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TRANSCRIPT
Location:
Meeting Agenda
Public Works and Safety CommitteeStanding Committee Review
Monday, January 13, 20145:00 PM
Municipal Office Building701 N 7th StreetKansas City, Kansas 661015th Floor Conference Room
Name Absent
Commissioner Mike Kane, Chair gfedc
Commissioner Hal Walker gfedc
Commissioner Tarence Maddox gfedc
Commissioner Angela Markley gfedc
Commissioner Jane Philbrook gfedc
Jeff Bryant - BPU gfedc
. I Call to Order / Roll Call
. II Approval of standing committee minutes from December 16, 2013.
. III Committee Agenda
Synopsis:
Tracking #:
Item No. 1 - UPDATE: ROSEDALE TRANSIT ROUTE
Update on the new transit route in Rosedale that was approved by the commission during the 2014 budget process, by Emerick Cross, Transportation Director. For information only; no action required.
140008
. IV Outcomes
Synopsis:
Tracking #:
Item No. 1 - INFRASTRUCTURE GOALS
Infrastructure. Presentation and discussion on a list of projects that staff considers good candidates from which to select projects for federal transportation funding, submitted by Bill Heatherman, County Engineer.
140007
. V Adjourn
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PUBLIC WORKS AND SAFETY STANDING COMMITTEE MINUTES
Monday, December 16, 2013
The meeting of the Public Works and Safety Standing Committee was held on Monday,
December 16, 2013, at 5:00 p.m., in the 6th Floor Human Resources Training Room of the
Municipal Office Building. The following members were present: Commissioner Kane,
Chairman; Commissioners Philbrook, Markley, Maddox (arrived at 5:05 p.m.), Walker, and BPU
Board Member Jeff Bryant.
Chairman Kane called the meeting to order. Roll call was taken and all members were present
as shown above.
Chairman Kane said I will note that a blue sheet has been distributed tonight adding two items
under our Committee Agenda. One is a request for budget revision for a bus route and other
item relates to Mark’s proposed policy on transit funding.
Approval of standing committee minutes for November 18, 2013. On motion of Commissioner
Markley, seconded by Commissioner Philbrook, the minutes were approved. Motion
carried unanimously.
Committee Agenda:
Item No. 1 – 130417 and 130418…INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENT GOALS
Synopsis:
a. Infrastructure. Presentation on the upcoming application round for federal
transportation funding administered by the Mid-America Regional Council, by Bill
Heatherman, County Engineer. Staff estimates the UG is in a good position to be
awarded $4-6M which would require local design and matching funds.
b. Environment. Review of the UG’s 2013 Stormwater Management Program and the
intent for 2014.
c. Public Safety. No discussion
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.
Bob Roddy, Director of Public Works, said as an introduction when we brought these two
items forward for Standing Committee consideration we recognize these are basically the
Commissioner’s own goals. One of them falls under infrastructure and the other falls under
environment. If you look at your strategic goals, what these programs are, are in response to
what the Commissioner’s set out for us to do. The first one is on infrastructure and I’ll turn it
over to Bill Heatherman.
Bill Heatherman, County Engineer, said the first item has to do with how we get major federal
funding to the city and county for highway and transportation projects. The main federal
allocation process is actually programmed through the Mid-America Regional Council. Funds
that would otherwise go generally to the state of Kansas are segregated for the metropolitan
urban areas, those large enough to have a local planning organization. Those local planning
organizations create a process so that the way projects are selected and vetted meet the needs of
the local community and have more local participation and control. The way that actually works
is there are several large funding pots each of which Mid-America Regional Council has a policy
and program around. The largest one on transportation funding is called the Surface
Transportation Program, its acronym is STP. That’s worth knowing because that means lots of
money. Does it translate that way, but that’s what it means. Generally speaking, every two
years there’s a call for projects. Two years worth of funding is awarded and blessed and
approved. Then we go to work on the projects that we get making sure we can get them out the
door and through the KDOT process in time to use that money in the fiscal year that it was
allocated.
The next call for projects is going to come up in January with applications due in March. Final
project selection and award, I believe not, until July or so. It’s a fairly lengthy process. Staff at
Mid-America Regional Council do an awful lot of evaluation and vetting. There’s an actual
committee made up of representatives from the various cities that look over those scores, make
comments to them and then ultimately it goes to a large governing committee at Mid-America
Regional Council called the Total Transportation Policy Committee or TTPC. They make
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official recommendation to the MARC Board. It’s a very lengthy project; it needs to be because
there’s a lot of money at stake. There’s a lot of equity, fairness and competitiveness in terms of
the goals. It’s a competition oriented process and it’s driven a lot by the 40 year transportation
master plan and what that master plans says is are goals and objectives.
We are bringing this to you tonight in part because we’ve heard loud and clear from the previous
goal setting session that Commissioner’s want more information and participation on how this
program runs and how we select projects to make applications on. I know in various individual
conversations I’m sometimes asked, so when did we apply for that? How did we get the money
for that? Is that one that’s getting federal funds? This is the process by which we go through
that.
This next call for projects is also a little unusual. There’s other funding pots that have been used
for certain types of projects; Congestion Mitigation Air Quality, which has been used for some
types - CMAC is its acronym. There’s also under the new Federal Highway Bill a new
composite program that brings a lot of the sidewalk trails, esthetics safe routes money all
together under the new acronym called TAP. For whatever reason, this is going to be a grand-
daddy application round. All three of those programs will have multiple years of funding all at
stake on basically the same timetable with the same deadline for us to make applications. It’s a
pretty significant effort that we will undertake right after the first of the year.
Commissioner Philbrook said do we have to have it in by March. Is that what you said? Mr.
Heatherman said the City has to turn its applications in by March. The exact dates haven’t been
announced yet, however, we ourselves will have to make our shortlist probably a couple of
months before then so we can actually put those applications together.
Mr. Roddy said as a caution there is criteria to all of these projects. This isn’t a Christmas tree
where we can submit anything. The number of applications we submit is usually three or four.
When you think of the projects we’ve done in the past that have basically been at least partially
funded; we are talking about Merriam, State Ave., probably Parallel, something of that level of
magnitude and some of the trails as well. Those are not the same dollar but you know as far as
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the trail system, they are big dollars. The reason we brought this to the Commission we want
your input. If you think we should consider a road, we certainly will discuss it with you and see
if it’s appropriate. As Bill mentioned, this is part of our CMIP plan. These projects will be in
2016, 2017 and 2018. So we are a few years out on these. Chairman Kane asked and this is for
information only, correct? Mr. Heatherman said this is for information only tonight. Bob, I
believe our plan was to come back again in January after the call for projects is either announced
or closer to being announced and be able to report back on a few more specifics of what we’re
thinking. Commissioner Kane asked any other questions by Commissioners? Mr.
Heatherman said I’ll make one request, Mr. Kane, I think we did want to invite the
Commissioners if they have a specific set of questions or particular possible projects that they
think should be evaluated, to route those through Bob and myself so that we can make sure we’re
aware. Commissioner Philbrook said I know you guys are aware of Leavenworth Road. Mr.
Heatherman said yes and in fact the current project proposed on Leavenworth Road is funded
through both the STP program and the CMAC.
Action: For information only.
Item No. 2 – 130425…PROPOSED MARC POLICY ON TRANSIT FUNDING
Synopsis: Communication seeking direction and input regarding UG’s position on MARC’s
proposed policy on Transit Funding, submitted by Bill Heatherman, County
Engineer, and Emerick Cross, Director of Transit.
Mr. Heatherman said I’m going to ask our county surveyor Brent Thompson to come up here
with me. This is primarily an information item on a major program that we do run under our
stormwater. Brent is our county surveyor. He’s been on board for a little over a year. He did
not know that Stormwater Manager was in his job description but he’s taken that on. I have
several other members of our team that help us with the Stormwater Management Program;
Sarah Fjell, raise your hand. Sarah’s our Stormwater Engineer and we also have Bennish
Consultants who provides a lot of our help; Chris Burns, and then he has gentleman on his staff,
Clint Manderfield that has provided a lot of our work.
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Highlights of Upcoming Issues & 2013 Progress
To the Public Works & Safety Standing Committee, Dec 2013
Brent Thompson, RLS – Stormwater Manager/County Surveyor
Bill Heatherman, P.E. – County Engineer
In your packet we have a couple of slides that you can follow along with on our presentation.
Part of the reason for bringing this to you tonight is we are finishing year one of the revised plan
that we’re under as a result of the consent decree. We’ve actually been under this program for
over ten years. Some of these individual elements have been under way for various lengths of
time. There’s no doubt that the consent decree drove us to upgrade the program and add some
elements and focus more intensively on other elements that were already in place.
The second slide in that handout is kind of a grainy photo of a cross section of a community.
What that basically is illustrating is that except for certain parts of our city, when water goes
down a pipe, stormwater, it’s going straight to a river or a creek. It’s not making any detours
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along the way. You’ve heard a lot about our combined sewer system and that is about the
eastern third of the city, that’s different, that’s a system where both stormwater and sanitary go
into the same pipe. EPA has a lot of issues with that and it’s going to drive an awful lot of our
future in that portion of the city. In the remainder of the city those are separate systems and EPA
nationally cares about the quality of the water that goes through those separated pipes as well as
just the shear impact that any changes in the way runoff makes it to a creek; the impact that
might have on the stability of the creek, the amount of erosion and the impact that might have on
the aquatic life. We have a number of programs that are targeted for that type of a condition.
Pollutants of ConcernSedimentYard Waste- Leaves and Grass ClippingsOil and GasSanitary Sewer Cross Connections/Leaking SepticLawn Chemicals-Fertilizers and PesticidesPet WasteLitter and TrashIndustrial & Business Wastes/Chemicals
On the second page of the handout, this is just kind of a grab bag of the kind of pollutants of
concern that EPA draws our attention to. Sediment, most of you know that on construction sites
we have a lot of regulation; yard waste, leaves and clippings, well you think that’s natural and
why does it matter. In nature most of it breaks down in place on the forest floor, it doesn’t make
it in the big slug into the river; sanitary sewer cross connections, leaking septic tanks, that’s a
reality. You may think the water is clean but its not always; oils, gas residue from vehicles, and
residue from transportation, lawn chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides for the same reason. In
nature you don’t have that much of a load and you don’t have it that instantaneous. What
happens when that fertilizer gets in the water it makes the algae go crazy and then the algae die
and the fish can’t take it anymore. It’s a well known cycle and it actually does lead to fish kills
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every year. Pet waste, litter and trash, and then industrial and business waste, and special
chemical handling – all of those are in the realm of what EPA considers to be issues of concern.
Education for Residents
We do Presentations & EventsPartnering with Others
One of the key things we do is an education program. Sarah has been out to Washington High
and other groups working with them. We have these no dumping waste to stream things that we
actually epoxy onto the storm sewer inlets so that when people are walking by they get a little
reminder. In fact I’ll hand that out. I’ll also hand these out. We cooperate with the Mid-
America Regional Council in a metro wide ongoing education program. Their latest tag line is,
“If it’s on the ground, it’s in our water”. We have brochures of these around in various places.
We’re willing to come to any road show you have in mind. If you think stormwater education
would be something you’d like to have at a community group, let us know. Chairman Kane
asked are you all promoting like rain gardens. Mr. Heatherman answered rain gardens and all
of that is part of this bigger picture.
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Erosion ControlErosion & Sediment Controls
Increased OutreachTrainingInspectionsIntegration with Building Safety
.
Treatment Measures on New Construction
Erosion Control is a very tangible program. Brent has actually been working quite a bit on
upgrading its enforcement and outreach to the contracting community over this last year and that
will continue. Another aspect on new construction as of 2010; any new project coming through
the planning process if it’s over an acre of disturbance is actually required to put in things like
rain gardens or supersized on development. We call them bioretention cells. On a really large
residential subdivision it may be some special design to the detention ponds to get a wetland,
fore bay or other aspect to it. These are things that have to be built and endured and be operated
and maintained. I’m going to talk to you a little bit about what that means for us in 2014.
The last thing that’s not on your slide here but I wanted to mention, EPA expects us to walk the
talk. They have an entire program area called Good Housekeeping. It just basically says you as
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a city are a pretty major business and you have an awful lot of operations. You need to show us
not only are you talking to businesses about what they need to do but that you’re doing it
yourself. We have specific programs with our street maintenance, with our parks and with our
general operations. In fact, I’m going to handout to you--tomorrow I think a little email blast is
going out to UG employees with some information on what they can do to help with stormwater.
I’ll pass those around.
New Items in 2014Industrial Program
Required by EPA to monitor 20 or so of our largest industries. Requires onsite visits/inspectionsOutreach meetings planned in JanuaryOrdinance to be proposed in Spring 2014Will Mirror Existing EPA/State Regulations
Enhanced Outreach and Inspections on Reports of Dumping
New Items in 2014Stormwater Inspector Hired end of 2013 – Increased Field Presence and Follow-upsInspections of Stormwater Outfalls ContinuingPrivate Owners Inspection Program – for owners of New-Development Stormwater Measures
Engineering Inspections Every 2 yearsRequired to Ensure Good OperationsEducation and Start-up Support Planned
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We have several new items coming up in 2014 that I want to draw your attention to. We are
required to have an industrial program; a program where we take a direct hand in regulating the
activities and monitoring activities for certain large industries. We are working on the outline of
that program. We have to have an ordinance adopted by mid-spring. Our plan is to have an
outreach meeting in January with the industries that we think are involved.
There have been a number of questions based on some confusion and how the EPA wrote the
regulation as to how narrow or wide that net needs to be casted. We are casting that net narrowly
in conformance with what we believe the law says and at this point it looks like about a dozen
and a half industries who are already adhering to some other kind of state or federal regulation
and what we are really envisioning is us and an assistant in an extra set of eyes mode as opposed
to coming up with something that is all new and overly burdensome. This actually applies more
to the industries who are in the western two-thirds. Those areas that are actually in combined
sewer locations, due to a quirk in this law, we’re not directly required to take the same level of
oversight. This is a program that only larger cities are required to have and EPA has not
necessarily been as clear and consistent all the way across the board so we are learning this as we
go. This is a new program that we’re building up and this would be one area that you may get
some questions about as the next couple of months come up. Feel free to direct those my way.
We are also required to do some enhanced inspections of reports of dumping and getting the
word out on who you can call if you have a question. I believe right now our answer is Public
Works at 573-5700 and we will follow-up on reports of stormwater pollution. We are hiring an
inspector as of the end of this year.
The other big program that I want to draw your attention to; back when we talked about rain
gardens we said that EPA expects that we will make sure those are operated and maintained
appropriately over their life. Those are privately owned. They’ll either be owned by the
commercial owner of a development or in the case of a residential subdivision, by the homes
association.
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We understand that there is a big step from officially being responsible for something and being
effective at it and although that ordinance has been on the books since 2010, its only just now
that we’re getting facilities that have been out there and in the ground and being operated long
enough for this to really come into focus.
In 2014 we’re going to be building the program whereby the city assist private owners in
fulfilling their responsibility. We intend to be available to them for education, for outreach and
hold their hand through the start up. Ultimately they are private facilities. They are private
responsibilities and our ordinance requires that every two years that a qualified person do an
inspection on those to make sure they’re being kept up to speed. By the end of this roll out
program that we’re discussing, we would intend to be in position where private owners can
uphold that responsibility. We will not do this in a vacuum and won’t do this without common
sense. If you want us to kind of keep you engaged as we go through this year, we’re more than
happy to do that. That’s something that’s coming and I’m sure it will involve some change.
Mr. Roddy said to break it down in its simplest form, every time someone puts in a detention
basin they are suppose to maintain it and they probably haven’t been maintaining it. This is
going to require them to go down and check to make sure the animals haven’t dug a hole through
it or that trees aren’t growing through it. You may hear from businesses complaining that we’re
exacting some torture on them. BPU Board Member Bryant asked if private homeowners put
in rain gardens, will they be subject on it. Mr. Heatherman answered yes. Typically what
happens in a subdivision is there’s something that more subdivision wide and the home
associations are usually tagged with that responsibility. BPU Board Member Bryant said I was
just saying like if I put one in my backyard, which I was planning on doing, because I have a
slope. Mr. Heatherman said voluntary ones would not be subject, it’s those mandated through
the development process.
BPU Board Member Bryant said the other question I had you said it’s only going to apply
mostly to the second thirds of our city going west. What about the new businesses that are
coming into Fairfax like in the RACER district? Are we going to apply that to them? I would
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assume that after the whole issue is taken care of on this side with the sewers and everything that
this would be applicable to this area too.
Mr. Heatherman said let me distinguish between the industrial program and the new
development best management practices. The industrial program is a very specific type of
second set of eyes on regulatory in terms of people’s process. That’s the part that we’re drawing
the distinction between the western two-thirds of the city and the separate system and the eastern
one-third. For this new development BMPR ordinance applies that citywide. That’s really the
right way to do it when we consider the other obligations we have for the future of the combined
sewer system. Having said that, there are certain allowances in our code right now if an area had
been developed previously, it gives it credit for past footprint. The new development treatment
is really measured kind of from your incremental impact. What happens is in a district like
Fairfax, while the full weight of the ordinance does apply, the reality is that for many of the sites
they are already two-thirds covered in concrete. The incremental amount of water that they’re
treating for is less than if you’re out in Piper.
Chairman Kane said this is for information only. Any questions? Commissioner Philbrook
said not right now, but I’m sure I will later after it sinks in.
Action: Information only
Chairman Kane said moving on to our blue sheet.
Item No. 1 – 130427…COMMUNICATION: BUS ROUTE 101
Synopsis: Communication seeking approval for a 2014 budget revision to increase bus size
on State Avenue CONNEX Route #101, submitted by Emerick Cross, Director of
Transit.
Emerick Cross, Director of Transit, said I’m here tonight regarding the State Avenue
CONNEX Route 101. That route as you remember, the transit route, starts in Kansas City
Missouri at 10th and Main, runs along the viaduct into Kansas City Kansas down Minnesota, then
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out State Ave. all the way to Village West Pkwy. In a nutshell, the 101 ridership has sharply
risen in the last year and as you know it’s the busiest route in the UG system. We have over
2,000 weekly boarding’s on that route and we had one day within the last few months where we
had 2,152 riders on that route.
Currently on the route we use a 30 foot Gillig Transit bus that has seating for 23 passengers.
With the development out in Village West and with the TIGER grant and the amenities and
enhancements we made up and down the State Avenue corridor, what we’ve done is working.
This is not a necessarily a bad thing. In my opinion it’s a good thing. We have a lot of riders
using this route. A lot of riders are using it to get to jobs out to Village West and back, to do
their shopping, to get their entertainment, because that’s what’s provided up and down the
corridor and certainly out in Village West. With that being said, these 30 foot Gillig buses with
passengers for 23 riders are overcrowded. This overcrowding is making the route unsafe at
times. It’s making it unsafe many times. As you know our ridership is up overall. We just
won an award for that 21% over the last two years, so it’s working. With that being said, it’s
overcrowding. When this happens people have to move on the bus and shuffle around. When
they pull up to these stops that don’t have time to wait for them and it’s causing the buses to run
late. A lot of times people are standing up over one another.
It’s working and why we’re here tonight we’re seeking a budge revision in the amount of
$47,000 for 2014 to contract with the ATA for bigger buses for all of our route 101 operating
days – Monday through Sunday. We use the bigger buses on Saturday; you may remember we
got that passed not long ago. With the $47,000 that will give us 40 foot buses with seating for 40
riders which is a substantial increase. With the development going up along the State Ave.
corridor, with our TIGER improvements, with the two transit centers, and the ridership
constantly increasing, this is going to be a natural fit and will give us room for expansion. It will
also provide a safer more comfortable ride for all of our transit riders.
Currently we’re using CMAC funds that Mr. Heatherman talked about earlier. We’re currently
using these CMAC federal funds that Condition Mitigation Air Quality that Mr. Heatherman
talked about. It’s an 80/20 match. We’re only paying 20% right now to run that. That runs
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through January of 2015. The cost of $47,000 for one year of service for bigger buses is
minimal. However, I do want to make this point clear, we’re currently working closely with
Danny O’Connor here with the ATA. We’re currently working with the ATA and negotiating
with the FTA because we had these new MAP 21 rules come out that we currently use for
legislation for the transportation program. We’re trying to find out if we can use these funds in
the future beyond 2015 so we can keep that low cost.
As you folks all have been reminded by me many times in the last year, we’re losing a lot of
federal monies. We are certainly working to try to get those CMAC funds extended beyond that
date and that should keep the cost down significantly. I do want to make the point though if we
don’t and we provide this service, in January of 2015, if we don’t get the CMAC funds approved
for use that will increase to $233,856 per year. That’s a significant increase. Just want to make
sure that point is clear to the standing committee. Do you have any questions?
Commissioner Markley asked this money would just come out of the fund balance, correct.
Gary Ortiz, Asst. County Administrator; said yes if it hits 2014 it will have to be
reprogrammed when we reprogram.
Commissioner Philbrook said I’ve already heard complaints about people not being able to get
on the bus. Mr. Cross said I’m not going to say that this bus is full all the time, every time we
run it, no, but it’s certainly packed in the peak periods. People going to work in the mornings
and then when you’re coming home at night and as people have found out to use this for
transportation to jobs, like I said to Village West; and also importantly to shop, go to the dentist
out there, go to the chiropractor, go to a movie and take their family; those without vehicle
transportation this is a very important way for those people to live their lives.
Gordon Criswell, Assistant County Administrator, said you might give the committee some
estimate of start-up time and implementation time, if you have a ballpark sense. Mr. Cross said
that’s a great question. To be honest with you – Danny, you may want to speak to this a little bit
with the ATA contract and your employees over there.
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Daniel O’Connor, Director of Planning for ATA, said we really appreciate our continued
partnership with the UG. You’re one of our ten communities that basically help put together the
regional system and we continue to see lots of transit use, lots of transit interest, good ridership
growth and a lot of that is coming from your community. Route 101 is our seventh. ATA
operates 60 routes and this is our seventh highest route for average ridership on our whole
system. When you think about our system – Troost is #1, Prospect #2, Main Street #3, State
Ave. is coming in at seventh. It’s a very important spine, it’s a part of the regional piece.
This is an adjustment that we would, if we had formal direction tonight, we could insure happens
with our next quarterly markup. With our labor union we change service on the quarter. We’re
entering into an agreement to basically start our next quarter where service would start January
5th. We can make this happen as soon as that if we knew tonight because we’re moving forward
with that bidding to work. If not, the next opportunity is April 1. We would recommend, based
upon what we’re seeing load wise, this is really critical especially with the grant. The grant is
something that Emerick been very good--I think a lot of your touches at Mid-America Regional
Council trying to help secure this additional CMAC funding, this has really helped support new
expansions and put the system together with that.
Tonight if we got clear direction we could get this in for January. The Sunday service, we might
have to wait until April to get that done, but it’s really the weekday where we’re seeing the
critical need. This route even in the last year we’re carrying about 1,950 a day, an average week
day on this route with small buses. That’s up even 10% off of last year. Last year we were
about 1,775 so this is really positive trend. It goes to the investments that your community has
made with the transit centers, the development out at Village West. This route connects Village
West, State Ave., the two transit centers, downtown, and downtown KCMO.
Chairman Kane said I will accept a motion for approval or disapproval.
Action: Commissioner Philbrook, seconded by Commissioner Markley, moved to
accept. Roll call was taken and there were six “Ayes,” Bryant, Philbrook,
Markley, Maddox, Walker, Kane.
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Chairman Kane said before we move on to the next item we had a question from the audience
on what you were talking about a little while ago Bill. I didn’t see her raise her hand.
Mary Martin, 804 S. 89th, Kansas City, KS, said I had a question on the sewer. I live in the
rural area of Wyandotte County and we have no sewers. Our whole entire area has no sewers.
It’s part of that area that Wyandotte decided to incorporate with Edwardsville. It used to be
Edwardsville and now it is Wyandotte. No one in our area have sewers so I’m asking the
question, are you planning on putting sewers out in our area? Are we going to be included in this
new program that you’re concerned about or are we just going to go as business as usual? Mr.
Heatherman said first of all when we talk about sewers there are really two distinct systems and
we use the word sewer sometimes interchangeably. All areas of the city we’re required to look
at what happens with the rain water runoff. That’s true even if there’s not an actual pipe out
there. If there’s a ditch in the roadway, if there’s any kind of handling of the water which there
ultimately is through some kind of ditch or culvert, we’re required to have these programs in
place that involve education, monitoring pollution etc.
Now sanitary sewers which would be if you’re on septic system and you don’t have sanitary
sewers, that’s separate and there’s nothing about this program that’s really adding anything new
or making any basic changes in what kind of sanitary sewer you have. If you’d like to after this
meeting, we can look to see exactly where you are and maybe I can answer that question in more
detail. Ms. Martin asked so what you’re saying is we need to be digging ditches out in our area
if we don’t have one? Mr. Heatherman said I think I can talk to you after this meeting and find
out more about what you specially have and we can look into it.
Item No. 2 – 130425…PROPOSED MARC POLICY ON TRANSIT FUNDING
Synopsis: Communication seeking direction and input regarding UG’s position on MARC’s
proposed policy on Transit Funding, submitted by Bill Heatherman, County
Engineer, and Emerick Cross, Director of Transit.
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Mr. Roddy said this is something that we’re looking for input from the Commissioners. It’s an
issue that was brought by the MARC Regional Council. What they’re requesting is to increase
the amount of money that basically goes to transportation. Right now a lot of the federal funds
go through MARC and much of it is allocated to road projects. What they’re trying to request is
a set amount of money that goes basically from road projects to transit. This is a proposal that
was submitted. It’s going to be under discussion in the month of January with MARC. There
are a number of meetings throughout January that they’re going to be discussing this. Ultimately
the staff is going to be over in meetings with MARC and we want to know what the
Commissioners direction is. What you really will be doing is probably spending less on roads
and probably more on transit. That may be a good decision but we want to get the input from the
Commissioners on this subject. I think Bill might have a comment or two on this or Emerick as
well.
Mr. Heatherman said Bob described the basic issue. It is being set right now as a non-binding
but basically would require anything less than 15% allocation that the programming committees
recommend be justified and be justified in part based on whether or not there were other eligible
project types. When we are at Mid-America Regional Council competing for funds we’re
basically competing on the Kansas side. The two state monies are kept separate. Whether or not
this would change, increase, decrease, or hold the same, the net amount of money the county got
would depend entirely on the mix of project applications we made. We certainly have plenty of
transit oriented work that could be done. We don’t necessarily have an analysis that said does
this get more or less money for Wyandotte County. It is a policy change that would bring more
attention to transit and we think it’s important enough that the commission give us input on that.
I’ll let Emerick talk about the transit implications.
Mr. Cross said we are losing a lot of federal money in transportation. We’ve talked about that
several times, that’s an old issue. To offset that cost I think there is kind of a general consensus
over there in the Regional Transit Coordinating Council that we need more money for transit,
transit operations, amenities capital and things like that. This I think is a small movement at this
time to shift those type monies from the STP programs over to transit related functions and
capital projects, investments, and things like that. I don’t think the number that’s being proposed
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by the Regional Transportation Coordinating Council is significant, I just think this is more like
Bob and Bill said, a policy shift, a policy move on your part.
Commissioner Maddox said my question just really comes from the format that we have to
decide if we’re moving the money from roads to transportation. My question is where exactly
are some areas that may need funding and where would the funding go to if we decide to go that
way? My other concern is that there’s a lot of roads in the community that need to be paved and
re-fixed so the fact we’re going to, if we do decide to move money over, it’s really important that
it go to areas that are definitely greatly in need as well as keeping site on roads that need to be
fixed. Mr. Cross said I can tell you from a transportation perspective that we would only focus
on the most dense and highly used urban routes. That’s where the need is so we would definitely
use those funds. For example, route 107, we just did 101 our heaviest route, up State Ave. and
out to Village West. Route 107 runs basically from 7th Street here all the way down connects
into Rosedale and runs up to the KU Medical Center area. That’s probably our second highest
route and we’re looking at some investments along that corridor. These monies wouldn’t be
used necessarily for anything that’s not producing high ridership numbers. Commissioner
Maddox asked is that stations or buses. Mr. Cross said it could be all of that. From a
transportation perspective that’s the beauty of this. It depends upon which program, I don’t want
to get to technical, it comes out of, the eligible uses from that program that would could apply
those monies toward. Commissioner Philbrook said so you want to change it to this but what
are we changing it from. What has it been in the past? Mr. Heatherman said the Unified
Government staff is not proposing any change. This is basically a policy proposal that’s at the
Mid-America Regional Council level and it will ultimately be voted upon at the MARC level.
We have a couple of votes but there are many, many other votes from other jurisdictions.
What we’re asking tonight is, does this committee have any input that want to give to those who
are representing the UG’s view on this matter when MARC takes it up? It’s not a question of the
UG unilaterally changing its allocation. The way this is really going to work out is this
application funding round when it comes up Emerick and I are going to collaborate on how many
applications we’re going to throw in. They’re all going to be ranked at a metro level. If
Wyandotte County has projects one through six on the list, I can guarantee you we won’t get
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projects one through six because they also do an equity look to make sure nobody is too far out
of line. It may ultimately come down to Emerick and I discussing what the UG’s; if they gave us
this one would we take that and vice versa. This is about a Mid-America Regional Council
decision. It’s not clear cut that it would change the balance of funding. We have an awful lot of
transit needs so it might simply make some of our applications more competitive.
Chairman Kane said I don’t want to see it change because we don’t know what they want to
change it to. I think this is the beginning of 15% this year, 20% next year and I think you guys
are already working together to make sure that our bases are covered. I don’t want some other
entity telling us how we’re going to do business. I think it’s smarter that you guys go over and
negotiate. Do what you’ve done because it has worked. There’s no sense in changing it unless
you guys give us guidance where it’s been extremely successful or we wouldn’t have all the
things we have going now.
Rob Richardson said the way the strategies are going it looks like they are focusing on urban
infrastructure and reconstruction maintenance and transit verses building a new interchange at
315th and nowhere south of here. We make all of our projects rank higher and that’s what
MARC staff has told me is they want all these urban projects to rank higher verses the very
suburban new roadway construction projects which gives all of our projects a higher rank and
then we can pick in that ranking and where we want to go.
I met with MARC staff all last week because I’m on the committee with Bill and that’s what they
told me. If they’re giving Bill the same information they’re giving me, that’s a question that will
make all of our projects rank higher. Then we would get to pick.
Mr. Heatherman said I would reiterate what Rob said. I wanted to hear what the committee
had to say first before putting too much interpretation on it. I do think at its core, this is part
about emphasizing the transportation goals to get more federal money into the already built areas
as opposed to having so much of it used for expansion and green field. The only caveat would
be that many of those jurisdictions that might otherwise want to use their green field money may
not necessarily view Unified Government’s needs on roads as high. It’s a giant crystal ball as to
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whether the bottom line is going to change things for us. I do agree with Rob. I think overall it
would make more Wyandotte County projects rank higher but it would involve us committing to
spending our share of any local matches at that same level on transit in order to actually get those
projects.
Commissioner Markley said just from a general look at what MARC is doing I could see that
interpretation and how it’s sort of fitting into their larger goals. The nice thing for us is we do
have transit needs. We have ridership. Johnson County gets a lot of transit money. They have
some nice routes. They have fewer riders. I could see where our projects could get some
priority because we do have the ridership to merit it. I think it would help us rather than hurt us.
Commissioner Maddox said my only concern is that you move money from roads to transit.
You’ve got a lot of roads that need to be repaired. Then when you think about transit, what’s the
percentage of people that are using transit for jobs verses shopping? You’re going to move
money to transit to get on buses to go shopping verses roads for communities where people have
to drive daily. That’s the concern I’m bringing about. Is there an evaluation process over a two
to three year span as to if the money is resurfaced, how it was successful? Mr. Heatherman
said whichever way the policy goes we can report back to this committee on how the final
applications went. We can make that report about six to eight months from now when the final
rankings come. We can let you know if we think it actually played to the county strengths or
not. I think inevitably once a policy change is made it creates its own momentum.
Chairman Kane asked do you guys want to do it or not. You are doing it. It’s your baby so
it’s a yes or no question, pretty easy. Mr. Heatherman said I think that just like you all are not
necessarily clear yourselves on what the best outcome for us in the metro area is. I think it’s a
pretty open question. I think there’s going to be a lot of debate at MARC and I think just
knowing these different perspectives helps us. When we’re listening we’ll know whether things
were 100% one way or the other. I’m not sure I’m prepared tonight to tell you what staff
recommendation is. This is a fast moving item and we wanted to get it in front of you.
Mr. Roddy said let me give you three thoughts. One, we know that the transit funding is
decreasing not increasing. Two, we know we’ve invested in transit in recent years. We’ve seen
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we’re having success in it. A few years ago the commissioners passed a Complete Streets which
basically wants us to look at all forms of transportation on our roads not just cars. Last item, you
know as far as how we fair in future application process, generally Bill has put in some dynamite
applications in recent years. We have two or three in the top five. We really get bounced out
because there is an issue of equitability in trying to distribute the money. Our applications would
have us walk away with more money. Those are three things to think about.
Chairman Kane asked are there any questions from the audience because we’re going to have
to go back to another item because I didn’t ask that on this particular item right here.
Shirley Ikerd, 804 S. 89th, Kansas City, KS, said I’m concerned because when I was on the
State Avenue Corridor Committee and I was on it as long as I could stand it. Reardon had
appointed me to the State Avenue Corridor when it first started. It got so that they were not
listening to anything that I said or Mark Nidiffer said from Local 1290. We decided that we
could not argue against the boys with all the money. We quit going to the meetings. They did
not put in any feeder lines. People still have to walk from 72nd and Kansas Ave. Off State
Avenue there are no feeder lines that go into bus 101. I see bus 101 at least six times a day. The
bus is not full all the time. Sometime I sit at the end of the line at Wal-Mart to see how many
people are on it. We do not need the increase and do all these things that need to be done. I’m
sure some of these gentlemen in here tonight remember me from it because I argued all the time.
We were not giving people that need to ride the bus anyway to ride it.
Chairman Kane said anything else on the MARC issue? Do you need a vote tonight? Mr.
Heatherman said I think if the committee felt that it could give a vote on a recommendation that
would help guide us but if you don’t feel like you’re at that consensus point, then the
conversation here is sufficient for us to report back in January. Chairman Kane said I don’t feel
comfortable telling you.
Commissioner Kane said I failed miserably in asking for the public comment when we were
talking about bus route 101. We have somebody that would like to talk about it? Would you
please come up to the table, say your name and address please.
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Alvin Sykes, 1131 Central Ave., Kansas City, KS said actually I came here today for another
matter but I made a request for an increase in the 101 bus in particular due to an incident that
happened when I rode the bus. I was asked last week by the Mayor’s office to come and speak
but they didn’t tell me when so I’m not actually prepared with some of the matters but I would
want to share the experience that calls for this.
I am a rider of the bus for about 40 years. That’s my primary means of transportation. Normally
when I ride the bus the question I have is whether I’m going to get to my destination on time.
On this one particular day on a Sunday I got on the Minnesota bus 101 and before I got off the
bus the question to me was, am I going to die this day on this bus? It came about because as
soon as I got on the bus, the bus was completely packed all the way up to the yellow line which
is the federal line that says you can’t have people beyond that line. When I got on there was just
enough space for me to get on and not have to go further. After getting on the bus at 10th and
Minnesota the bus driver continued to pick up people along the route and that was making the
bus more crowded. People were getting upset in the bus talking about how crowded it was. It
got to one point where the bus driver said for people to get on, pay their money, get off, go
through the back and squeeze in the back. This caused people to be pushed forward beyond the
yellow line. To me it was pushing me forward and I took it to be pushing me forward in
violation of federal law. When I asked the driver about not picking up anymore people that it
was too packed, he said their orders are to pick up everybody period. He continued to do so. As
soon as we got to one point near the end going to Missouri, he pulled up to a woman who was in
a wheelchair. There was a loud audible amongst the people, how is she going to be able to get
on here? The bus driver told us that we had to get off the bus upfront, let her get on and then
they would proceed to go forward. At that point I had enough. I knew that would push us way
past the line so I told him I was not going to get off the bus. I was not going to move and be
forced to violate the federal law.
The short version of what happened was that after he called the supervisor to say someone was
refusing to move on the bus, I then got off to let the woman on because it had started raining and
she was about 80 years old. She came on the bus with her son. By then everybody is arguing on
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the bus. People are sitting up saying why is this bus being…they keep packing everybody in like
sardines. Then a dispute developed between the son of the woman in the wheelchair and the
person standing next to me. The son thought he was talking about his mom. That developed into
an argument. What the man was really saying is that we need a bigger bus but the son took it
that he was blaming his mother. Chairman Kane said, sir, you have one minute. Mr. Sykes
said then a fight broke out on the bus between these two. It ended up with them kicking and
cracking the door to exit the bus. This cannot continue to happen.
The main thing that got me that day was the bus driver said it happens every Sunday. They are
constantly in violation of federal law every Sunday packing this bus. This needs to change. The
issue can be partially resolved by having a bigger bus so the people don’t have to go through this
and they can continue and look forward to getting home instead have to wonder whether they are
going to die that day.
Chairman Kane said we probably should have made a motion to fast track this as well.
Gordon Criswell, Asst. County Administrator, said that was what he was seeking clarification
on, yes. Commissioner Markley said can you renew the motion with the fast track addition.
Action: Commissioner Philbrook said I would like to accept this and fast track it so it
can be taken care of on the vote on Thursday at the full commission.
Commissioner Markley seconded the motion.
Commissioner Maddox said I’d like to also speak to the feeder lines. Ms. Ikerd who came up
here, she spoke about the feeder lines on 72nd street. I think that’s something we can revisit in
January when it comes to the question of moving monies from transit to roads. Just to put that
out there that I think the feeder lines are important as well but then I also think that the 101 bus
does get overcrowded because I get people contacting me about it as well.
Chairman Kane asked for roll call on the amendment.
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Roll call was taken on the amendment and there were six “Ayes,” Bryant, Philbrook, Markley,
Maddox, Walker, Kane.
Meeting adjourned.
Chairman Kane adjourned the meeting at 5:55 pm.
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