- Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the meeting for the Bloomington Metropolitan Planning Organization
- technical advisory committee. This is August 26 2026 We are at quorum and I guess we will go around
- and have some introductions Neil if you don't mind starting on my left Proxy for the city of Bloomington
- City engineer Thanks, Neil John Baten GIS coordinator Monroe County
- Morning Nate Nichols City Bloomington Public Works Department Jane Fleague City Bloomington utilities
- Tim Lawson County Highway County Highway engineer Hunter Jackson proxy for the Mineral County Auditor's
- Office Amy Garrett Oz area 10 rural transit Within that proxy for Linnea wellings
- Cheryl Gilliland, Deputy Controller, City of Bloomington. Proxy for Jeff McKim, Controller, City of
- Bloomington. Cool, and there are- Rebecca Swift, Operations Development Director, Parks and Recreation.
- John Kennedy, Citizens Advisory Committee Ex-Officio,
- Megan Blair, GIS manager, ITS department, city of Bloomington. And just a reminder for committee members
- that are online, so you make sure that your camera and microphone are turned on when you're voting,
- just as kind of housekeeping rules here. Thanks, everybody, for introductions. We're good, Pat and Katie,
- I think, right? OK.
- With that let's move on to approval of the agenda for August 26th I will say I appreciate again the
- two different formats that staff is providing for the technical advisory committee Agenda one that has
- the link documents and also the full it's just really nice to get through. So yeah, thanks Katie Could
- I get a motion to approve our agenda for August 26 2026?
- Awesome, thanks. I guess all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. Any abstentions? Seems like
- that is approved. Next we'll move on to the approval of minutes from July 22nd, 2026. Could I get a
- motion to approve? So moved. Second. Thanks, Neil and Jane. All in favor say aye.
- Aye any opposed the nay any abstentions Looks like we're all good Okay on to communications from chair
- and vice chair. I don't have anything to report Jane. Do you have anything to report? Okay, easy peasy
- lemon squeezy as one of my children say this will move us on to reports from our MPO staff Okay, the
- first one we have is
- under reports from the staff number 6.1, USDOT surface transportation reauthorization priority letter.
- This comes from the Secretary of Transportation. It's a little bit late because the reauthorization
- discussions in Congress have been going along since January of this year and then all of a sudden we
- get this letter. The thing that I want to point to first is going down to what's called Appendix C,
- existing II that's in infrastructure investment jobs act programs not to extend or modify. They're doing
- away with increased accessibility for transportation options. They recommend removing the requirement
- that supports activities such as bicycle lanes. They're requesting removal
- of charging stations for infrastructure, they're requesting elimination of carbon reduction program,
- requesting elimination of healthy streets program, reconnecting communities pilot program,
- get away with that, do away with that, invasive plant elimination program, do away with that, pollinator
- friendly practices for highways right away, do away with that, active transportation infrastructure,
- primarily bicycle lanes, they're against that.
- National culvert removal and replacement, they already feel that that's already being taken care of.
- Strengthen mobility through transportation grants, this is the smart, strengthen mobility and revolutionizing
- transportation, do away with that. Electric vehicle work, working group, do away with that. Modify,
- programs to modify are the reduction
- of truck emissions at port facilities. They don't really believe that's necessary. Congestion relief,
- don't really feel that's necessary. Safe streets and roads for all, the SS4A program. They call that
- a federal burden. Wish I could say something nice about all of this. Any questions anybody would have
- on that? Otherwise, I'll just move right along.
- Items but is this why we can't have nice things why we can't why we can't have nice things It kind of
- seems like it we already have them according to this letter Yeah back to the back to the future. I guess
- is what this is second item six point two USD OT national roadways safety strategy
- The key thing out of here, and I encourage you to at least glance at it, key thing out of here is they're
- eliminating, sorry, just a second here, they quietly removed bicycle lanes, road diets, speed safety
- cameras, variable speed limits and speed limits that are appropriate to vulnerable road users as a list
- of proven safety countermeasures.
- They did that about three weeks ago. Number 6.3, this is the USDOT Inner City Bus Atlas. This is just
- a handy dandy thing to know. We didn't even realize it existed until we came across it by accident.
- It shows all the links of inner city buses throughout the entire United States. Next item, 6.4,
- Indiana's second, actually this is the third gas tax holiday reimbursement. State of Indiana began under
- the governor authorized a gas tax holiday, spending the gas tax in Indiana, well that started in May,
- June, July, August. The tune of this is five million dollars per month.
- And the governor has said that we have ample reserves to cover this, ample state reserves to cover this.
- The question is, how is the state of Indiana gonna replace $5 million a month for the last four months?
- Because that money is all dedicated to road improvements. So down the road, it's possible that you may see
- Fewer 100% state-funded projects and this is me talking Okay, the next thing we have is item a question
- about yeah six four just when I was looking at it and this is just for a point of clarity with that
- reimbursement is is that money that's coming back to the county and city is that
- Does that go directly to like for instance the Monroe County Highway Department? Is that where the county
- money goes or does it go is it allocated somewhere else? Yes Yeah, it goes straight straight to the
- highway department and the distribution goes to the normal LPA local public agency process it's just
- coming out of State of Indiana's reserves not its gas tax reserves. That's that's the key thing to be
- aware of and
- Thanks. And they're you know, the first law of economics is there is no free lunch. And so we're providing
- a free lunch here and that free lunch will come down to pay some time, sometimes several months down
- the road. Next thing we have is an early coordination letter from a consultant for the Indiana Department
- of Transportation. This is for the new sidewalk addition on State Road forty five forty six bypass.
- between Kinzer Pike and Walnut Street. This is on the north side of the highway. This pathway would
- be a protected barrier type sidewalk that would be constructed on the north side of the bridge. This
- is to facilitate pedestrian movements, which have been ongoing for at least six or seven years.
- Usually it takes five years for programming for projects in the Department of Transportation. That's
- nothing against them, but they also had a policy up until two years ago. They did not build sidewalks.
- That policy changed two years ago. They're currently allocating somewhere around 18 to $20 million per
- year in LPA areas for safety projects that involve sidewalks and pedestrians and bicycle movement.
- kudos to them. This project would be programmed for construction sometime about four to five years from
- now. Stay tuned, we'll have additional information as it comes along. Yes. The maintenance of the facility
- would be responsibility of the Department of Transportation.
- they would have to sweep it, protect it, make sure. They would probably build concrete barrier walls,
- either what I call GM barriers or permanent barrier walls, probably permanent barrier walls is what
- they would do to ensure the safety of the pedestrians and the bicycles there for anybody that left the
- roadway in that area. Go ahead. Typically, NDOT requires the local public agency
- to do maintenance of any pedestrian facilities. So I would guess this would be similar to the bypass
- where the city is responsible for those sweeping, plowing, et cetera. But it's a discussion we would
- have with them. It would be great if NDOT was actually responsible. But I would be surprised if that
- was the case. It's unclear because it's a bridge. And so therefore, the question is, I don't know. Fair,
- yeah. I mean, part of it is a bridge, right?
- Yeah, yeah part of it is a bridge. You're right In fact, we'll ask that question and get back with you
- with an answer for the next meeting You know, there's been some bridges that have been issues for maintenance
- in the past 2nd Street 3rd Street we're in dot is throwing the responsibility for pedestrian maintenance
- over to the local agencies, so it
- This one definitely look into this because in the past, they've been very reluctant to maintain these
- types of facilities. Any additional questions, observations? Okay, we've got our homework assignment.
- The next item we have, the city of Bloomington announces increased traffic enforcement ahead of the
- Monroe County Consolidated School Corporation school year. This one is self-evidence and schools have
- already started.
- Please be aware of speeding, disregarding stop signs, traffic signals, failure to yield to pedestrians
- and crosswalks. Turning right on red, we're prohibited using cell phones while driving, big no-no, and
- other unsafe driving behaviors that put pedestrians, bicycles, sickles, students, and motorists at risk.
- This not only goes for the school corporation, but it also goes for Ivy Tech and for Indiana University.
- Um, next item we have is city of Bloomington safety week. Uh, this kicks off. Well, it started this
- week. Uh, the big action starts tonight. Um, on, well, Tuesday, yesterday, August 25th from five to
- six 30, uh, the planning and transportation department sponsored a welcome week community bike tour.
- This was for Indiana University students meeting at the Showalter Fountain, guiding them in what I would
- call a loop area, showing them different areas of the city, shopping, shopping groceries, recreation,
- you name it, and it was there. And that was last night. Then tonight, we have another special event
- called Traffic Cones. This is being hosted at Chocolate Moose.
- just down the street from here, where it's an open area from four to six, I'm sorry, on Safe Streets
- Initiatives, receive free ice cream. I will be there. Please come on down. I'll share my ice cream,
- please. The next event we've got is tomorrow night called Kidicle Mass, Back to School Bike Ride and
- Celebration. This one is from five to seven o'clock at Bryant Park.
- Please, if you have youngsters or you even want to come yourself, come join us for the celebration.
- It's all about safety and bringing pop-up booths at several locations throughout the cities where we've
- got interactions, survey questions. This is all part of our, part of the City of Bloomington Safe Streets
- and Roads for All grant, which was given to this, given, awarded
- to the city of Bloomington last year for around 1.2, 1.4 million dollars. Next item we have is future
- tip review and oh, I'm sorry, call for projects. Call for projects, this was issued on August 17th.
- If you look at the link that we've got here, the application deadline,
- we currently have is September 18th. This allows the local public agencies a full four-week period to
- determine what their projects are, to fill out the applications, to line up their funding, get the approval
- from the elected officials that oversee the projects. The anticipated schedule here, you can see August
- 17th is when we opened it.
- September 18th the call for projects October 2nd and 4th legal advertisements October 2nd will begin
- a 30-day public comment period for a draft transportation improvement program which we will submit to
- end on October 2nd also October 12th will be a drop-in open house public meeting here in McCloskey room
- here in City Hall not here but in
- McCloskey room and City Hall first review for the draft draft Technical Advisory Committee and Citizens
- Advisory Committee is the 21st 23rd is the first review for the Policy Committee October 31st first
- 30-day public comment period will end December 2nd final draft will have to the Technical Advisory Committee
- and Citizens Advisory Committee and then the Policy Committee approval
- for a vote for adoption would be on December 4th, December 9th. We'll be submitting that to the Indiana
- Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and FTA. And then hopefully we anticipate
- receiving approval by February 27th. Now, given all of that, I want to give the caveat that this is
- very optimistic. Federal agencies have been delayed because of staff cuts
- Federal Highway Administration normally would take four weeks to review something and now it's been
- somewhere around four months to six months So therefore we would hope to have the transportation improvement
- program approved by February in reality it could end up being as late as March or April and then also
- we've got the anticipated program funding levels here and
- These are shown for fiscal year 28 29 30 31 and 32 with each one of the categories that are currently
- authorized for our urban area or allocated to our urban area based on our population size. We encourage
- public participation not only at the public meetings but also in written form until the public comment
- period closes.
- project evaluation and selection we're using this this time around we're using the complete streets
- policy but it's in an advisory capacity for the next tip which will be coming along two years from now.
- We'll be changing that entire evaluation and selection process based on a merit technical system merit
- technical circumstance evaluation.
- Questions, anybody on any of this? Okay. Next item we've got here is the state fiscal year 2027 summary
- of annual federal funding allocations. I'm not gonna read all of these, but it gives you an idea of
- how much funding is available
- for state fiscal year 27 based on our population. Recent tip updates. Future tip development, that's you.
- I thought that this one was me actually going back to the 2027 summary. So this information is all available
- in the tip document. But we thought we would pull it out and put it in the memo for you so that so that
- you could find it and see it easier. So this is basically just a summary of the plan for this this fiscal
- year's allocations annual federal allocations.
- So from the period of July 1st, 26 to June 30th, 27. And this just lists out where all of the money
- that were being allocated in this fiscal year is going and how it's changed from the original allocation
- for various reasons, whether
- due to exchanges with other MPOs or any extra funds that have been granted. And so this year, as previously
- approved by MPO committees, the fiscal year 27 funding is going towards High Street Multi-Use Path and
- then the downtown curb ramps project
- preliminary engineering phase. If anyone has any questions on that, feel free to let me know. Regarding
- recent updates, item 611, I don't have any significant updates since the last meeting on current TIP
- projects, but if
- Neil or Tim have any more specific changes on the current projects that they want to share, feel free.
- I don't have anything notable. Okay. Okay. You can check the spreadsheet that's listed in the agenda for any
- Any of the latest information. Old business which we don't have any. So on to new business. We have a few.
- amendments for your review and your vote to recommend that the policy committee approve them. The first
- is FTA funding, Federal Transit Administration funding related project. So this is a Bloomington Transit
- project that's in the TIP currently. It's called Green Line Design and Engineering, Bus Stop and Infrastructure.
- And the change that is being requested is to change the funding source from 5309 to 5307 and then to
- add fiscal year 2027 funds. And this funding is to go to traffic signal prioritization.
- The second amendment to the tip is also a transit update. It is for the project called new administrative
- and maintenance facility. Currently there are no funds planned for fiscal year 27, but this request
- will update the funding to add
- 23 million to 2027. And this is for phase one of the building construction. The funding for that comes
- from three different sources. The first being some of the flex money that the transit, the Bloomington
- Transit has received in the past through MPO funds. And then the others coming from the Transit
- Administration's accounts.
- The third request or the third amendment to the tip that we are putting forth for your review is to
- add a new INDOT project called High Mass Tower Lighting Replacement at various interchanges in Vincennes
- and Seymour districts. And so as usual, we don't have specific locations for these projects. They like
- to put these
- general amounts, get them in the documentation, and it tends to accelerate the approval processes in
- the future once they have those specific locations figured out. And finally, also would like to update
- the funding for an INDOT project called Repair or Replace Joints on SR45 over I69, SR48 over I69,
- And so this project is increasing in funds and taking place in fiscal year 27 this year. Any questions?
- I don't see any here. I'm not sure if there's any online.
- Does not look like there's any hands raised. So I guess with that We move on to approve the amendments.
- Is there a motion to approve? item 8 1 Thanks, John Is there a second? Second, thanks Neil So a voice
- vote all in favor would say aye. Aye Any opposed would be same sign and any abstentions?
- With that, it looks like motion carries. Thanks, everyone. Looks like next on the agenda is public comment.
- If there's anybody here that has a public comment, please come to the podium. I don't see anybody here.
- Anybody online, please raise your hand. I'm not seeing any Katie. I'm not sure if you guys are either. Okay.
- Moving on, any communications from committee members on non-voting members not included on the agenda?
- I have two quick things. One of them is that Monroe County recently, we took part in a study by the
- Silver Jackets, which is an organization of the Army Corps of Engineers. They work primarily on flooding.
- And we, as well as the city of Bloomington, kind of collaborated in Ellitsville and EMA and the fire
- districts.
- To receive a couple turn around don't drown signs and so there was a process but we're receiving I think
- two signs For streets where we have experienced flooding in the past so that that's gonna be happening
- sometime in September and then with all the flooding we received in the state of Indiana we were fortunate
- in Monroe County not to experience as much as our friends to the north and
- The Monroe County GIS team put together a new precipitation app that's showing kind of live data from
- the NWS, as well as crowdsourced data from, I'm gonna butcher it, I wanna say it's COCORAS, which is
- kind of a citizen science organization that monitors creeks and things like that for precipitation as
- it occurs. So we have that as well as some kind of nifty flood predictions that'll show up as we get
- extreme rainfall events. So that's on our website.
- just for folks to look at as we get heavy amounts of rain that we're not experiencing over 100 year
- periods. Any other communications or? Seems like it. We had a very busy agenda today, but it seems like
- we got through it pretty quickly, which happens. Any topic suggestions for future agendas that folks
- might have? It looks like that is none as well.
- Okay, so we have a couple upcoming meetings coming up. The Citizens Advisory Committee is taking place
- today as well at 5.30 p.m. That's a hybrid meeting. And then we have the Policy Committee taking place
- August 28th, which I believe is Friday at 10.30 a.m. That will also be hybrid. The next meeting with
- the Technical Advisory Committee will take place September 23rd at 10 a.m. in this room. With that,
- I guess we will adjourn. So thanks much staff, and thanks for everybody here.
- See ya.