- Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming out on a hot sunny day in July for the MPO Technical Advisory Committee on July 23rd. We now have enough numbers here so we can go ahead and get started. We'll do a call to order and introductions and I'll start on my left here. For those online, if you can just wait until everybody here has finished and then we will make sure to come back and introduce our online visitors.
- Just introduce yourself and let us know what agency you're from and if you're a proxy and pinch-hitting for somebody Just let us know who you're filling in. So without any further adues, I will turn over to Neil starts up Neil copper proxy for the city of Bloomington City engineer I'm Nate nickel with the city of Bloomington Public Works Department and the TAC chair Paul Satterly Monroe County Highway engineer
- Ryan Rowling City of Bloomington planning and transportation proxy David Hiddle Megan Blair GIS manager ITS Department City of Bloomington John Baton GIS coordinator Monroe County Kelly Whitmer Monroe County Parks and Recreation Tammy Behrman proxy for Monroe County Planning Department.
- Cheryl Gilliland, Deputy Controller, City of Bloomington, proxy for Jessica McClellan, Controller, City of Bloomington. John Connell, Bloomington Transit. Okay, thank you everybody. And our online members, if you can do the same and introduce yourself. Becky Packer for the Indiana Department of Transportation.
- Hearing none, we can move to our next item on the agenda, approval of today's meeting agenda. Do I have a motion to approve today's agenda? Excellent, thanks John. Second. Thanks Ryan. Any public comment on this item? Okay, hearing none, we can go over to Katie and Pat for roll call vote.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Moving on to the next item, approval of minutes from our last meeting, April 23rd, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve the April minutes? Motion to approve. Thanks, John. Did I hear a second? Thought I heard a second. Second, sorry. Excellent, thank you. Any public comment on the minutes from April?
- Okay. Hearing none can turn it back to staff. Rebecca Packer. Yes. Paul Satterly. Yes. Nate Nickle. Yes. Megan Blair. Yes. Kelly Whitmer. Yes. John Connell. John Baton. Yes. Neil Copper. Yes. Brian Roebling. Yes. Tammy Beerman. Yes. Cheryl Gilliland.
- Yes. Motion passes. Great. Thank you. Next item is communications from the chair and vice chair and I'll turn it over to John. Any updates to pass along. Only thing I can think of is that our highway department has a new road closure app for construction and things like that. So that should be on their Web site and eventually that will be sent to things like Google Maps and stuff like that through the as every community
- platform. So when you guys are driving around and have Waze or Google Maps up those construction events should be showing up. So that's it for me. Excellent. Thank you. Great. Great feature to have. I'll just echo that as well. We have a paving application on the city's website and it's a GIS map based and you can go and see which project the city has planned for paving each month. And that's
- Something definitely appreciate Megan Blair's help on and just kind of corresponds with if you're interested in learning areas scheduled to be paved this summer or if it has been paved in the past you can you can look that up. It's on the street divisions web page at the city. So with that we can move to the next item report from officers and committees any updates or things to pass along.
- Yeah, if you have one you can yeah sure a couple project updates our vernal pipe connector Sunrise greetings project is expected to open on August 30th So be on the lookout for that and our Fullerton phase three Roundabout at the bachelor school be open by August 4th it probably take a little while longer to
- Finish out the project, but that should be finishing up August September time frame, but things will be open to the school come August 4th Our first street project has been open but it's still active we're waiting for punch walk on that project
- The beeline extension project, we had a pause to complete some soil remediation that is now done. So construction is able to start again. I don't know a timeline on that. Our signal timing, citywide signal timing project, we're looking at implementation by the end of this calendar year, but still working on design there. Our crosswalks phase two project is in construction.
- Second street project is on a September, coming up in a couple of months, lettings. We're hoping that that goes well. Our high street project, we're in right of way acquisition right now, and we're currently on a January, 2026 letting. Curb ramps phase four project, we're in design, and that has a fiscal year 26 letting coming up next summer.
- North Dunn Street project we recently started design on that that's fiscal year 28 for construction Crosswalks phase 3 project also in design on that also fiscal year 28 for construction And then our curb ramps phase 5 project We're preparing to start design. We have federal funding for design and then our construction money doesn't come in until the new next tip is adopted
- I'm happy to I went quick on those but happy to answer any questions if anybody wants more information. Thanks Neil. Absolutely. If you have questions or interested in some more details feel free to reach out to either Paul or Neil on their projects. OK. Reports from the MPO staff looks like a couple of items here. OK. We have a new addition to the Indiana code Indiana code 5 dash 14 dash 9.
- effective July 1st, this is in addition to the chapter, what it does is it requires that any board meeting notice or agenda provide following information, the officer's name, the appointed authority, beginning of the expiration, the officer's appointment. It also requires that we have to publish on the website, the appointed authority's website, on the website,
- and through the internet or any gateway administered by Office of Technology. This applies only to the Technical Advisory Committee and the Citizens Advisory Committee. If you see the minutes for the meeting which we have, is it the minutes? Yeah. I'm sorry, for the agenda. You'll notice after adjournment we have
- pursuant to Indiana code 5 dash 14 dash 9 effective July 20 25. We've got a list of all of the members of the technical advisory committee and then their authority of who they represent. We'll be doing the same thing for the policy committee. This is just another another step by the Indiana General Assembly to maintain transparency. Any questions. Be glad to answer those.
- If not, I can go to the next item. Next item I wanted to share with everybody here is the U.S. Secretary of Transportation's letter to all recipients of federal funding. This is dated July 2nd. I hope all of you have read this and I hope you've read it closely because the language is unusual in that I've not seen anything like this in a half a century.
- We are hereby to delete any reference or any mention in any of our documents or any of our studies. The term climate change, greenhouse gas, emissions, racial equality, gender identity, diversity, equity, inclusion goals, environmental justice or justice 40. That's in the third paragraph and then in the fourth paragraph.
- They go on to say, not based on statute or regulation, anything relating to climate change, greenhouse gas, emissions, racial identity, gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion, goals, environmental justice. Justice 40, they're all considered null and void because they weren't passed by Congress as a law.
- They're not in compliance with existing requirements or existing court decisions. However, we must focus instead on immigration enforcement and prohibition of discrimination. Those are been enforced by Congress and by the courts. So questions, anybody? I've got a comment. Well, actually, I have a question as well.
- Do we have any data that shows the amount of federal funding that we've been using on transportation projects that have been tailored for like gender equality? I'm asking this question because this is what this letter seems to be getting at, that we've been wasting money on, oh. Specifically no. Which, and these are more rhetorical questions. Yeah, yeah.
- Our work program constitutes our contract with the Federal Highway Administration, USDOT, through the Indiana Department of Transportation. And the work program has always referenced these in accordance with executive orders, presidential executive orders, and or congressional acts, and or
- Regulations promulgated by the Department of Transportation or any other authority like that. So we've always complied with all of these and As of I think it was January 20th or January 21st A lot of these became null and void with new executive orders issued on the presidential level in terms of congressional action Nothing has happened up to this point in time
- I don't know if that answers your question. It does. I mean, I think that this letter is abhorrent and asinine. And it's an example of the culture war that's being produced by people in power at the federal and state levels. I think if we take this further, we should maybe consider that we should remove sidewalk ramps, because that's a form of equity and inclusion. We should remove audio
- Notices when red lights are turning to green for people that have vision impairments Clearly these are things that are part of the woke agenda again. These are rhetorical statements I'm making I'm not don't believe this but I think that this is a an example of Just the bizarre state of reality that we're living in This letter I'm saying by failed reality TV star and
- Sean Duffy, who appeared in the real world, Boston, I believe. Anyways, that was just my comment. We went through, I can't tell you how many weeks, three, four weeks, three or four weeks altogether, where we had the work program prepared in January. And in February, we had to scrub the entire document. Transportation improvement program, we went through.
- three scrubs all together to make sure we didn't have certain words in there. Equity was one of the main ones in the transportation improvement program. We couldn't reference equity. The Metropolitan Transportation Plan has all of these what I would call bad words in it and that's because it was developed under
- federal requirements and federal rules and laws and executive orders up to January 30th January 20th. We submitted that document to. Well it was it was adopted by the policy committee on February 14th and we submitted it to the Department of Transportation and they came back to us and said you've got all these words in here. And I said yes that's because we applied the law as it was when we prepared it.
- and the contract ended, that was the document of the product we have. Up to this point in time, we've not received an answer. I don't know if the Metropolitan Transportation Plan will be approved just by virtue of the fact that they don't say anything and it was adopted. But the work program underwent significant change. Transportation improvement program went through tremendous change.
- And that's why you're seeing a 120 page transportation improvement program versus what we used to have 50 or 60 pages only a few years ago. And then this is I look at this as just the beginning of the deconstruction personal comment in that limited English proficiency could be another one coming down the pike.
- speaking English only. Another one could be coming down the pike. Well, in fact, it's published in the New York Times today about rolling back EPA tailpipe emissions and emission controls for industries and for automobiles. That probably will come out next week, I would guess. So, I mean, this is what you're seeing for the first six months.
- What we see for the next three and a half years to anybody's guess at this point in time and then in Congress to the appropriations committees in the House two weeks ago or a week and a half ago voted out a housing and transportation bill and it promulgated or promoted a decrease in public transportation funding.
- Anywhere from 12 to 15 percent and also an elimination of What I would call green technology for public transportation now Those that's just a committee speaking. That's not the full house. It's not the Senate and not the administration, but that's It's a hint of where things are headed toward and we just wanted to make sure that everybody on the committee was aware of this and
- Yeah, thanks for that Pat and I'd encourage everybody to read the letter to if you guys haven't had the opportunity to Just to get an idea of what's going on. Yeah Any other questions anybody have regarding this letter questions staff on these two items And if you do later you can certainly reach out to Pat or Katie and
- Moving ahead to old business, looks like we have several items to discuss here. Yeah, I just wanted to share on page 13 through 17, you'll find just a brief memo, a list of modifications that were made to the current tip. Now this is the 24 to 28 tip as the new one is not yet approved yet.
- Modifications are changes to the tip that are more administrative and do not meet the criteria for requiring public participation. This is just an informational item to share with you that in May since we haven't had a meeting since the end of April these are the changes that were made as detailed in the packet. And then in July.
- changes to modifications to a couple other projects were made and you can see what those changes are on pages 18 and 19 of the packet. If anybody wants me to go through those item by item I can. Otherwise we'll move on.
- We submitted that to the Indian Department of Transportation. Two weeks ago we received comments back from the Federal Highway Administration, three very minor changes they wanted us to do.
- insert a word here or delete a word there in three instances. And then technical services staff asked us to upload it to the website, and then that afternoon we received an email from the state transportation improvement program team, the STIP team wanted us to add in total costs, total project costs, which we already had in there, but they wanted greater detail
- total project costs and thanks to Katie and thanks to your quarterly reports, yes the quarterly reports come in handy, we were able to update total project costs for everything of all of the LPA projects, all of the LPA highway projects, we didn't touch the transit projects. And we submitted that back to the Department of Transportation and so far we haven't even gotten any acknowledgement that they got it back. The transportation improvement, I mean,
- current step elapsed as of July 1st. So we're on borrowed time already. The anticipation is that they will have an approval from the Federal Highway Administration by the 1st of August to the mid-part of August. Typically it takes around August 15th or so before they'll approve it. Behind the scenes... Pat, sorry to interrupt.
- I think you might not be talking into the microphone. So it's not picking up Picking up now Okay Okay behind the scenes Federal Highway Administration is Struggling to review 14 urbanized area transportation improvement programs plus the statewide transportation improvement program
- The Federal Highway Administration's planning division is down to one person where it was previously five to six people. So there it's it's been a challenge for them to review all of the documents to make sure they make compliance. Plus we've had the changes in compliance and regulations due to the executive orders that were issued on January 20th. So as far as we're concerned we've got
- We were showing on the Web site the adopted plan by the policy committee and then we've submitted to end on the adopted plan plus the extra additions they wanted us to add. We will put that up onto the Web site once once we receive approval of the transportation improvement program by Federal Highway Administration. Questions anybody.
- If anybody does have questions, please feel free to reach out to either Pat or Katie. Okay, looks like we can move on to new business. Oh, yep, got one left there. The UPWP. Yeah, I've got the unified planning work program. What I wanted to do is I put into a memo here. It's on page 21 of your packet.
- This is the work program as scrubbed with all of the words that were not allowed to be to use any additionally. You can look at all of that and it's what I would call standard operating procedure. The one thing that's not necessarily in here is the public participation plan.
- The Indiana Department of Transportation's public participation plan and our public participation plan identifies some of the forbidden words. So therefore and I checked this yesterday on in dots Web site. So both of those plans their plan and our plan will have to be updated sometime this year. But we're waiting for further guidance on the federal level before we do that.
- But I would guess that we'd probably come to this committee somewhere around September October with a new public participation plan. Same as the existing plan only taken with the forbidden words taken out of it. Questions anybody. OK.
- Item E is just a placeholder in case Neil and Paul forgot to share their project statuses. I do just want to share with you real quick this map that GIS was very helpful in making, in helping us make. This is a map that shows projects specifically receiving federal aid
- from Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway and through in dot. These are only projects that are receiving that funding and are programmed as part of the tip and step documents. There are other projects in this community in this county being done with federal aid of other kinds. These are specifically just projects
- in the tip and step documents. So any projects that are within the metropolitan planning area boundary, which you see in green here, those are the projects that are housed and described within the tip and everything else in the county outside of that boundary.
- Would be in the step document the state transportation improvement program document on in dots website. There are a few projects that overlap in scope between both the MPA or the Bloomington Monroe County MPA area and the and the rural area of Monroe County and those projects would be listed in both. So thank you to Megan for helping me put this
- Make this map happen. Great. Thanks Katie. Now we can go to new business. Any questions on any of those if you think of later or want more details of the map is really nice. It's just really great visual summary and way to access projects. So please reach out to the pattern Katie if you have any questions or follow up later.
- Okay, now we can move the next item new business and it's federal highway safe roads initiative Page 23 letter from the Secretary of Transportation to the governor Passed down through the MPO Council passed to the local planning agencies here in Bloomington Secretary of Transportation has asked that we collect
- or identify I shouldn't say collect that we identify all non freeway arterials within our urban area of the state near an area for safety and operations the intersection segments consistent with recognized traffic control devices crosswalks intersection markings right of way kept free from distractions. In other words they want us to identify a list of all of the intersections and segments or links
- which have substantial safety issues. We've passed this along to Monroe County Highway Department Paul to you and to Lisa and then also to the city of Bloomington Engineering Department Neil and Andrew and it's an Excel spreadsheet. Neil asked me a couple of days ago on whether they should submit
- to us and we bundle and send it up to the Department of Transportation and my answer was no Senate directly to the Office of Traffic Safety Taylor ruble. He will compile the list just to ask that we're copied on it because what we'll do is we'll take the list defined by Monroe County Highway Department City of Bloomington and we'll bundle those up also for an extra punch now.
- What comes of this I don't know. They've requested that we have this together within 60 days to put everything together. Whether there's any funding on attach this or not I don't know these what's being surmised is that the list will be used to identify existing needs and therefore when Congress starts
- The reauthorization process this fall, starting in September, will have a list of unfunded safety needs. Now, the National Administration seems to focus a lot on safety, so we're tying our horse to this heavily with the hope of funding for the Safe Streets and Roads for All and also for the Safe Roads Initiative. Again, this is non-freeway arterials. I realize that
- A lot of the problems that we're having with fatal and serious injury crashes particularly in Monroe County are on non-freeway segments local roads or collectors. But this is the directive that we've gotten from the secretary of transportation. Be happy to answer any questions anybody may have.
- Pat is there any involvement from either BPD or the Monroe County Sheriff's Office with this or Ellsville PD for the collection of data and things of that nature. Neil or Paul can you answer that. What's that. If Bloomington police are you are you involving law enforcement agencies in in identifying non-priori arterial. No we just look at the crash.
- Reports for the year Typically, yeah, we have we have access to that crash data. I'll also just note that in reading the email correspondence for this request They specifically stated that there was no funding tied to it currently that it seems like they're just requesting a list I certainly support in theory Improving safety on arterials. I don't see any
- Benefit to us immediately of putting a lot of effort into this list. So in Bloomington side, we're gonna I mean we're gonna put together a list but it's you know, we're not gonna do a whole lot of Analysis on a separate front than what we were already doing Cool, thanks Thanks John I had the same question so Appreciate you bringing that up any other questions for staff on that
- Okay, we can move ahead to item number B here, letter B. Several proposed tip amendments to the fiscal year 24-28 tip. Okay. On page 26, you'll see an amendment, a resolution for amendments to the current tip. These are items that need changes that require public participation.
- Below the resolution are the details of what the amendments are. The first one is related to countywide bridge safety inspection inventory. This is a request to increase the 26 7 and 8 local funding and local bridge funding. This does not increase or change the use of federal highway funding. This is strictly local bridge from the state and
- Monroe County local funding that is changing These numbers changed because the contract the new contract was finalized in May The next change is related to Dillman Road all CE and CN face funding for 27 Is being moved to 28
- And a utilities PE phase with local and local bridge funding is being added. And yes I will fix those blanks in the table. Interesting. The third amendment that is being proposed is for an end up project for railroad safety
- Moving there was an amendment earlier this year to move the funding from 26 to 25 Well, they did not use the funding before the end of the year. So now it is moving back to 26 Another in dot project for a bridge deck overlay at SR 46th North Heart Street They want to move the CN funding to
- from 2026 to 2031, which is outside of this tip. The cost is also increasing due to inflation. The fifth change being proposed is for a new INDOT project to be added to the tip. This is for a small structure on SR 45.37 miles west of I-69.
- All of these projects are on the map that I showed you earlier. You can search by this does number here and it will quickly bring it up or you can just zoom into the location. There is another in dot project being added to our tip as being proposed by in dot. This is for putting in a sideways sidewalk from Kinzer Pike to Walnut on SR 45.
- details of the location are not finalized yet because design hasn't happened yet. INDOT is also proposing adding a new project for addressing the vertical clearance of the pedestrian bridge over SR 45 due to interchange changes that have happened recently. They may be moving it completely
- Or they may be just renovating it that hasn't been determined yet as far as I know The eighth change is another in dot project new project being added to the tip. This is repairing and replacing joints on SR 48 Over I 69 And
- The last is also a new end up project for scour protection all along I sixty nine in multiple locations. So we are asking for your recommendation of approval to take to the policy committee in three weeks for these nine sets of amendments. Is this a time to ask questions.
- Yes I just want to on item number two. Did you say that project has been moved to twenty twenty eight or yes the utilities construction engineering and construction has all been moved to fiscal year twenty twenty eight. Okay. And item number four. Okay. Is that bridge physically on Heart Straight Road.
- And the reason why I'm asking is that the cars from Greenway ends at that intersection and Ellisville is building the heritage trail right there. OK. And I know Paul has mentioned that the intersection for pedestrians maybe the push buttons are in the wrong location. The one on the southeast corner is kind of hard to get to being on the wrong side of the pole. So I didn't know that'd be a separate
- This is okay has nothing to do whatever issue that'd be more of a traffic Okay Okay issue New problem. Yeah wrong very close to that location, but it looks like this is just a bridge deck overlay But if you want to wanted me to check within not about that I can For the railroad safety project
- That just adding signage and enhanced gates and lights of the crossings or is there any reason that got pushed back that seemed like it'd be pretty straightforward I Go ahead yeah this this one was forced honest last minute I think in April in April Just a few days before the the meeting
- Received an urgent request from utilities engineers Department of Transportation saying hey we need this amendment So that way the railroad can do the force account agreement we can execute force account agreement and do The work this calendar year in other words this summer while they miss that window Somehow or another and so they came back to us and asked us to push it back until next the next fiscal year next summer
- And that's when the railroad to the force agreement. Probably they couldn't get the railroad probably couldn't get the materials assembled quick enough to do it because the railroads need typically four to six months time to be able to do anything. I mean that's that's just a guess on our part but that's why it was pushed back at full fiscal year. Did any kind of crossing enhancements or anything like
- Think it's just a replacement. Well typical crossing replacement where they replace the timbers ties You know timber ties and the rails in in the crossing area Probably moderate check the the gates and flashers make sure those are updated also and those are current because they The electrical electrical units on those burn out pretty quick Even though they're checking them all the time working on
- Yes the other thing I was going to say is this is a project for work at seven different locations so anything related to another location may have they may have just decided to push the whole thing up because of some other location. The three locate there's only three locations that are within our area that require us to vote on this and they're up here.
- I think there was Bethel early on early on. Yeah. And sorry that's Gilead. Yeah those would be gates and flashers is what they're going to be putting in. Yeah the best guess is they couldn't get the materials fast enough. I didn't notify the railroad far enough in advance for a force of kind agreement. Everything fell apart from there.
- There's pretty long lead time on building cabinets and things too. So typically nine months. Yeah. Any other questions for staff on these proposed amendments. Any motions to approve. We can do a bundle here online.
- if it's possible to bundle all nine. Thanks John. Do you have a second. Thank you. Any public comment on these proposed amendments. I don't see any raised hands. Great. Well I think we can turn back to you Katie for vote. Cheryl Gilliland abstain.
- John Beaton. Yes. John Connell. Yes. Kelly Whitmer. Yes. Megan Blair. Abstain. Nate Nickle. Yes. Paul Satterly. Yes. Rebecca Packer. Yes.
- Tammy Beerman. Yes. Brian Robling. Yes. Neil Copper. Yes. We might have enough to pass. I believe we do. Motion passes. Okay. Great. Okay.
- Next item, public comment on anything we didn't include on today's agenda for public comment. If there is, feel free to raise a hand online. Okay, hearing none, any communication from members on matters we didn't include on today's agenda, either communications or topic suggestions for future meetings?
- I just wanted to give a shout out to the city of Bloomington for the work they did on Winslow and High Street, the roundabout construction there. It's great. And I really like the new crosswalks. It's going to be great for kids going to and from child school. So I run it all the time, and it's nice to see it open again as well for driving. So thanks. I do have a comment also. Tammy was talking to me earlier, and she asked about the NDOT meeting.
- That we that pat was at is a zoom about the sidewalk that goes from on State Road 446 to the ice cream shop on Morse and I believe is a six foot sidewalk, but Tammy Suggested is this part of this group that would consider making that a multi-use path Yeah, there was a meeting this spring with in dot county officials were part of that meeting
- And so we're city and both the city and county Expressed a desire for a multi-use path. This is the one on 446, right? Correct. Yes Indot says though that their funding for that project Limits them to only doing six foot sidewalk. So if to foot the cost basically the local communities would have to foot the cost of putting in a multi-use path and
- But they are they have promised to provide a cost estimate for that. So that's still pending. But so would that be with this group or because I know the county itself will not come up with that type of money. It would be the city of Bloomington or Monroe County one of the two. And I believe the road would be in the jurisdiction of the city.
- in the future and the path as well. So anyway but that that is under discussion. Yes. And the sidewalk that's the existing sidewalk Sarah long stayward 446 it's discontinuous on both sides only goes for a short distance and then just disappears into the grass doesn't exist on both the west side and the east side too. So there would have to be some sort of a discussion on do you want
- Sidewalk or a multi-use pathway on one side or both sides or how would it work and that require? Cooperation with Department of Transportation on using their right-of-way for all of that Okay Any word on the park opening The grass trails should be open in 2027 and for guided with staff tours in 2026
- Woohoo. Okay. Thanks Kelly. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. A couple of upcoming meetings policy committee on August 8th and we'll meet again here on August 27th and the CAC also meets on the 27th. With that we can adjourn today and appreciate everyone being here. Good to see after a couple of months and all the proxy thanks for pinch hitting and enjoy your day. Thank you.