GRIFFIN-SPALDING AREA TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE AFTER AGENDA

January 15, 2014 1:30 p.m.

Meeting Room (#108), SpaldingCounty Annex, 119 East Solomon Street, Griffin

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Members Present: Doug Hollberg, Samuel Gardner, Brant Keller, William P. Wilson, Jr., Kenny Smith, Chad Jacobs, Dick Morrow, Bonnie Pfrogner, Michelle Cannon, Eddie Freeman, Bart Miller, B. Frank Harris. Executive Secretary, Kathy Gibson, was present to record the minutes. Also in attendance were: Daniel Pass of GDOT, Jack Reed of GDOT, Chip Burger with URS Corporation, and Clay Davis of Sun City.

I. Opening (Call to Order) – Chairman Doug Hollberg

II. Nomination and Election of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary

A. Election of Chairman to the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion/Second by Morrow/Pfrogner to elect Samuel Gardner as Chairman of the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion carried unanimously by all. Past Chairman Hollberg thanked everyone for allowing him to serve this past year and stated that he looked forward to Chipper’s leadership. The meeting was then turned over to Chairman Gardner.

B. Election of Vice-Chairman to the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion/Second by Hollberg/Keller to elect Dick Morrow as Vice Chairman of the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion carried unanimously by all.

C. Election of Secretary to the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion/Second by Hollberg/Keller to elect William Wilson as the Secretary to the Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee for Calendar Year 2014. Motion carried unanimously by all.

III. Minutes

Approval of the November 20, 2013 Meeting Minutes.

Motion/Second by Morrow/Hollberg to approve the minutes for the November 20, 2013 Meeting. Motion carried unanimously by all.

IV. Old Business – None.

V. New Business

A. TAQC Update – Chairman Gardner

Chairman Gardner stated that he attended the TAQC meeting at ARC in Atlanta this month. The only item of concern to the committee at this time is that ARC is continuing to fine tune the Atlanta Urban Area boundary. There will be a meeting later this month here at the Three Rivers Office with the ARC to meet with representatives from Pike County, Coweta County and Carroll County because they are being considered for inclusion in the urban area boundary. When we get the results from that meeting we will make sure that all members are advised.

B. GDOT Project Status Report – Jack Reed Jack Reed distributed a spreadsheet outlining the activities currently underway in the Spalding County Area and highlighting the changes since the last meeting (attached).

Mr. Reed spoke regarding: Project No. 3 (331650), CR360/McIntosh Road at Flint River at the Fayette/Spalding County Line. The work is on schedule due for a September 2015 letting. Fayette County is in the process of purchasing the right of way and doing project engineering. Project No. 8 (0000409), SR16 at CR496/Old 85 Connector and CR 688/Hollonville Rd. Final Field Plan Review will be requested this month. The project is behind on the base line but will make the June 2014 letting. Project No. 9 (0000410), SR362 at CR507/Rover-Zetella Road/Moreland Road. This project is on schedule for April Final Field Plan Review. The DOT is still working on easements and utility coordination. Tentatively this is scheduled for an October 2014 letting. Mr. Reed asked Daniel Pass to speak regarding Project No. 17 (331910), CR508/Jordan Hill Road north of Griffin at Troublesome Creek Tributary. Mr. Pass stated there was a meeting with the Chief Engineer, resulting in the decision to pursue a culvert and also to submit an application to the Corps of Engineers for approval of the culvert. The Chief Engineer recommended that the County proceed with the project engineering and the acquisition of the right of way.

Project County No. 18 (322890), SR3/US19 at SR16 in Griffin. This project is currently on schedule for a May 2014 letting. Construction funds moving into fiscal year 2014.

Dick Morrow raised a question regarding the SR16 at Rover-Zetella Road construction project which was not on the spreadsheet. Mr. Reed advised that the project had already let and that is why it was not on the spreadsheet. At this point in that project they are still waiting on utilities to relocate.

C. 5311 Rural Transit Program Update – Robert Hiett/Jennifer Baptiste Mr. Hiett provided the committee with a Transit Operations Snapshot of the Spalding County 5311 Rural Transportation Program (attached). He then gave a quick overview of our operating statistics for this year. Through the first four months of this program we have provided 11,000 trips. Historically the Griffin-Spalding area will generate between 32 and 36,000 trips per year. Two main uses of the system continue to be employment and employment related opportunities and to assist our seniors in the community with medical trips. In July, Three Rivers Regional Commission transitioned the operations from the Council on Aging to Crawley Transportation. Three Rivers is working with Crawley on personnel and service issues to increase the response to the community. Three Rivers has levied fines on the contractor in the last 60 days and are working with them on their staffing challenges. Three Rivers has not yet finalized the contract and application process with GDOT and are recommending replacement of the Griffin-Spalding County Transit buses in Fiscal 2015. The last cost estimates were $18,000 match combined City and County to replace the 5 buses. Dick Morrow stated that he hears a lot of complaints regarding the Public Transit Operations, but when you look at the statistics it appears that 58% of the people using the service are for transportation to and from work. This is a positive utilization of the service and if more people could see the statistics, they would realize that this is a real community asset.

D. N. Hill Street Intersection Improvement Projects Update – Continued Discussion William Wilson stated that the county commissioners set priorities on the intersections as follows: Priority I intersection is North Hill Street/Northside drive/Tuskegee Avenue. Priority II Intersection is East

McIntosh/North Hill Street. The Board agreed to move ahead with engineering and design only for the roundabout at the Northside Drive intersection to obtain more accurate costs of relocating utilities and the purchase of right of way. A final determination will be made after the engineering and design phase is completed. The bridge over Cabin Creek replacement was not included in those discussions. To include the bridge project would rule out improvements on one of the intersections. The bridge replacement project may be included as one of the projects on the 2014 SPLOST.

Brant Keller stated that Intersection I is designed and ready and at the next commission meeting the City will go ahead and engage Steve Manley for right of way acquisition. It is the City’s intention to break ground sometime in the third quarter, it will all depend on how the right of way acquisition goes. There are six parcels to be acquired.

E. Transportation Projects for upcoming SPLOST – Continued Discussion Chairman Gardner stated that with the tight timeline, we would have work under in order to have the SPLOST vote in May it was decided to move the SPLOST to the November 2014 election. Doug Hollberg stated that for the previous SPLOST this committee had a subcommittee that put together and prioritized transportation projects. The Committee may want to look at putting a subcommittee together so that in the next two to three months we can come up with a priority list to assist the County Commission and the City Commission as they move forward in this effort. William Wilson confirmed that for the previous SPLOST there was a subcommittee that made recommendations regarding priority of transportation projects. Chairman Gardner advised that there have been several groups or committees to submit projects that they would like to see included in the 2014 SPLOST, but there has been no official determination as to what projects will be included. It does appear that most of the requests have been more inclined toward transportation type projects. Chairman Gardner asked for volunteers for the SPLOST subcommittee. The subcommittee will consist of: Doug Hollberg, Brant Keller, Kenny Smith, Chipper Gardner, Chad Jacobs and William Wilson.

F. Member Introduced Topics Brant Keller stated that the City is finishing up the sidewalks on the existing

SPLOST and once the weather breaks and the asphalt and cement companies are delivering the City will be on Poplar Street completing that project. The City is making progress on identifying projects for the 2014 SPLOST. On Wednesday, January 22, at 2:00 p.m. the City will get the DOT results on Hwy 19/41 at Varsity Road intersection the meeting will be in the Otis Blake Room at Southern Crescent Technical College.

On Thursday, January 23rd, the City will be meeting with GDOT on Project 10033 which is the LCI and will have all of the utility contractors at our offices across the street discussing what is going to happen with the LCI.

GDOT submitted the 6th Street Bridge for award consideration in Category 1 for being context sensitive and the bridge received an award from the State Engineers Association. Dick Morrow stated that the Airport Authority had asked the FAA for reconsideration of their policy requiring purchase of all property required with reimbursement at the completion of construction. The Airport Authority asked if they could just put up the local match of $6M toward the purchase of the land and FAA/GDOT pick up their share and keep going. FAA said they would give the Authority a decision in early January, but they do not have a decision as yet. Once notified of their decision, the Authority will pass it along to the City and County. Frank Harris said that he had contacted Mr. Sam Welbourne our GDOT Board Member. Mr. Harris stated that Mr. Welbourne gave him the impression that all we have to do is ask and if it is something within the realm of what he can do he will help. Dick Morrow stated that Mr. Welbourne indicated that there is money available for beautification projects. He may also be able to help us with the University of Georgia Sign on I-75. Kenny Smith advised that the City and County are searching for a new Transportation Planner, if anyone knows of someone who would be interested in the job of Transportation Planner, we would love to hear from them. William Wilson advised that the County is working on finishing up our SPLOST resurfacing. We are doing about 24 miles with the LMIG and a combination of an old LARP that we had left over. There are two roads left, one of those being North McDonough Road and the second being Swint Road. We have submitted our 2014 LMIG request.

VI. Public Comment Chip Burger of URS Corporation Mr. Burger stated that the Transit feasibility study started the New Year off with a bang. URS had a public outreach session in the Customer Service Lobby of City Hall on Friday, January 23rd, where they greeted people as they came in to pay their bills. The meeting was an open house setting where customers could talk to

representatives about the Transit Feasibility Study and they distributed over 200 fact sheets about the project. During that Open House they collected over 50 of the surveys that were given out. URS is about 50% complete with the stake holder interviews. They have almost 200 completed surveys collected so far. On Thursday, January 30, at 6 pm URS will hold another public meeting in the Board Room at the City Hall. URS will continue our community outreach activities. The project is on schedule and is on budget. URS has completed preliminary summaries on the survey, but they are going to continue to receive the surveys. Daniella Emina, 1010 Amicolola Court, Griffin, GA

Ms. Emina stated that her brother who has special needs is dependent on the transportation program to get him to and from Southern Crescent Technical College where he is attending classes. The company available to service him is continuously late in picking up him up causing distress. Mr. Hiett stated that he had just found out about this today. He will be looking into this problem as he had not heard it about it until today.

VII. Report of Transportation Planner - N/A

VIII. Report of Committee Members Frank Harris

The Griffin-Spalding Chamber of Commerce Transportation Council has its first meeting scheduled on Monday, January 27 at 7:30 AM. The speaker will be Mr. Bill Roundtree, with the Parsons Group, formerly of the GDOT. Mr. Harris advised that the meeting may have to be moved to February 3, 2014 due to conflicts. Dick Morrow

Mr. Morrow introduced Mr. Clay Davis as the Sun City, Secretary of State, he keeps the Sun City folks up-to-date on what is happening in our community.

IX. Announcements

The next regular meeting will be held on March 19, 2014 at 1:30 p.m.

X. Adjournment Motion/Second by Freeman/Hollberg to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously by all. Meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.