- safety performance measures,
- and those include safety performance measures,
- pavement condition target performance measures,
- bridge performance measures, system performance measures.
- And then we're required to show the adoption
- of those performance targets
- by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
- In other words, we're in lockstep with them.
- And then we're also required
- to have transit performance measures
- that are stipulated by the Federal Transit Administration.
- All of those are documented
- from page 25 to page 30 in the plan.
- Existing conditions, the inventory existing conditions
- looked at demographic economic characteristics,
- population trends.
- The key here is that the population trends
- are showing a flattening of the population,
- which is a reflection of the aging,
- I guess you would say, of the community.
- But our pattern or our trend here in this area
- is substantially, well, it shows a higher growth rate
- than the balance of the state of Indiana.
- State of Indiana as a whole is showing an aging population.
- Whereas we maintain our youth by virtue of the fact
- that we have the university here in Ivy Tech State College.
- It shows Monroe County population over time,
- components of the population change,
- population estimates by age, education attainment.
- We're one of the highest educational attainment counties
- in the state of Indiana, which you would expect.
- Commuting characteristics, we also differ
- from the remainder of the state
- in that we have a higher propensity for travel by transit,
- public transit, by walking, by bicycling,
- and/or scooter by that matter too.
- Commuter vehicle availability, we have that outlined.
- Equity considerations were also something
- that we had to consider in terms of housing costs,
- housing and transportation costs
- in Monroe County as a whole.
- Land use and points of interest,
- low income population density.
- And then we moved on to transportation systems analysis.
- The safety, this is completely different
- than the previous plan in the sense that we have a focus now
- on fatal and serious injury crashes, what we call FSI.
- That has been sharply focused from over the last five years
- and you'll see that in the form of what I would call
- a crash dashboard coming out in the very near future.
- We also have an emphasis on bicycle
- and pedestrian crash locations.
- We've always had that.
- And if anything, that's even more sharp than ever.
- Transit routes and facilities,
- Bloomington Transit's routes changed substantially
- over a route optimization,
- which they went through a few years ago.
- The fare system also went through a change.
- We have passenger me, I'm sorry,
- passenger miles and ridership, individual routes.
- We have a section there on pedestrian,
- bicycle and scooters and showing a substantial increase
- in the, what I would call the trails or the bikeway,
- bike pathways, either they are a dedicated facility
- or a shared facility of some type or is another.
- We've had a sharp increase of those in the last five years
- thanks to aggressive efforts
- on both the part of the county and the city.
- Chapter five goes into extensive detail
- on the public and stakeholder involvement process
- where we had an engagement timeline,
- we had a number of public meetings.
- We went through an online survey
- which was every bit as extensive as what we did five years ago
- where we asked questions about commuting
- and usage of transportation systems,
- perception of safety, infrastructure,
- condition feedback survey.
- Also our committee on engagement,
- focus groups that we met with to stakeholder meetings
- we had and key engagement takeaways.
- Regional needs assessment was more of
- what I would call a macro approach
- where we looked at roadway and active transportation needs
- and transit needs, those were quite extensive.
- The financial forecast was actually compressed
- from what it was in previous years
- in that we made an assumption,
- perhaps it might have been the wrong assumption,
- we assumed that federal funding would be available
- over the near term of the next five to 10 years
- for a variety of programs.
- We looked at what those federal resource programs were,
- federal funding projections,
- state of Indiana investments,
- federal transit program formula grants,
- capital investment grants, state assistance,
- local resources and we also looked at the issue
- of fiscal constraint to the year 2050.
- Recommendations, we have a list of projects
- in chapter eight where we have a list of local projects
- in the, what I would call the immediate term
- or the near term fiscal year 2026, 2030.
- This includes our proposed transportation
- improvement programs that will be coming to you
- in final form next month.
- It also includes 2050 local and metropolitan projects,
- public transit projects from the year 2026 to 2030,
- INDOT projects 2026 to 2030.
- And then we have illustrative projects beyond that
- where we don't know exactly or well,
- we don't know precisely what the funding will be.
- So we have a long list of what I would call
- an illustrative projects and all of these
- have been identified as needs and wants.
- And then the conclusion of the document itself
- has the transportation planning requirements
- which we must meet for the Indiana Department
- of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration,
- Federal Transit Administration,
- air quality and climate change assessments.
- We do not have an air quality issue of any type here
- and never have had and hopefully we never will have,
- but the climate change assessments are critical
- in the sense that that is changing
- and that will impact greatly
- the entire infrastructure investment system that we have.
- We have a substantial area of environmental justice.
- This looks at environmental justice maps
- and in terms of where the populations are
- and the concentrations and then that is matched up
- with where the investments are being made,
- have been made and where they are being made
- and whether they shall be made in the future.
- And then we have the public survey results
- and the focus group summaries.
- And then with that, I'll stop
- and ask if there are any questions.
- Oh, the disclaimer in here, all two by the way,
- is that the preparation of the document
- was financed in part through Federal Highway
- and Federal Transit Administration
- under the MPO Metropolitan Planning Program.
- The contents of the report do not necessarily reflect
- the official views of policies,
- the U.S. Department of Transportation
- or the Indiana Department of Transportation.
- So I'll be happy to take any questions you may have.
- Pat, can I see the environmental justice map?
- Yes, just a minute.
- Appendix eight. - You got it?
- Oh, you got it, jeez, okay.
- And so the blue is, or sorry,
- the purple is the areas of concern?
- Well, they're classified as low to moderate income.
- As low, sure.
- Low to moderate income and/or transit dependent.
- Okay.
- I was just, this is a comment that,
- or a conversation we've had in the past,
- but it does still include IU,
- which clearly, it does meet those demographical criteria,
- but with an observation, it's also apparent
- that that's a population that funding
- probably isn't necessarily needed for.
- I think the Crestmont neighborhood and other areas
- in the near west side of Bloomington
- would probably have better spaces for that funding.
- Those are just my opinions.
- Yeah, I mean, we agree with that.
- Crestwood, Reverend Butler neighborhood.
- Yep.
- Yeah, I mean, I call those
- traditional environmental justice areas.
- Last year, at the request of
- the Technical Advisory Committee,
- I made an inquiry to the Federal Highway Administration
- staff in Indianapolis about the university inclusion in that.
- I received a substantial pushback on that,
- almost a spanking in the way.
- Don't even question that at all.
- So it's in there, I mean, what we did was
- we followed the requirements to the T,
- didn't go any farther than that,
- but that's what we did was identify
- the populations that are in there,
- and the environmental justice areas were also identified
- using U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies, EJMAP.
- Theirs is substantially, I'll say this in public,
- is substantially better than
- the Federal Highway Administration's EJMAP.
- I mean, it's the best one out there,
- so that's the one that we've used,
- and that's what you're seeing the reflection of right there.
- Cool, thanks, Pat.
- Okay.
- Yes, Jackie.
- This looks really nice.
- Thanks for putting this together, Pat.
- Thanks.
- I had a question on figure nine,
- which is existing bikeways.
- I think that the Carsterm Greenway could be added to that.
- That's on page 92 of the packet.
- Yeah, there's an issue with the existing bikeways.
- And greenways, yeah, bike lanes and greenways.
- I just, I didn't know who was,
- I think we've been working on a map.
- I know John and Megan have been helping with that, so.
- That's the operative word, been working for the county.
- Yes, yes, so I didn't know if that was something
- at this point that could be added in there,
- if it was helpful or if you.
- We wanted to add that in,
- but there was not a GIS map available of Monroe County.
- Of Monroe County bike and pedestrian facilities.
- I mean, we wanted that in there in the worst way.
- Okay.
- And John can attest to this.
- Go ahead, John.
- Well, I'll disagree.
- Oh, okay, yeah, I mean, the city of Bloomington,
- GIS for those types of facilities is 100% up to date.
- Whereas the county's not there yet.
- It probably will be, I'll knock on wood,
- probably will be this year.
- And I can articulate a little bit of that too
- for the county's sake.
- In terms of asset management,
- our data is different than the city's
- in terms of our maturity as well for that type of data.
- It's maybe not there yet.
- We do have fairly good data for those linear routes,
- those trail systems.
- In terms of bikeways, that data is,
- I should say the linear trail systems in terms of sidewalks
- which we've been passing data back and forth with.
- But the bikeways and bike paths and stuff like that,
- that data we don't have in a line format
- is based on signs that we have right now.
- So that's the way that those assets have been managed.
- And so we have identified where there are signage
- that say this is a bike crossing or a pedestrian crossing.
- And so we're working on trying to generate that
- into a more, into a linear format for those systems.
- However, things like the Karst Farm Greenway
- is a known trail system, right?
- So I'm in agreement there that that should be there, yeah.
- There is GIS data for the Karst one.
- Why that's not there, that's for the contractor
- and the MPO to decide.
- I'm sorry?
- The Karst Parkway is a GIS layer already from the county.
- So why it's not on this map, that's for the MPO
- and your contractor to determine why.
- Maybe at the time of the deliverable,
- Karst Park, that line on the map wasn't drawn yet, right?
- If I can add, it also just looks like perhaps
- the city's multi-use path system was turned off
- when this map was created.
- I know there's line work for those as well
- and they're not showing up here.
- Okay, we'll have to get with you after the meeting then.
- The consultant gets a couple of demerit points
- in the intro section for calling it
- the University of Indiana.
- That always happens on final four time, but.
- Okay, any additional ones?
- GIS, any other topic for that matter?
- This is more just me being a curious person.
- Something that I notice quite often is that I get alerts
- in the summer about air quality concerns for Bloomington,
- and I was always wondering what those were,
- and I know in this report it says
- we don't have any air quality concerns,
- and I'm not sure if those are from,
- I think it's generally like an ozone concern
- is what we're getting in the summer,
- and so I guess that's not part of this report.
- No, those are ozone awareness days that come out,
- and typically those come out in July, August.
- I tend not to use my Aquanet on those days.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Those typically come out late July, August,
- the dog days of August and the earlier part of September,
- and we do have a monitor.
- I mean, Indiana Department of Environmental Management
- has an air quality monitor.
- It's part of the state implementation plan.
- The monitor is at Binford Elementary School.
- That data is online, and it's been online since 2013,
- I think, monthly data and Excel spreadsheet in 2013.
- Now, looking at that data, the PM2.5 is what it measures,
- and PM2.5 was, that's particulate matter,
- 2.5 microns for those that don't know,
- but the PM2.5 standard was just recently reduced to nine parts,
- and we are at seven, so we're still well under,
- well under the standard right now for the US EPA.
- Now, I don't see that standard under the current circumstances
- for the next four years.
- I don't see that standard tightening any at all.
- It should remain the same.
- I hope to God it's not loosened because 2.5 has substantial implications for public health.
- Now, maybe John was referring to the Canadian wildfires.
- That's when we got the alerts.
- Yeah, there's those, and then there's, that was pretty wild when those wildfires were occurring,
- but there are the ozone alerts that happen.
- I think it's just like throughout the summer.
- But yeah, great point, Kelly. Thanks, and thanks, Pat, for the clarification.
- Are there questions or comments for staff on the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan?
- Technical questions, please.
- We'll take policy questions too.
- Okay, hearing none, I entertain a motion to approve the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
- Motion to approve.
- John, do I have a second?
- Second.
- Jane?
- Any public comment on the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan?
- Okay, hearing none, back to staff for roll call vote.
- This is an approval with the fixing of the things you brought up today, just to be clear.
- Kelly Whitmer?
- Yes.
- Joe Van Deventer?
- Yes.
- Hunter Jackson?
- Yes.
- John Connell?
- Yes.
- Jane Fleek?
- Yes.
- Payton?
- Yes.
- Nate Nichol?
- Yes.
- Lisa Salyers?
- Yes.
- Cheryl Gilliland?
- Yes.
- Paul Satterly?
- Yes.
- Linnea Wellings?
- Yes.
- Ryan Robling?
- Yes.
- Jackie Jelen?
- Yes.
- Neil Copper?
- Yes.
- Megan Blair?
- Yes.
- Motion passes.
- Thank you.
- Moving along, any public comment on matters we did not touch on on today's agenda?
- Hearing none, any communications from any committee members on matters we did not include
- on today's agenda?
- That can include communication or suggestions for future meeting agendas?
- I'm just curious if we're going to stick with this format.
- The roll call vote is just timely, it takes time, so I don't know if we're going to stick
- with the hybrid meetings or go back to none or what the plan is.
- The format of the hybrid meetings was dictated to us by the General Assembly.
- So what we do is we follow the guidance from the General Assembly and from legal counsel
- and that's what we do.
- So as far as until otherwise directed on the federal level, we'll go with that.
- Thank you.
- I know this has been a longer meeting already, but I do have a comment and I wanted to commend
- the City of Bloomington and Monroe County Road maintenance crews for the cleaning up
- of streets after the big snowstorm.
- At the same time, I am an active runner in town and a pedestrian and I did see in the
- analysis of one of the reports you presented showing that Bloomington is a community that
- has a large demographic of people that are using sidewalks and things like that for getting
- around.
- In my travels through town, I will say that the cleanup of these sidewalks has been, for
- lack of better words, visible in some areas.
- So I would be interested in what processes the city and the county are using to address
- those things.
- There are some sidewalks right now that have heavy pedestrian usage that have a three inch
- deep layer of ice on them.
- These are fairly heavily used that are within easements that are maintained by the city
- or for different private entities and things like that.
- So that's one thing.
- And I would also offer that Monroe County GIS would be happy to deploy a web application
- or something like that to assist if that would be something that might be of interest.
- I know the e-reporting system has been used, but I'm just trying to think of proactive
- measures.
- If no one in this group wants to speak to that, I certainly can.
- So tomorrow, this is a known issue for the City of Bloomington Council and the Office
- of the Mayor.
- There is a department head level meeting tomorrow regarding snow removal.
- GIS team has already created a draft interactive web application for the areas that are removed
- or cleared from snow on city property, as well as RDC properties and parks property.
- And that will be made available to the public, a pending approval by the Office of the Mayor.
- So I guess I will just say sit tight.
- We're working on it.
- Awesome. Thanks, Megan.
- Thanks, Megan.
- Yeah, I'll echo what John said.
- The crews did a great job with the snow that just kept coming and coming.
- And sidewalks were an issue in the city.
- It's unique where the sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner.
- So clearing snow is the onus is on the property owner unless it's a side path, which public works
- responsibility.
- So just some of the things out there is please help your neighbors.
- We also have a volunteer shoveling program.
- And it's really I know we got a lot of snow, but just like you said, those are pretty, pretty
- heavily traveled.
- So people need to be aware that there's a responsibility and get out there and shovel.
- Thanks, Megan.
- Topic suggestion for a future meeting. I know that the Indianapolis MPO utilizes a program where
- they basically swap their federal funding or state funding.
- And they get, I think, 90 percent of the total funding, but then they don't have as many
- requirements on that funding.
- They don't have to go through the NEPA process.
- There's a lot less risk for losing your funding when you don't have the same, you know, permits and
- delays for going through the kind of full in that process.
- So I think there are a lot of benefits to it.
- I'm not saying that this MPO would definitely be interested, but I do think it is worth looking
- into and seeing is that an option for us learning more about it and just having that information.
- We can do that.
- Any other comments, suggestions, just topics anyone would like to pass along.
- Go ahead, Jackie. I wanted to tell MPO staff, I really like the addition of the map link for the
- tip amendments that really helped me. So thank you for that.
- I second that. Yes, that is nice.
- 100% credit goes to Katie.
- Any other items.
- Okay, with that we have a couple upcoming meetings, our next meeting will be February 26 at 10am.
- We'll see you then.
- Thank you everybody for spending some time this morning. I know it's a longer meeting, but it's
- definitely good to all be in the same room and and tackle some of these issues so thank you and we'll
- see you next month.
- Thank you all.
- Thank you.