[0:00] - We are the community diversity Group.

[0:02] Our mission is to foster an inclusive

[0:04] and interactive community, which attracts

[0:07] and retains a pool of potential employees

[0:09] and residents from underrepresented groups.

[0:12] We accomplish this in many ways,

[0:14] including sponsoring events like the Community Resource Fair

[0:17] publishing, a monthly resource flyer,

[0:20] and providing public training and educational

[0:22] and networking events.

[0:24] You can find us online@communitydiversitygroup.com.

[0:30] - For 30 years the State College Community Land Trust has

[0:34] been creating a community where the people

[0:35] who work here can afford to live, grow, and belong.

[0:40] We've created and preserved 56 permanently affordable homes,

[0:44] opening the door to home ownership for more than 80 families

[0:49] with energy efficient upgrades, green building

[0:52] and clean energy investments.

[0:54] Our homeowners enjoy lower utility costs

[0:57] and affordable homes that last for generations.

[1:01] Our programs serve low to moderate

[1:04] and middle income individuals

[1:05] and families who want to live in State College.

[1:09] None of this would be possible without our extended

[1:12] community of dedicated staff volunteers, local businesses

[1:17] and banks and our nonprofit partners.

[1:20] Join the movement, donate, volunteer, leave a legacy

[1:24] through planned giving, share our story.

[1:28] Visit SCC land trust.org.

[1:37] - You are watching CNET Centre County's Government

[1:40] and Educational Access Network.

[1:48] - I'll call the order the Tuesday, September.

[1:51] Oh, by the way, you guys are ready, right? Alright, sorry.

[1:55] Call the order of the Tuesday, September 22nd,

[1:58] Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization's

[2:00] Coordinating Committee meeting.

[2:01] First item on the agenda is just, I just wanna call

[2:05] to your attention the safety moment that is in your agenda.

[2:09] Anybody have any questions, comments,

[2:11] staff, anything to add to that?

[2:13] - So this is something - That's been circulating

[2:16] around in terms of the safety conferences

[2:19] and I thought if you kind of go through them, it kind

[2:22] of illustrates what your, how your vision changes

[2:26] as you drive faster.

[2:27] Now, you as an individual may feel like you can see more,

[2:32] but regardless of what you believe,

[2:34] you can see there are always limitations as you drive faster

[2:38] and as as daylight savings time comes.

[2:42] Please be cognizant of pedestrians,

[2:52] - I think Joe, Eric, hang - On.

[2:55] Hang on. Are you done? Yep, I'm done.

[2:57] Okay, then we can move to questions. Joanne?

[2:59] - No, it's not a question.

[3:01] It's one way to really make this pop.

[3:04] I played with this on my computer.

[3:05] This says is turn it into a mini video and it goes in

[3:09] and out and you can actually see the difference instead

[3:11] of just one at another.

[3:13] Just FYI. Yep.

[3:14] - Thank you.

[3:20] - Anyone else? I failed to do?

[3:23] We do Roll Call at MPL.

[3:26] - We don't, but we can if

[3:27] - You like don't know, just

[3:28] we're fine then we'll keep rolling.

[3:30] Just make sure I didn't miss, actually you should.

[3:33] Alright, if, if for public record.

[3:35] Alright, then we will pause

[3:37] before moving into Public Comment

[3:39] and allow staff to do Roll Call.

[3:41] Thanks. Frank Frank's here to keep us in line. Frank

[3:45] - Always keeps me in line.

[3:46] Yes. Okay. Mark Higgins. Here.

[3:50] Amber Ion. Eric Bernier.

[3:53] - Here. - Jeremy Thompson Here.

[3:57] - No, Amber's here too. Oh, she just didn't announce

[3:59] - The time.

[4:00] Perfect. Sorry. Jeremy Thompson. You said here. I'm here.

[4:04] Yeah. Bruce Helms. Here. Frank Harden. Here. Heidi Ey.

[4:08] Here go. Paul Valcon on. Yes. Paula Here.

[4:14] Alexandra? David Ano. Keith Reese.

[4:19] Eric Rena. Here.

[4:21] GN Bacon Online I believe.

[4:27] Joanne Toy. I'm here. Dick Decker? No. Margie Bowl.

[4:32] I'm here. Phil Burnett. Nate Walker.

[4:38] Here. Eric Murc. I'm here.

[4:43] Alright.

[4:44] - Okay. That's it for voting members? Yep. Alright.

[4:49] Now that takes us to Public Comment.

[4:51] This is opportunity to address the committee on anything

[4:54] that's not on tonight's agenda.

[4:57] I'm looking online for any digital hands to be raised.

[5:01] And in the meantime I'm looking in the room marketing.

[5:09] - Just a quick question for PennDOT, when you have a chance,

[5:13] if you could send me an update on

[5:15] what you've been working on with Benner Pike had a citizen

[5:19] who commutes on that road

[5:21] and he is noticing his commute times are increasing.

[5:24] So

[5:27] - Is that in relationship to the study?

[5:30] - Yeah, in the study. - Okay. Okay.

[5:32] The, the supplemental planning funds study.

[5:36] Is that, or is there another study that

[5:40] - Well PennDOT had done in a very initial study

[5:43] of potential solutions to producing

[5:47] the congestion on the Better Pike.

[5:49] Just wondering if there's an update

[5:51] or anything they might wanna be trying first.

[5:58] - So if you go back to the June meeting Yeah.

[6:05] Many of the solutions put out there Oh are long term. Yeah.

[6:10] Our long term and they require

[6:15] collaboration from the municipalities.

[6:18] There are some things that we can do to, to kick

[6:23] that along.

[6:26] But in terms of programming, I think more

[6:28] what they leveled at us was the idea that we would,

[6:33] the comment from Banner Township

[6:38] was that there were also some other problems on the

[6:41] corridor, notably at the intersection of one 50

[6:43] and five 50 that we would have to investigate

[6:47] to gain the full benefit from the study.

[6:49] So from our point of view, we are continuing

[6:53] to encourage the municipalities to, to move forward

[6:57] with some of the, with some of the planning methods,

[7:01] with the idea that you want to continue

[7:03] to maintain your signal timings, update them

[7:07] as new developments come and or as traffic patterns change,

[7:12] but also look towards programming additional

[7:17] projects in future tip updates.

[7:20] That is a long slow moving process.

[7:23] And there's, you know, as mentioned we'd have

[7:26] to look at the 1 55 50 intersection

[7:28] somewhere in that process.

[7:30] I don't think there's anything that really comes out of

[7:32] that study that we can put into implementation this fall

[7:36] and expect to see answers come spring.

[7:38] Alright, I'm just passing it on from the citizen. Mark

[7:43] - Raises hand on line mark.

[7:46] Go ahead.

[7:47] - Yes, thank you Marshall.

[7:49] Depend on, wanted to bring to, to light

[7:52] that there was a recent signal upgrade.

[7:55] It was a, a previous award grant to Better Township.

[8:00] I believe our signal

[8:02] or traffic unit made us aware that

[8:04] that had completed recently.

[8:07] So what I'll do is, I'll make note of this,

[8:09] I'll take it back to our traffic unit

[8:11] and talk with them about communicating

[8:12] with the local municipality about some potential up changes,

[8:17] maybe some adjustments that are needed to those signals.

[8:20] - There - We go. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks Mark.

[8:23] Yeah, that was actually some really helpful info.

[8:27] So in essence we got a handbook or a playbook Yeah.

[8:29] With the study and like Jim mentioned,

[8:33] there was a little bit of low hanging fruit that

[8:36] that can be addressed.

[8:37] I mean one of the things was Zoning, you know, booking at,

[8:42] you know, existing Zoning

[8:43] and could possibly be done there too.

[8:45] Yeah. Okay. Any other public comments?

[8:50] I'm not seeing any hands raised online.

[8:53] Nobody else in the room. So we'll move to new agenda items.

[8:56] Same deal opportunity here for anybody,

[8:59] anybody on the committee to request new agenda item

[9:02] for tonight or future meeting.

[9:06] In fact, I'll open that up

[9:07] to anybody who's not on the committee

[9:10] going once, twice.

[9:14] Alright, we'll move to Consent Agenda for the record.

[9:18] There are four items in tonight's Consent Agenda, approval

[9:21] of the minutes from the June 23rd, 2026

[9:23] coordinating committee meeting.

[9:25] The second item is the federal functional class

[9:27] system review update.

[9:29] The third is the NVI Community charging funding opportunity

[9:33] for the Centre Region Centre Region.

[9:37] And the last item is the project committee's update

[9:39] and grant application update.

[9:43] These items will either be accepted

[9:45] or approved through the acceptance of our Consent Agenda.

[9:50] Would anyone like to have any of those items pulled

[9:52] before we entertain a motion

[9:54] to accept the Consent Agenda as presented?

[10:01] Anybody? Alright, Charles, accept the motion

[10:03] to accept the Consent Agenda as presented.

[10:07] - I moved. - Okay. Got a motion from Gopal? Second.

[10:12] - Second. - Alright, I got Joanna as a second.

[10:16] Any discussion questions?

[10:18] If not all in favor, please signify by saying aye

[10:21] - A. Aye. Aye.

[10:23] - Anyone opposed? Alright.

[10:27] Motion carries.

[10:28] Consent Agenda adopted And that takes us to item number six,

[10:33] our State College area Connector project update.

[10:38] Who's going to, who's gonna take that?

[10:42] - I can take that one, Eric. - Alright, thanks.

[10:44] Kevin. Four is yours. Yep.

[10:46] - Alright, thank you.

[10:49] As most of the committee knows

[10:50] during the draft EIS review process,

[10:53] the PennDOT team received several comments from the public

[10:57] and to ensure that we address each comment

[10:59] and give it the thorough consideration it deserves.

[11:03] We then conducted additional environmental

[11:06] and engineering investigations to further

[11:09] evaluate project impacts, opportunities

[11:11] and design considerations.

[11:14] These efforts were undertaken to confirm

[11:16] that the project being advanced best meets the,

[11:19] the region's transportation needs while balancing

[11:22] the interest for environmental community

[11:26] and stakeholder stakeholders alike.

[11:29] The results of those investigations continue

[11:31] to support the central alternative

[11:33] as the preferred alternative as was presented

[11:35] during the draft EIS and the Public Hearing and PennDOT

[11:40] and FHWA are working collaboratively

[11:42] to complete the final EIS to ensure

[11:45] that all comments have been

[11:46] thoroughly considered and addressed.

[11:48] And to verify that legal sufficiency

[11:50] and compliance with appropriate laws

[11:52] and regulations has been completed.

[11:55] The final EIS

[11:56] and record of decision are anticipated to be completed

[11:59] and published within the next few months.

[12:01] So I know that we were initially going with the schedule

[12:06] to try to have that completed this summer.

[12:08] Like I said, with, with all of the, the comments

[12:11] that we received and the additional studies that we wanted

[12:14] to make sure that we thoroughly addressed everything

[12:16] and that we have everything, you know, I saw in the document

[12:18] and as a good alternative to meet all the purpose

[12:23] and needs and the, the identified objectives of the project.

[12:28] That's taken, taken a little bit longer,

[12:30] but we will have a, a complete document in the end,

[12:36] talk about other updates that the team is working on.

[12:38] We're currently working on a drilling contract

[12:41] to get started with borings

[12:43] for the geotechnical investigations along the selected

[12:46] alternative corridor.

[12:48] We did have a pre-bid meeting earlier today

[12:51] with some prospective bidders for the,

[12:54] the drilling contract.

[12:55] The first drilling contract is anticipated to start,

[12:58] it'll be mostly towards the western end of the project area

[13:02] and we anticipate awarding that early next month.

[13:04] So it'll start to see some trucks

[13:07] and movement of equipment out there shortly thereafter in,

[13:11] in the, in this fall in winter season to get that,

[13:15] that contract started

[13:18] and we'll be, you know, sharing that information

[13:20] with the public as well to let them know we've been in

[13:22] contact with property owners

[13:23] and we'll continue to do so so that they know when

[13:26] that drilling act, those drill drilling

[13:28] activities will begin.

[13:31] The team is still coordinating with all the agencies,

[13:33] but especially with the US Army Corps of Engineers

[13:36] and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

[13:39] That is for the, the Federal Waterway permit,

[13:42] which is the 4 0 4 water waterway permit, as well

[13:45] as the state 4 0 1 water quality certification.

[13:49] Good news is we did get the 4 0 1 water quality

[13:51] certification from DEP

[13:53] and we're continuing to work

[13:54] with the US Army Corps on the 4 0 4 waterway permit.

[13:58] The federal decision on that permit is required

[14:01] within 90 days of the record of decision.

[14:04] So they will follow suit as we get closer to the,

[14:09] the final EIS and record of decision.

[14:14] Also last month on August 25th, depend on team met

[14:18] with Harris Township officials to review preliminary design

[14:21] of the PA 45 corridor.

[14:23] That's between the section of PA 45, between Bull Avenue

[14:27] and the 3 22 interchange with PA 45.

[14:31] And this was just a continuation of previous coordination

[14:34] regarding the roadway design, looking at the typical section

[14:36] of that, that particular roadway as well as

[14:39] the accommodations for pedestrians

[14:41] and bicyclists so that you're non, non-motorized traffic.

[14:45] So we had a very good meeting there.

[14:47] We'll continue to coordinate with both Harris

[14:49] and Potter Township and,

[14:50] and the local municipality as, as we move forward

[14:53] with the preliminary design team is also continuing

[14:57] to coordinate with the consulting parties to develop

[15:02] an advisory committee,

[15:03] which will provide input on the contact sensitive design

[15:06] approaches that may be appropriate for the project.

[15:10] So we we're anticipating to have a kickoff meeting

[15:12] as we get closer to the FBIS

[15:14] and the rod with the record of decision I should say.

[15:17] And we'll be meeting with that committee.

[15:20] The committee members have already been updated and,

[15:22] and agreed upon with the,

[15:24] the different consulting party members

[15:26] and we'll be, we'll be looking to schedule

[15:28] that meeting later this year.

[15:32] And as usual, the team continues to coordinate with any,

[15:36] you know, all those, the municipalities, the county,

[15:40] all the agencies, but as well as the,

[15:42] the residents within the area as we get questions, you know,

[15:44] we've been still going out

[15:46] and visiting with residents when they have questions,

[15:48] answering emails, phone calls,

[15:51] and we'll continue to do so as the project progresses.

[15:54] So we're happy to, to entertain any questions

[15:57] that anybody may have at this time.

[15:59] - Okay, again, this is not an action item,

[16:01] this is simply an update.

[16:03] So I'll look first to committee members.

[16:06] Questions, comments for Kevin? Looking around the table?

[16:11] Anybody online just, just raise your digital hand?

[16:17] No, let me give you another minute By Kevin

[16:22] or or staff, did anything come out of your presentation

[16:25] that your updated tech committee worth noting here tonight?

[16:29] On, on the update?

[16:33] - The only, the only questions that we got from the,

[16:35] the tech committee update was

[16:38] to talk a little bit about the,

[16:40] there's some questions about the PA 45 quarter

[16:42] that we talked about with Harris Township

[16:45] and one of which was we in the draft EIS we showed a five

[16:49] lane typical section, so two lanes in each direction

[16:52] with the center turn lane.

[16:54] We've since looked at that

[16:55] and done some additional traffic analysis.

[16:57] So for the, and the traffic engineers

[17:00] that may be in the road, we did a SIB analysis, which is a,

[17:04] a, a certain type of traffic operation software

[17:07] that allows us to do a little bit more detailed analysis

[17:10] of traffic throughout a corridor.

[17:12] And when we did that, we were able

[17:14] to refine the design a little bit to get us down to a,

[17:17] through back to a three lane section.

[17:19] So one lane, generally one lane in each direction

[17:21] with the center turn lane and,

[17:23] and obviously we have some,

[17:24] some changes in the typical sections as you get to the,

[17:27] the inter proposed interchange.

[17:29] But that was a question that came up

[17:31] with the technical staff, the technical committee.

[17:33] So we were able to share with them that those are some

[17:35] of the things that we shared with Harris Township.

[17:37] So you were looking to make some of those changes

[17:40] And we also looking at, at working, continuing to work

[17:45] with the emergency services personnel on access for them to

[17:49] access, have access to the center portion

[17:52] of the preferred alternative.

[17:54] So we've been working with them on that

[17:56] and we'll continue to do so.

[17:57] So those were some of the areas I think that were

[18:00] slightly changed and altered a little bit since we had

[18:03] presented the draft EIS to everybody.

[18:08] - Right. Thank you. I don't see anybody online.

[18:11] Last chance in the room. Okay.

[18:15] Kevin, is it fair to say then we're, we're a few months

[18:19] behind schedule, at least the initial schedule,

[18:22] but it sounds like it's due in large part to the

[18:27] extensive and unprecedented level of outreach

[18:31] and engagement with both municipalities and residents

[18:34] and then the time it took PennDOT to respond

[18:39] and adjust the plan where appropriate or necessary.

[18:43] Is that a fair statement?

[18:45] - Yes, very fair statement, yes.

[18:47] We had, we had great participation from, from the public

[18:52] and, and that helps to, to give us, you know,

[18:55] the opportunity to make those adjustments, you know,

[18:57] before we finalize the document.

[18:59] So it's, it's very worthwhile.

[19:02] - Alright then on behalf of the MPO, I will again thank you

[19:07] and the PennDOT staff for those efforts

[19:10] because that was exactly what the MPO,

[19:12] this committee went on record asking both you

[19:16] and Pendot to do as part of this project.

[19:18] So thank you.

[19:21] If there's no further comments

[19:22] or questions, we'll move to the next agenda item,

[19:27] which is really, I believe the only one that's

[19:31] the staff is asking for action on tonight

[19:34] and that is the Centre County passenger rail access study

[19:39] status report, final presentation, and potentially a motion

[19:43] or action here tonight to,

[19:46] to accept the draft final report pending comment.

[19:51] And for the first time in, I don't know

[19:52] how many years, Brian's not here.

[19:55] So let me kick it to Greg

[19:56] and you can tell me who's gonna take Brian's place tonight.

[20:00] - Well thank you Mr. Chair.

[20:02] As you mentioned, we are looking to wrap up

[20:06] or wind down the passenger rail access study this evening.

[20:09] It's been going on for just a wee bit over a year

[20:12] at this point this evening.

[20:15] We have two individuals from Michael Baker International,

[20:21] Peyton Trus, Trussell and Ben Warner.

[20:23] And then we also have Toby F from Rockland Planning

[20:27] who is a sub consultant on this effort.

[20:30] As Eric mentioned, we will be looking for action

[20:34] of some sort at the end of this presentation.

[20:38] I also will put out there,

[20:39] I don't wanna steal too much thunder from the presentation,

[20:43] but I will say

[20:44] that we did get one comment at the technical committee

[20:47] meeting and that is that we take at least some steps

[20:51] to integrate this with College Township Dell Summit area

[20:54] plan because of the rail infrastructure in the area,

[20:57] the access to infrastructure leading into

[21:01] downtown State College, as well

[21:02] as easy access out of the area.

[21:05] So we did take that step

[21:07] and you'll see the rest

[21:08] of the draft results here in a moment.

[21:10] But looks like I'll be introducing Ben Warner from

[21:14] Michael Baker International.

[21:16] - Okay, thank you Greg. Ben, the floor is yours.

[21:20] - Thank you all and thanks Greg for that brief introduction.

[21:24] Yes, Brian is out on vacation this week, so

[21:27] I'll provide the briefing tonight.

[21:29] As Greg mentioned, also joined by Peyton

[21:32] and Toby to assist with answering any questions

[21:37] as we well throughout the presentation.

[21:39] I will mention it's a pretty lengthy presentation tonight,

[21:43] so if there's a question on one of the slides

[21:47] or the alternatives that we're gonna look at, feel free

[21:50] to raise your hand, interrupt me, I will take offense

[21:53] and we can try to answer the questions on the fly

[21:56] if that's beneficial as well.

[21:58] - Go - Next slide please, Greg. Thank you.

[22:02] So tonight's briefing, just a brief overview.

[22:04] We're gonna discuss the study purpose and objectives.

[22:08] We're gonna look at the four alternatives

[22:10] that were developed as part of the study

[22:13] and then really the bulk of it's gonna be

[22:16] how did we get here based off involvement with the public.

[22:19] So I'll provide a brief overview on the public engagement

[22:22] overview and dive the specifics of the public survey,

[22:26] our stakeholder interviews,

[22:28] our 30 day Public Comment period.

[22:31] And then in the middle of that 30 day Public Comment period

[22:33] that ran from July August, we also hosted a very successful

[22:39] public open house.

[22:41] - Hey Ben, let me, let me interrupt you for a second.

[22:43] How about we take a break

[22:44] after each one of those seven segments for questions?

[22:49] I assume there's a couple of slides for each one.

[22:53] - Yeah, so basically a couple

[22:55] besides this first section, I'll say there's only,

[22:57] there's only one slide and then we roll into the next.

[23:00] So, but yeah, we can definitely pause after each session.

[23:03] - Alright, thank you. - Absolutely.

[23:07] So some of the study objectives

[23:10] and the purpose was really designed

[23:12] to update rather than simply repeat

[23:15] and revisit the Keystone West report.

[23:18] So like I mentioned, our process was stakeholder engagement.

[23:22] So we met with stakeholders, update

[23:24] and validate the assumptions from the Keystone West report.

[23:28] We explored routing options

[23:30] and endpoints for services considered, so shuttle busters

[23:35] or rail options.

[23:38] We identify the most sustain, supportable

[23:41] and sustainable options

[23:43] for both passenger rail and shuttle bus.

[23:47] And then we also evaluated the willingness

[23:49] and ability of the required partners

[23:51] to provide the improved access.

[23:53] Obviously this is not just one group

[23:57] or agency that would be involved with this.

[23:59] There's a lot of players that would be involved.

[24:02] So we were insured throughout the whole process

[24:05] that we involved all of those particular parties

[24:14] Continuing.

[24:14] So here into the next section,

[24:16] looking at our four alternatives.

[24:18] This is the first of four,

[24:19] which is a dedicated shuttle bus service connecting Centre

[24:23] County with the existing Amtrak stations such as

[24:27] Altoona or Harrisburg.

[24:29] As you'll see here, each

[24:30] of the alternatives are set up in a similar fashion

[24:33] with brief overview across the top, highlighting

[24:36] what the alternative is and then a list of several benefits

[24:41] and challenges that would come along

[24:43] with each of the alternatives.

[24:45] So for the shuttle bus service connecting

[24:47] to existing Amtrak stations, some of the key advantages

[24:52] include it would probably be the lowest cost

[24:55] 'cause it could use existing roads and rail service

[24:59] and we wouldn't really need any new rail infrastructure.

[25:02] It has the potential to offer flexible

[25:04] and scaled services based on Penn State events,

[25:08] the academic calendar.

[25:09] So really looking at those football Saturdays, concerts,

[25:14] holidays for the students at the,

[25:18] at the university in addition to also beginning

[25:22] and end of the semester.

[25:24] Some of the key issues are the sustainable operating

[25:28] funding, seasonal demand, as I mentioned,

[25:31] it would be very spiky based on particular events

[25:34] with the university schedule coordination with Amtrak

[25:38] to align is where so busing individuals to

[25:42] and from the Amtrak stations, you would want

[25:45] to ensure alignment with Amtrak stations

[25:48] to make sure the individuals can connect to

[25:51] and from State College integrated ticketing vehicle

[25:56] and facility needs

[25:57] and the potential for LI limited fair revenue

[26:00] or some of the negatives

[26:03] I'll mention throughout the process.

[26:05] This was viewed as a lower cost access strategy,

[26:08] but would still require a large operating partnership

[26:12] across multiple agencies.

[26:17] Our second alternative is expanding

[26:21] existing inner city bus service

[26:22] between Centre County and Harrisburg.

[26:25] So this would be Greyhound fullington services

[26:29] provide both connection to Amtrak

[26:32] and a useful regional mobility for other chips

[26:34] for individuals who, not just students

[26:37] but also residents who may live in Centre County

[26:41] but want to travel that need to travel to Harrisburg

[26:43] for work or vice versa.

[26:45] Individuals lived out in the Harrisburg area need to travel

[26:48] to Centre County.

[26:51] Some of the key challenges

[26:52] for this alternative are operating funding requirements,

[26:56] again, highly peaked demand based on campus events,

[27:01] broad reliability, congestion, potential for

[27:06] accidents, causing delays along with the inner city bus,

[27:10] and then coordination among the carriers, PennDOT,

[27:13] local partners and Amtrak.

[27:19] So those were the two shuttle bus service alternatives.

[27:22] Now looking at our rail alternatives,

[27:28] The first rail alternative was our short line rail shuttle

[27:31] service to Centre County.

[27:33] Under this concept, basically a rail shuttle would connect

[27:36] Centre County with the existing Amtrak network using

[27:40] existing freight rail corridor corridors

[27:42] and serving communities throughout Centre County

[27:44] and beyond, such as Beon or Downtown State College.

[27:48] Some of the advantages include a one seat rail connection

[27:51] within Centre County serving multiple communities,

[27:55] more reliable that highway travel

[27:58] and the potential to support transit oriented development.

[28:02] So the trade offs, significant capital investment.

[28:05] So we're starting to talk about more expensive alternatives

[28:09] with our rail coordination with freight railroads

[28:11] and Amtrak, potential track

[28:14] and station upgrades, OP operating subsidies, equipment

[28:18] and maintenance requirements,

[28:20] and then again, dependence on those reliable connections

[28:23] after you get off the rail shuttle service

[28:25] and trying to find connections beyond.

[28:32] Our fourth and final alternative is our,

[28:35] that direct passenger rail service

[28:38] to State College from the Altoona Amtrak station

[28:43] and really direct this would provide direct access

[28:46] through the NI and Bald Eagle Road railroad corridor,

[28:51] while it provides the strongest direct access,

[28:53] it's a one seat trip

[28:55] and really responds

[28:56] to those major travel generators in the region providing

[29:00] direct access for visitors, tourists, or the general public.

[29:05] It's also the most complex alternative.

[29:07] Obviously you have high capital costs,

[29:10] you would require new station upgrades and

[29:13] or just brand new stations in general.

[29:16] Railroad ownership and operating agreements

[29:18] would've to be implemented.

[29:20] There would be significant infrastructure upgrade

[29:23] you'd be operating.

[29:24] There would be freight impacts, which could cause freight

[29:27] to be moved to the nine operational constraints,

[29:31] recurring subsidy needs

[29:33] and the demand that may be highly seasonal or event driven.

[29:37] So again, the common theme here, as you've probably heard,

[29:40] is a lot of the alternatives appear to be driven by

[29:45] those spiky trends from Penn State

[29:48] and beginning end of semester

[29:51] football games events on campus.

[29:54] So that is the end of the one section.

[29:57] So I know that was a lot of information,

[30:00] but I will at least pause Toby

[30:02] and I would be happy to kind

[30:04] of answer any questions on the four

[30:06] alternatives if there are any.

[30:09] - Okay. One quick request before we open it up.

[30:13] On the first two alternatives, you identified

[30:18] Harrisburg and Altoona.

[30:21] I believe that the report notes why,

[30:24] but for the folks who might be watching tonight,

[30:27] could you explain a little bit why those two sites were

[30:30] chosen in alternatives one and two?

[30:35] - Absolutely. So originally we were looking at Lewistown

[30:40] and Tyrone has potential connections, but

[30:44] after we conducted our stakeholder interviews

[30:49] specifically with Amtrak, we learned

[30:52] that travelers are extremely vulnerable.

[30:56] So basically you envision it

[30:59] as an individual who's unfamiliar with the area, who trapped

[31:03] by Amtrak now got off at a station that is unstaffed

[31:08] and is trying to find their connecting route, trying

[31:11] to find their inner city shuttle bus

[31:13] to connect to State College.

[31:15] So Lewistown is not a staff station.

[31:20] So based on advice

[31:22] provided by AM Amtrak, they recommended we expand study area

[31:27] to Altoona and Harrisburg, mainly due to the fact

[31:30] that they are staff stations

[31:32] and if a vulnerable traveler would get off the,

[31:37] at an Amtrak station and need assistance with luggage

[31:41] or just in general questions about connecting to their final

[31:46] or next destination, having

[31:48] that staffed individual at the station is a lot more

[31:51] beneficial than ultimately dropping them

[31:54] and no one there to assist them.

[31:56] - Yeah, Greg, clarification on that or Yeah,

[32:01] - I do want to say that the other point

[32:02] that we considered particularly

[32:04] with Harrisburg is just the volume of Amtrak service,

[32:07] particularly to the east that you're able to hook into.

[32:10] So we thought that would probably be a, a better

[32:14] examination than for example, Lewistown.

[32:18] - Okay. Ben

[32:19] and Greg, thank, thank you for that clarification.

[32:21] I'm looking to the room questions on what we've seen so far.

[32:25] Comments also looking online.

[32:29] Frank did you have something? Yeah,

[32:31] - I, I just kind of disagree.

[32:32] I I think that first off, it seems to me

[32:37] that this study's done based on Penn State football.

[32:41] I mean that's what you're saying, you know, I will be,

[32:45] next Tuesday, I'll be down at the Lewistown station

[32:49] dropping somebody that's going to Dallas,

[32:51] picking the train up there

[32:53] and there will be a lot of people getting on

[32:55] and a lot of people getting off.

[32:57] People were already going to Lewistown to,

[33:00] to pick the train up to go east and west.

[33:04] Has anybody talked to the Lewistown Travel Bureau?

[33:07] You're basically giving an, there's an opportunity here for,

[33:11] for revenue.

[33:12] There's an opportunity for,

[33:14] for business escalation in an area.

[33:17] You know, has anybody talked to Lewistown,

[33:20] the travel agent down there

[33:21] and say, Hey, would you guys be

[33:23] interested in looking at this?

[33:25] You know, I Amtrak sure that they wanted to go

[33:28] to their stations, absolutely,

[33:30] but that Lewistown station could be, could be upgraded

[33:33] and it could have people there, but,

[33:35] but you know, Amtrak doesn't wanna put people there,

[33:38] there are people there right now.

[33:39] They're all volunteers.

[33:41] So I, I just think you, you're, you're,

[33:44] you're setting this up for football weekends

[33:46] and you know, you're not looking at at the whole picture

[33:50] and, and I think Tyrone

[33:51] and Lewistown for this area, who wants to get on a bus

[33:54] and ride an hour and a half, you know, to go

[33:57] to catch a train when you can do it in like 25 minutes.

[34:01] Why, why would you go an hour and a half on a, on a bus?

[34:04] So I, I just think that,

[34:06] I think ignoring those two locations is a mistake.

[34:09] - Okay. We gotta comment.

[34:11] Hang on Jeremy, which, which we will note

[34:14] and then I don't know if Ben or Toby

[34:18] or Peyton can answer the question on any level

[34:22] of engagement from the Lewistown business community.

[34:26] Was that any of that part of the study?

[34:31] - No, the, we did not involve the Lewistown business

[34:35] community as part of this feasibility study.

[34:40] - Okay. Jeremy? - Yeah. Well

[34:43] - Why it have been rather supportive

[34:44] of like Lewistown or Tyrone?

[34:46] I, my preference would be to get

[34:48] to the nearest train station instead

[34:50] of staying on the road a little bit longer.

[34:52] But I have found benefits of traveling out of Harrisburg

[34:56] and Middletown because there are more trains.

[34:59] But also if you did have an unforeseen incident

[35:04] where service may be canceled

[35:05] or sus suspended either in Altoona

[35:10] or Harrisburg, there's at least possibly, especially more

[35:13] so Harrisburg for additional options to work out the travel

[35:17] or at least enough accommodations that somebody could even,

[35:21] you know, find, find a place relatively easy

[35:24] to stay the night and resume their travel the next day

[35:27] versus in like Tyrone

[35:30] or Lewistown where lodging options

[35:33] and sometimes other transit options are a lot more limited.

[35:38] So. Okay.

[35:39] Just my take on the perspective

[35:41] and under understanding where, you know,

[35:44] the experts were coming from.

[35:46] - Yeah, Joanne,

[35:48] - I am pretty much agreeing with what Jeremy said,

[35:52] but going to Al to Tyrone

[35:56] or to Lewistown is good if you're just doing day trips.

[36:00] If you're going further, like the example

[36:02] that you gave going to Dallas, neither of those stations

[36:07] has, you can't put your extra baggage in a baggage cart.

[36:12] You can in Harrisburg and you cannan Altoona. Yep.

[36:16] So when I use Amtrak,

[36:20] if I just doing a day day trip, I go to Lewistown,

[36:24] but if I've got a longer distance,

[36:26] like I will be doing in November for a two week trip

[36:29] to Texas, I need that baggage handling service,

[36:34] which means a staff station

[36:36] and that would be Altoona or Harrisburg.

[36:40] And in that case I wouldn't mind taking the bus,

[36:43] although I hate buses, but I would prefer doing

[36:48] that over having to try to schlep three suitcases

[36:53] into a coach car.

[36:56] - Okay. Again, this is the draft of the final report.

[37:00] We're not writing the report, we've hired the consultants

[37:03] to do it, but obviously comments are welcome

[37:06] and I think the discussion about the comments is healthy.

[37:11] So other questions or comments

[37:14] before we move to the next section?

[37:18] No. Okay, Ben, go ahead.

[37:20] - Great, thank you and I appreciate the discussion.

[37:23] So moving on here. Our public

[37:26] and stakeholder engagement was really a

[37:29] core part of the study.

[37:31] Public engagement efforts included the public survey

[37:35] stakeholder interviews a public open house

[37:38] and then also involved was we developed a project steering

[37:41] committee that meant four times throughout the process.

[37:46] I also mentioned the 30 day Public Comment

[37:48] and review period that was open during, in the middle

[37:52] of when the public open house was held.

[37:55] So really these activities helped us understand the travel

[37:58] references reality of how individuals travel

[38:02] and the level of support for each alternative.

[38:08] So very early on in the study process,

[38:12] Centre County MPO learned

[38:14] that a graduate student at Penn State University was

[38:17] actually conducting a very similar study

[38:20] to passenger rail in Centre County.

[38:24] So to reduce duplication efforts,

[38:27] the Centre County NPO partnered

[38:29] with Penn State on a public survey,

[38:32] which was a very unique opportunity which allowed kinda

[38:37] a great collaboration between the university

[38:39] and the community and then also the NPO.

[38:43] So the public survey was open from February 4th

[38:47] through March 16th

[38:49] and we received a little over 1300 total survey responses.

[38:55] So like I mentioned, while survey was run through Penn State

[38:59] Credit to the Centre County MTO staff

[39:02] who completed their own extensive promotion of the survey

[39:06] to ensure awareness was made across the entire county

[39:10] and all residents

[39:11] and individuals within the county were made aware of

[39:15] the public survey and this ongoing study effort

[39:18] that was related to the Study.

[39:22] So next slide. Sorry about that Greg.

[39:26] So these next couple slides here are just an overview on

[39:31] some of the responses we received through the public survey.

[39:35] So this just provides an overview

[39:37] of the respondent location.

[39:39] As you can see, responses really came from across Centre

[39:42] County as a whole.

[39:44] What the largest number is being focused in State College

[39:47] Borough Ferguson Township, Township and College Township.

[39:52] It's important, the geographic pattern,

[39:54] it's really important to hear

[39:57] that the interest was not just limited to one municipality

[40:00] or the university at the same time, concentration

[40:04] with this in the Centre County region should be considered

[40:08] with the overall results.

[40:09] So there was a widespread

[40:12] of survey results from across the county,

[40:15] which was extremely beneficial and credit to the MPO staff.

[40:22] So within the study or within the survey,

[40:24] respondents had the opportunity to select kind

[40:27] of four preferred destinations.

[40:30] So those included New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,

[40:33] and New York, New Jersey.

[40:35] In addition, respondents could select their other option,

[40:40] which was kind of out of those four options,

[40:43] maybe there were other areas that they wanted to travel.

[40:46] As you can see, New York City

[40:48] and Philadelphia more the most frequently

[40:51] identified preferred destinations followed

[40:53] by Washington DC Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

[40:57] This show shows it's a very strong connection along the

[41:00] northeast corridor and other major regional destination.

[41:05] It also reinforces the importance of reliable transfers

[41:10] and schedules because several of the leading destinations

[41:15] that are towards the top of the list,

[41:16] you cannot reach directly from Centre County.

[41:19] You would have to connect in to one of the

[41:23] ed stations in order to reach a destination.

[41:31] So again, it's part of the survey.

[41:35] Individuals were able to kind of build their own selection

[41:39] by making trade-offs, whether it's from the fair, fair,

[41:42] so the cost, the service type that they would prefer,

[41:45] the frequency, how they would get to a station along

[41:50] with the departure times.

[41:52] The purpose was to really move from that simple statement

[41:55] of support and identify which surface characteristics were

[41:59] most meaningful for individuals.

[42:02] So looking at it, the average price chosen

[42:05] by survey respondents was $114.

[42:10] The top service types, so they could choose here

[42:12] between high speed rail or regular rail.

[42:15] 63% selected regular

[42:18] and depart departure frequencies

[42:21] that was most common was three times per day.

[42:27] One of the other questions was allowing individuals

[42:29] to really say, well how are you gonna get to it from

[42:33] the station?

[42:34] It was either drive

[42:36] or be dropped off by friend family member,

[42:39] which may also include Uber or Lyft

[42:43] or if there was a shuttle option, would you take the show

[42:48] again, very close but 54% mentioned.

[42:51] But they would prefer to be to drive themselves

[42:53] or be dropped off at the station.

[42:56] And then 65% preferred three daily departures.

[43:04] So I will pause there.

[43:06] That covers kind of the high level overview

[43:09] of the public survey.

[43:11] A full in-depth look at the survey results is included

[43:15] as an appendix within the report.

[43:18] But again, just really wanted

[43:19] to provide a high level overview of the, some

[43:22] of the key questions that were included within the survey.

[43:30] - Is this our pause? - Yeah, we can,

[43:33] we can take any questions on the

[43:35] survey, that would be a good spot.

[43:36] Now.

[43:37] - Questions, comments? Go Paul.

[43:45] - Ready? So - Hang, hang on Ben,

[43:47] hang on Ben, we go. Paul, I

[43:49] - Just had a question online.

[43:51] Yeah, thanks a lot for this Ben.

[43:54] Of course I didn't get a chance to look

[43:55] through the appendix, but what was the option that most

[43:59] of the respondents wanted?

[44:01] Did they want like option three

[44:02] or four, the ones that were involving the rail service

[44:06] or what was the

[44:09] - So the public survey was actually,

[44:13] the public survey was completely different from the four

[44:16] alternatives that were developed.

[44:19] So the four alternatives were developed based on

[44:23] the feedback from the public survey

[44:27] in the stakeholder interviews.

[44:29] So further down here in the presentation

[44:32] for the 30 day public review period, it actually, we

[44:36] provided individuals the opportunity to comment

[44:38] and share their preference on the four alternatives.

[44:42] And not to spoil it,

[44:44] but the preferred alternatives from the individuals were the

[44:48] two rail options during the public

[44:50] or the 30 day public review period.

[44:52] Okay. Yeah, I guess that's

[44:53] what I was wondering about is both of that, that during

[44:55] that review period, because I remember the survey

[44:57] was passed around.

[44:58] Thanks a lot. Absolutely.

[45:02] - Okay, Ben I think you're good to go. Jeremy, did you?

[45:06] Okay, hang on. Hang on Ben, one more, sorry. So,

[45:10] - So I'm kind of curious with the

[45:13] O over 1300 survey respondents, just kind of how does

[45:16] that compare to other feedback engagement opportunities

[45:20] we've had through the COG

[45:21] or even the consultant may have experienced before

[45:25] because that, that is a pretty significant number.

[45:28] No worries if nobody has the answer.

[45:30] Just yeah, a point of curiosity. I think if

[45:33] - You look at other supplemental planning studies

[45:36] that we've done, I would absolutely say

[45:38] that's a significant number. Okay.

[45:41] - To, to follow up on that, this is as good a time

[45:43] as any to bring this up.

[45:45] This is the most comprehensive

[45:48] and broad based study that's been done

[45:52] as long as I've been around.

[45:54] I mean, just look at the five

[45:56] entities that were at the table.

[45:57] I'm not sure that previous studies have had all five

[46:00] of those at the table.

[46:02] I can't say for certain,

[46:04] but I would say I'm 99% sure that

[46:07] that has not happened before.

[46:09] - Frank. Yeah, I I it may be comprehensive,

[46:13] but I, I'm sitting here

[46:16] and you just said 54%

[46:19] of the people you surveyed want to drive there

[46:22] or get dropped off

[46:24] and 48% would like some kind of shuttle service.

[46:27] So we're, we're putting all this together

[46:29] to based on half the people

[46:31] that are gonna use the service, less than half.

[46:34] I mean I, I I disagree with the results and,

[46:37] and how you, you came about all this.

[46:39] You, you basically said here's what we want to give you

[46:41] and which one do you like?

[46:42] I mean, I still think that,

[46:45] I still think you should look at other alternatives.

[46:47] I I think those two stations are still viable.

[46:51] - Well keep in mind Frank, that it'll be up to us

[46:54] to determine how to use this

[46:55] information and how to move forward. Well

[46:58] - I understand that.

[46:59] Okay.

[47:00] - And just one last thing from this section, going back to

[47:04] that slide that Mr. Hardin was mentioning about,

[47:07] I think it was like six 60 some percent we're preferring

[47:11] like three trips a day.

[47:13] I think that's a pretty good number just considering

[47:15] that we are within a month

[47:18] or two of a second daily round trip through the state just

[47:21] to show there is pent up demand for having more options.

[47:27] So that's a pretty good number to go off of.

[47:31] - Okay. We've given Amber enough time to come up

[47:33] with a question or comment.

[47:37] - So this is partly in response, this is partly in response

[47:40] to Frank's concern about like why would we not

[47:43] use Lewistown?

[47:45] And as someone who responded to the survey

[47:48] and going through it, I would've expressed my preference

[47:52] for Harrisburg because there's a train from Harrisburg

[47:56] to Philly and then onto New York like every hour,

[47:59] just about all day long from early in the morning

[48:01] until well into the evening.

[48:03] So if I'm planning a trip

[48:05] and I can't meet the timetable of the Lewistown train,

[48:09] which is once a day versus like once an hour,

[48:13] that's why we are always going to Harrisburg for the train.

[48:17] So, and which we do on a very regular basis.

[48:19] So I think that's kind of the issue with, with Lewistown is

[48:23] one train a day versus one train an hour.

[48:26] So hopefully maybe that helps.

[48:29] - Okay, thanks Amber.

[48:31] And before I turn it back over to Ben, I just want

[48:35] to correct myself what we do

[48:39] with this information's really not up to us.

[48:41] The MPOI just wanna make sure that everybody understands

[48:45] that when I say us, I mean the community in,

[48:49] in in particular those five entities

[48:52] and whatever comes from the community that wants

[48:55] to keep moving forward with one of those options.

[48:57] So, or multiple options. Okay.

[49:01] Ben, we, what's that? Frank?

[49:06] - The royal we I think is what he

[49:08] - Said.

[49:09] Yes. Yes. Thank you again. Alright Ben.

[49:13] - Alrighty. Thank you. So moving on here

[49:15] to our stakeholder interviews.

[49:17] This was a very essential part of the planning process.

[49:22] We really picked these five organizations as we thought

[49:26] that they were important to advancing one

[49:28] or more of the alternatives.

[49:30] As you can see this involved trans providers PennDOT the

[49:34] seat of call joint rail authority and Amtrak.

[49:39] So some of the common themes that we heard during

[49:44] our stakeholder interview views were stakeholders

[49:49] recognized the demand for inner city bus access.

[49:52] Amtrak, as I mentioned, advised for

[49:56] taking people to the, from those bus connections

[49:59] to staff stations, Altoona

[50:02] and Harrisburg ridership for those longer trips would peak

[50:06] around the breaks at Penn State in the end of the semester.

[50:09] And then the service competitiveness is

[50:12] very critical for this process.

[50:19] Moving on to our public comments.

[50:22] So in addition,

[50:24] we had a 30 day Public Comment review period,

[50:27] which was available to the public from July 17th

[50:30] through August 17th.

[50:33] We received 245 responses from the

[50:36] online Microsoft form.

[50:39] In addition, we received 24 written comments

[50:43] through email from residents.

[50:45] So these next couple slides just summarize the ratings

[50:48] and the recurring themes for each alternative.

[50:51] And it shows the relative support along

[50:55] with the written feedback that was

[50:56] provided by individuals as they took the Microsoft form

[51:01] during the Public Comment.

[51:04] So the dedicated shuttle bus alternative received an average

[51:07] rating of 3.51 out of five

[51:12] feedback showed there was conditional support.

[51:14] Many respondents saw value in near term connection

[51:17] to existing Amtrak service,

[51:19] but really preferred a shuttle be framed

[51:23] as a one step within a broader passenger rail strategy.

[51:27] The recurring message was

[51:28] that a bus connection could improve mobility in the near

[51:30] term, but it should not replace continued consideration

[51:34] of passenger rail for Centre County.

[51:42] The expansion of inner city bus service received the 3.55

[51:47] out of five respondents cited improved connectivity

[51:50] between Centre County and Harrisburg

[51:52] and better access to Amtrak stations, airports, employment,

[51:57] medical services, and other key destinations.

[52:00] It was generally viewed as more affordable

[52:02] and achievable in the near term

[52:04] and the two rail alternatives.

[52:05] However, again, many respondents still considered it

[52:09] as a secondary option rather than the community's preferred

[52:12] long term outcome of rail.

[52:18] So short line rail service, as you can see,

[52:20] the average rating has spiked now

[52:22] to 4.44 indicating very strong support.

[52:27] Respondents viewed it as a potential balance

[52:29] among practicality costs.

[52:31] Long-term transportation benefit emphasized the value

[52:35] of connecting Beon State College, Tyrone

[52:38] and the surrounding communities along

[52:40] with potential economic development benefits

[52:43] at certain communities.

[52:44] And the main concern was whether the capital

[52:47] and operating costs could be justified

[52:49] by expected RI ridership and broad benefits.

[52:52] So while it received significant support, there was also

[52:57] a number of comments raised about if the cost

[53:02] construction operating costs could be justified.

[53:08] So our direct passenger a again received a rating of 4.44

[53:13] and had the greatest number of level five ratings.

[53:16] Among the four alternative response describe

[53:20] as potentially transformative for regional mobility

[53:23] and frequently identified Penn State move in weekends

[53:26] graduation and game days as major use cases.

[53:30] Principal concern again was, was the cost

[53:32] of constructing necessary infrastructure

[53:35] and weather rhino ship would be sufficient

[53:37] to justify that investment.

[53:39] Again, the results showed strong public preference

[53:42] for the two rail options, specifically

[53:45] direct passenger rail,

[53:47] but it does not by itself resolve feasibility funding

[53:51] or implementation questions.

[53:55] As I mentioned, we also received written comments

[53:59] and they again reinforce the phase strategy.

[54:03] Many participants supported improving bus access in the near

[54:07] term while continuing to look at that long term

[54:12] rail connection providing service to Centre County.

[54:16] Some of the other comments here, again that phased approach,

[54:21] looking at the value of the State College or Beon station

[54:25] and the potential benefits

[54:26] of Penn State residents and visitors.

[54:34] So I will pause there that kind

[54:36] of highlights our public review period.

[54:41] Happy to take any questions that we received

[54:44] and again, this is just a very high level summary

[54:48] of the responses that we we received.

[54:51] We have a full in depth analysis from the Microsoft form

[54:56] that includes each individual

[54:58] response from respondents throughout

[55:00] the 30 day Public Comment.

[55:03] - Okay. It's pause time, questions, comments,

[55:09] and that particular section is what it is.

[55:12] So, okay Ben? Sure. Oh Greg,

[55:16] - Just one point of clarification.

[55:18] You know, for as much of a range of stakeholder interviews

[55:22] as we conducted, it's probably worth noting that we,

[55:25] we wanted to do even more.

[55:27] Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in bringing

[55:30] like a federal rail administration

[55:33] or a representative from Greyhound to the table.

[55:37] Fullington because they're a more local company,

[55:40] probably a lot easier to get an audience with them.

[55:42] But discussions that unfortunately we weren't able to have,

[55:46] but there's still value in having probably going forward.

[55:52] - Okay, Ben, back to you.

[55:55] - Alrighty, we're coming down here

[55:56] to the end of the presentation.

[55:58] So the, as I mentioned, we held a public open house

[56:02] on August 4th that was broken out into two sessions,

[56:05] an afternoon session and then an evening session.

[56:08] In total we had about 25 attendees

[56:12] and again, there was significant support

[56:15] and preference for both Rail alternatives support

[56:19] for looking beyond the Tyrone Lewistown

[56:21] to Harrisburg and beyond.

[56:24] The NI Mall was brought up as a potential desire

[56:27] of station location

[56:30] and one of the big things in the open house was

[56:34] residents were curious to know a clear sense of

[56:37] what party's decisions

[56:38] and actions would be necessary to advance one

[56:41] or more of these options.

[56:44] An interesting thing we walked out of the, the meeting room

[56:47] that night and there was a group of individuals who actually

[56:51] were setting up a group text to

[56:54] that were extremely interested

[56:56] and wanted to be involved with potential passenger rail

[56:59] and they were setting up a group text

[57:01] and were interested to see

[57:02] how they could advance this forward.

[57:04] So that was definitely something different from my end

[57:07] that you don't see too often

[57:09] after a public, public open house.

[57:10] But at the same time it's very unique and cool to see.

[57:18] So during the September 9th meeting,

[57:20] the technical committee did recommend acceptance

[57:23] of the study and I guess

[57:26] that concludes the presentation.

[57:29] Again, I know we kind of paused for questions,

[57:31] comments throughout, but if there are any outlying

[57:34] questions, comments, Toby

[57:35] and I are available here to kind of answer any questions

[57:38] or provide clarification on anything.

[57:40] I just wanna thank you for, for your time tonight.

[57:44] - Alright Ben, thanks.

[57:45] Before I open it up for comments

[57:47] or questions, I will note that based on your comment

[57:51] that the action you saw at the end of your public open house

[57:56] makes me feel pretty good about the, the subject choice

[58:00] for the supplemental planning fund study.

[58:04] Obviously we chose something that has, yeah,

[58:08] that, that people are interested in and passionate about.

[58:12] So with that, I'm looking in the room first

[58:15] and I'll look for digital hands once we go through the room,

[58:21] follow up comments, questions, let's go

[58:23] with Heidi and then Jeremy.

[58:26] - I get the sense that the rail options,

[58:27] what everybody really wants, but I also get the sense

[58:29] that people think that's just a pipe dream.

[58:31] Is, is that fair

[58:34] - That that, that it's what

[58:36] - That that, that everyone would love

[58:38] to have the rail come directly to State College

[58:40] or the Centre Region, you know, more closer,

[58:43] but that, that is never gonna happen.

[58:46] - Let me add to that 'cause I think we could merge two

[58:49] questions here together.

[58:52] Maybe this would be for staff or,

[58:54] or Ben, maybe one of you

[58:58] can offer just a little bit about what it would take

[59:03] to get, what would we say, a six car

[59:05] and track train beyond miles per,

[59:10] not cost wise, but just to give some context to

[59:13] what it would require.

[59:15] Did that come out in the tech committee meeting?

[59:18] - It not specifically.

[59:20] It was discussed a bit during the public open house.

[59:23] - Okay. 'cause we're, we're constantly referring

[59:25] to infrastructure cost and that,

[59:27] and it might be helpful just to know about, you know,

[59:30] just in general what we're talking about.

[59:34] Absolutely. Why you can't bring an Amtrak train into the

[59:36] Nittany Mall on the existing track

[59:39] and what would be required.

[59:41] So now Greg or Jim or Ben?

[59:47] - I, Toby I don't, I don't mean to put you on the spot,

[59:50] Toby, but are you, did you wanna take this one?

[59:53] Yeah, can you guys hear me okay?

[59:55] - Yep, yep. - Yeah, so

[59:58] it would require significant,

[1:00:00] pretty significant track upgrades.

[1:00:04] The, you'd have to get a railroad agreement to be able

[1:00:08] to operate a passenger rail there, require signal upgrades,

[1:00:13] you'd have to construct stations that meet the Americans

[1:00:17] with Disabilities Act with high level platforms

[1:00:20] for the full length of the train.

[1:00:22] So if you have a six car training, I've got a platform

[1:00:24] that runs the full length of that training that,

[1:00:28] that is level boarding.

[1:00:29] They're, they're, the cars are high

[1:00:33] if you're gonna operate Amtrak in there

[1:00:36] and then there would be,

[1:00:37] there would definitely be significant

[1:00:42] operating costs associated with,

[1:00:47] you know, paying Amtrak for,

[1:00:49] for operating those trains as well.

[1:00:51] So it, it definitely isn't something that's a quick,

[1:00:55] a quick process

[1:00:58] and it would take, it would take a bit of a time

[1:01:01] and a significant amount of money to be able to,

[1:01:05] to be able to achieve that.

[1:01:06] But you know, there's, there are rail projects

[1:01:09] that people have as, as ideas

[1:01:12] or things they want to do around the country

[1:01:15] and there are, you know, various funding streams

[1:01:19] that can be applied for to advance the phases

[1:01:23] and move projects forward.

[1:01:24] So the one, the one real advantage,

[1:01:29] that gap here is a, a major

[1:01:34] concentrated population in State College that

[1:01:39] has, that there's demand for travel outside

[1:01:43] of the State College area.

[1:01:45] So I think there, there are definitely is opportunity

[1:01:50] for inner city to explore inner city

[1:01:52] passenger service there.

[1:01:55] - Okay. Toby, just one quick follow up.

[1:01:57] You're talking about what

[1:01:59] beyond milberg, is that accurate?

[1:02:08] - Do we, do we have a map,

[1:02:10] - But I mean in in general or,

[1:02:11] or is it further upstream than Milberg?

[1:02:14] We're we're talking about those kind

[1:02:15] of improvements made to track.

[1:02:17] - Oh yeah, yeah. I mean there, there's, there's

[1:02:20] there there's you, you have to,

[1:02:23] so if you were gonna take this a step further, right now,

[1:02:26] this was a conceptual study,

[1:02:28] but if they're gonna take this a step further, you need

[1:02:30] to really explore all,

[1:02:32] what's gonna be the most viable rail alternative.

[1:02:35] Whether even using existing, the existing

[1:02:40] right of way is feasible or not,

[1:02:43] and you know how much cost you have in doing that.

[1:02:47] And then where you'd want to have station locations so

[1:02:52] that you could achieve the best ridership

[1:02:54] and the best terminal in the investment.

[1:02:58] - Okay. Did you have a follow up to that? Well,

[1:03:00] - I'd love to hear a ballpark number,

[1:03:02] but I don't think we're gonna get one.

[1:03:04] So, but, but it it expensive

[1:03:06] and that's, it's just everybody wants it,

[1:03:08] but it doesn't seem like it'll ever happen.

[1:03:10] Is that, is that still we always hope for something

[1:03:14] and we could pursue it.

[1:03:16] - You're, you're so expensive,

[1:03:18] you're probably talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

[1:03:21] It's not in the tens of millions of dollars.

[1:03:23] So this is this, this would not be an inexpensive venture

[1:03:28] to, to, you know, move forward with.

[1:03:32] I can't say whether it's feasible or not feasible

[1:03:35] because it really depends on political will

[1:03:38] and willing to invest.

[1:03:40] - Yeah. And and that's a bit outside the scope

[1:03:42] of this study, so not, it's no matter,

[1:03:47] even if there was money and enthusiasm, it takes some time.

[1:03:51] Absolutely. Alright, go Paul and then we'll go with Joanne.

[1:03:56] - Thanks. I was wondering like the, that short rail study

[1:04:02] that looked like that was something

[1:04:03] that was more feasible, right?

[1:04:04] I mean, do you have a sense for how,

[1:04:08] how much the cost overlay would be for that?

[1:04:11] It sounds like that's significantly cheaper than

[1:04:14] the passenger rail one.

[1:04:15] It seemed more feasible, at least

[1:04:16] that was the impression I got from looking at

[1:04:19] the, the report.

[1:04:21] Is that correct?

[1:04:23] - You're talking about the alternative

[1:04:24] where you run the rail shuttle.

[1:04:26] - The rail shuttle, but

[1:04:27] that still runs on rail tracks, right?

[1:04:29] - Yeah, it's the same. So the, so a lot

[1:04:32] of the same track upgrades would be necessary,

[1:04:35] but you would probably end up with a different operator.

[1:04:40] You wouldn't have to, you wouldn't have

[1:04:42] to make it work for Amtrak.

[1:04:44] The other big issue

[1:04:46] or the big thought behind

[1:04:48] that was if you use a diesel model, diesel model unit type

[1:04:53] of vehicle, you can operate one unit, you can operate two,

[1:04:57] there's self-propelled cars.

[1:04:59] You don't have to have an engine in cars, you're,

[1:05:01] you're operating a self-propelled car

[1:05:03] and there are versions of the cars that have,

[1:05:09] that could service low level platforms so you wouldn't have

[1:05:12] to build higher level platforms.

[1:05:13] So there's, there's definitely cost advantages to it.

[1:05:17] It would still, it would still require, you know,

[1:05:20] a pretty significant amount of money, a big investment.

[1:05:24] Plus you, you would, you would have equipment

[1:05:27] and a different operator probably that would then need

[1:05:30] to have a place to store

[1:05:32] that equipment, maintain that equipment.

[1:05:34] So it would add some other features that you wouldn't have

[1:05:37] with the, with the Amtrak alternative.

[1:05:39] Okay. But I mean it's not like,

[1:05:41] say like if you said the passenger rail was hundreds

[1:05:44] of million dollars, millions of dollars Yeah.

[1:05:46] Something because tens of millions.

[1:05:48] No, its, it's, it is, it's probably it, you know,

[1:05:54] maybe in the low hundreds of millions.

[1:05:57] I mean I I would think, I mean, it, it, it is,

[1:06:00] it's gonna be, it's it's gonna be significant,

[1:06:05] but you, you have to, you have to work it out.

[1:06:07] And honestly, I, I've seen lots

[1:06:11] of rail studies done over the years, some

[1:06:13] of 'em while I was Deputy Secretary of Penn on some of 'em

[1:06:16] that, you know, I've participated in as a consultant

[1:06:19] and often people will try to work toward,

[1:06:24] you think about try and work toward low capital costs

[1:06:27] and capital costs aren't your biggest challenge.

[1:06:31] You're often your biggest challenge is how you're gonna pay

[1:06:34] for ongoing operations

[1:06:36] because that doesn't usually come with federal dollars.

[1:06:40] It usually, you know, requires state local dollars to pay

[1:06:44] for ongoing operations, which can be pretty challenging.

[1:06:48] - Hey, Toby, since you mentioned it, if you would share

[1:06:52] with the group your previous day job in the public sector,

[1:06:57] I think that would be helpful context for,

[1:07:00] for those of us in the room.

[1:07:02] - Sure. So prior to going back to consolidating,

[1:07:06] I was deputy secretary

[1:07:07] for multimodal transportation at PennDOT.

[1:07:10] Prior to that I was deputy secretary for local

[1:07:12] and area transportation, but I was at PennDOT for 14 years

[1:07:18] and over, you know, three governors

[1:07:20] and that, in that deputy secretary role was responsible

[1:07:24] for funding public transportation and passenger rail.

[1:07:27] And then when I was multimodal, I covered all

[1:07:31] freight rail and ports and waterways

[1:07:33] and, you know, airports and everything else.

[1:07:36] So for the last five years.

[1:07:37] But I pretty much every passenger rail study

[1:07:42] that went on in Pennsylvania

[1:07:45] or was engaged in Pennsylvania during that period

[1:07:48] of time I was involved in or commented on

[1:07:51] or, you know, we, we ended up reviewing

[1:07:54] and like I said, the, the biggest challenge is,

[1:07:59] is achieving, getting,

[1:08:02] operating on mostly ongoing operating costs.

[1:08:06] Being able to pay for operating, operating expenses.

[1:08:11] - Alright, thanks Toby.

[1:08:13] I hated to put you on the spot,

[1:08:14] but I thought that No, that's fine.

[1:08:15] Context was, was relevant, you know, to the,

[1:08:20] to the study, Joanne and then Frank. Okay.

[1:08:25] - To sort of answer your question about cost,

[1:08:28] about six years ago, Bellefonte looked

[1:08:32] into adding the upper

[1:08:34] and lowering arms, which would be required if we have

[1:08:37] passenger railroad, we have five places in Befor

[1:08:41] that we would have to have them.

[1:08:42] At that time it was about two to two

[1:08:44] and a half million dollars for just those five.

[1:08:47] And raising, I'm suspecting now it's gonna be over 5 million

[1:08:53] to just give you an idea of what kind

[1:08:55] of cost we're talking about.

[1:08:56] And that doesn't they do anything

[1:08:58] to the train station at this point

[1:09:00] or upgrading the rails, it's just making sure

[1:09:03] that there's a barrier

[1:09:05] for people crossing the railroad tracks

[1:09:07] - Or your grade crossings.

[1:09:08] Yeah, yeah. Frank, yes.

[1:09:12] - Just put everything in kind of in perspective here.

[1:09:15] Number one, we already have bus service to Harrisburg.

[1:09:18] You can get, you can get a Greyhound

[1:09:19] or a Fullington, you can get to Harrisburg on a bus.

[1:09:22] So I'm not really enthused about spending a whole bunch

[1:09:24] of money to, to re redo that or repurpose that.

[1:09:27] The other thing to keep in mind is we're gonna spend a

[1:09:30] billion dollars here in the next 10 years

[1:09:32] to build a four lane road between Potters,

[1:09:35] Mills and, and burg.

[1:09:36] So the a hundred million doesn't scare me as much

[1:09:39] as it may be scares other people.

[1:09:42] Second thing is we, we built a,

[1:09:43] we built a Transcontinental railroad across this country

[1:09:46] in the 18 hundreds.

[1:09:47] I think we could build a rail service between here

[1:09:50] and Altoona, you know that that's not nearly as, as daunting

[1:09:54] as building a railroad across the country.

[1:09:57] In our long run transportation plan, we have, I believe,

[1:10:02] a four lane road trying to connect 99 to the airport.

[1:10:05] So why wouldn't we add this to the long range plan

[1:10:09] to say we're also gonna connect rail service to the airport

[1:10:13] and make that our transportation hub for getting to out

[1:10:16] of the area on either rail train

[1:10:18] or whatever, so that we could have, you could go there

[1:10:21] and get on a plane, you could get on a train and connect.

[1:10:24] So I think this, what we're talking about in this study,

[1:10:27] why not just put it into our long range transportation plan

[1:10:30] and put it all into one big package?

[1:10:33] That's my comment,

[1:10:35] - Like that enthusiasm.

[1:10:37] But that is a role this body could play. Others.

[1:10:44] Oh, Jeremy. Yeah.

[1:10:47] - I was gonna, I was gonna say Heidi, I su supervisor, Rob

[1:10:51] and I actually had privilege

[1:10:53] of meeting Mike Carroll a couple years ago

[1:10:55] and the reality is, you know, rail is

[1:11:00] rather expensive

[1:11:02] and does take a lot of time to put together

[1:11:09] I'm, I'm optimistic, but again, it, it takes time.

[1:11:13] And I know Amtrak is very eager

[1:11:17] to expand passenger rail service.

[1:11:19] They've even formed a committee with their board

[1:11:24] of directors that's actually chaired by Robert Gleason,

[1:11:26] a longtime Pennsylvanian

[1:11:28] and resident of Johnstown, who is

[1:11:32] really excited to see expansion of passenger rail service.

[1:11:38] So again, yeah, it just takes time and, and a lot of money,

[1:11:42] but you know, it's not completely undoable.

[1:11:46] It just, you know, it's gonna depend on when, where,

[1:11:49] and who has resources With

[1:11:53] just kind of a general comment of the overall study.

[1:11:57] I know there was a lot of references of spiking demand,

[1:12:03] but it would be kind of interesting to see how

[1:12:06] with even increased service

[1:12:08] or more consistent service, just kind of how those spikes

[1:12:12] continue to evolve and even

[1:12:16] be nice if there was even just a review within a year

[1:12:19] after Amtrak gets the second train launch.

[1:12:22] Just kind of how the numbers

[1:12:28] evolve because there have been areas

[1:12:30] where Amtrak has expanded service or reintroduced service

[1:12:33] and in some of those areas it has exceeded expectations

[1:12:39] months, if not even a year into those changes.

[1:12:44] So be interesting to have those numbers to continue on with

[1:12:49] what we've put together tonight.

[1:12:53] - Yeah, well for points west of Harrisburg,

[1:12:57] yeah, we'll see the increase.

[1:13:00] Any other comments again before we consider action tonight?

[1:13:07] Obviously based on the comments tonight,

[1:13:09] there's also passionate enthusiasm for this within the,

[1:13:12] the MPO and, and Frank's, right?

[1:13:14] We do actually have a role, it's not necessarily paying

[1:13:17] for it, but certainly, you know, prioritizing it and,

[1:13:22] and and taking, take, taking our shots where we have them.

[1:13:28] I will say this though, and as we wrap up,

[1:13:31] if I'm reading a little in

[1:13:32] between the lines from those comments,

[1:13:35] while everyone prefers the rail, it seems

[1:13:38] as though they all understand that the

[1:13:42] options one and two are necessary to get

[1:13:47] to three and four.

[1:13:49] You know, you've gotta build your base,

[1:13:50] you've gotta show demand

[1:13:52] before you can even begin

[1:13:53] to think about spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

[1:13:57] So I think it, while it didn't come out clear in there,

[1:14:00] if you read between the lines and the comments

[1:14:03] and read some of them, I think everybody understands

[1:14:06] that one and two is necessary if you're either ever going

[1:14:10] to consider three and four.

[1:14:13] So

[1:14:15] - I was gonna say even one, one

[1:14:17] and two is kind of a no brainer in like

[1:14:20] my own fiscal reality right now

[1:14:22] because I'm going to a conference in October

[1:14:24] where parking's like $75 a day

[1:14:28] and just doing the math.

[1:14:30] I, I'm better ditching the car, taking the bus,

[1:14:33] getting on the train and going to the conference.

[1:14:37] - Alright, I don't see any more hands raised,

[1:14:39] so we're gonna cut Ben and Toby

[1:14:43] and Peyton loose here as soon as we take take action.

[1:14:47] I want to thank you again and,

[1:14:48] and also pass our thanks on to Brian

[1:14:53] absolutely on our behalf.

[1:14:57] Again, the only comment I would make though is I would stick

[1:15:00] those recommendations at the end.

[1:15:01] Going back to go Paul's question, you know, we led

[1:15:06] with the alternatives, it might flow a little better if,

[1:15:09] if this is ever used again.

[1:15:11] And maybe we could get a copy of this absolutely PowerPoint

[1:15:16] to, to set the, the options at the end

[1:15:19] after you looked at, you know,

[1:15:20] how you gathered all the input.

[1:15:23] Alright, if no further comments

[1:15:25] or questions, again this is an action item asking the

[1:15:29] committee to accept the final draft,

[1:15:32] which would turn it into a final

[1:15:37] and release it at this point.

[1:15:40] Anyone wanna make that motion? Joanne? I'll make the motion

[1:15:45] - To accept the final report

[1:15:47] with any comments we heard this evening.

[1:15:50] - Okay. And we'll have those in the record.

[1:15:53] - I'll second those. Mr. Chairman.

[1:15:55] - Second. Any discussion or comments on the motion?

[1:16:00] Alright then. All in favor please signify by saying aye.

[1:16:04] Aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?

[1:16:11] Okay. Motion carries.

[1:16:13] Study goes from final draft to final

[1:16:17] with the comments from tonight.

[1:16:19] And again thanks to the staff at Michael Baker, Toby

[1:16:25] and Brian again of course at Michael Baker

[1:16:27] for all the work in in bringing this home.

[1:16:31] That concludes the passenger rail study takes us

[1:16:35] to item number eight, our

[1:16:39] centered on safety action plan status report.

[1:16:44] And this is not an action item, this is more

[1:16:47] or less an update with potential comments.

[1:16:49] Is that correct? Yes. Okay.

[1:16:53] - So tonight this is moving

[1:16:58] along toward a final draft for November

[1:17:02] and we wanna share what we've been doing.

[1:17:05] If you've been following along,

[1:17:07] the last several agendas have had updates as part

[1:17:10] of the Consent Agenda.

[1:17:13] So this is basically presenting an update prior

[1:17:17] to the final draft.

[1:17:20] What we have here is centered on safety is an act safety

[1:17:25] action plan that was originated as part

[1:17:29] of the active transportation plan that was adopted a couple

[1:17:33] of years ago and that assisted us in

[1:17:38] going after grants for Safe Streets and Roads for all.

[1:17:41] So this is a planning grant

[1:17:43] that we were successful in obtaining.

[1:17:47] The idea is that we update what's currently online is the

[1:17:50] safety action plan with some additional information, which

[1:17:54] as part of the grant included a safety analysis

[1:17:57] and prioritization that also included an inventory.

[1:18:02] So there were the boroughs

[1:18:05] and Borough Lake areas selected

[1:18:07] that you'll see later were inventoried for sidewalks.

[1:18:12] Many do not have any type of inventory, not even on paper.

[1:18:17] So this seemed like a definite need for those areas.

[1:18:21] The second part came from discussions

[1:18:24] with Pendot Lane Departures being one

[1:18:26] of the highest crash types in Centre County.

[1:18:29] And this being a priority for PENDOT to try

[1:18:33] to address more segments.

[1:18:35] And basically a lane departure crash is when you leave the

[1:18:38] lane, whether it's cross the center line

[1:18:39] or go off the other direction.

[1:18:44] Included in this are other safety projects that we have

[1:18:49] in our active transportation plan as well

[1:18:51] as our long range transportation plan.

[1:18:54] The idea is that we are summarizing all these projects

[1:18:57] for future implementation.

[1:18:59] Some of it could be part of a future safe streets

[1:19:03] and roads for all grant

[1:19:04] and others could be part of other, whether it's municipal

[1:19:08] or county wide LED grants.

[1:19:14] We also included public engagement, noting

[1:19:16] that we included the previous public engagement efforts

[1:19:19] that we had done with the active transportation plan,

[1:19:22] the long range plan and this plan update.

[1:19:27] Next slide. So in case you didn't know,

[1:19:33] the Safety Action Plan has very specific steps that we have

[1:19:36] to follow to meet the the Federal Highway criteria.

[1:19:40] It's changed slightly in the last couple years,

[1:19:43] so this is the most up to date that we are to follow.

[1:19:46] So we need leadership commitment.

[1:19:48] The MPO as an organization can be that leader

[1:19:52] and that was initiated in the plan,

[1:19:55] the active transportation plan in 2024

[1:19:58] and then confirmed in the LRTP that we adopted last year.

[1:20:03] So that the goal is to reduce serious injuries

[1:20:06] and fatalities by 22% by 2034.

[1:20:12] The planning structure there needs

[1:20:13] to be an advisory body for this process.

[1:20:17] And the safety subcommittee that has been

[1:20:19] around roughly since 2021 has been providing advice.

[1:20:24] As we have developed sections of the plan, it has

[1:20:28] to include safety analysis,

[1:20:29] which not only includes things like crash data review,

[1:20:33] what types of crashes are occurring,

[1:20:36] but also specific to the lane departures, what

[1:20:41] what are occurring at at those particular segments.

[1:20:45] When we look at sidewalks, it's a little bit more proactive

[1:20:48] because if you don't have a sidewalk,

[1:20:51] you're actually more at risk as a pedestrian to get around.

[1:20:54] So it's a little, it's a little different.

[1:20:57] So that's really looking ahead, trying to develop these

[1:21:01] potential sidewalk connections.

[1:21:04] Stakeholder engagement we carried

[1:21:06] through from the previous plans as well

[1:21:09] as doing some engagement this summer into this fall.

[1:21:14] Getting feedback from what we have accomplished so far.

[1:21:19] As part of that we have to review policy and process.

[1:21:22] What plans are helping us, what should we be looking ahead

[1:21:26] for in terms of updating, such as do municipalities

[1:21:31] actually have a sidewalk Ordinance?

[1:21:34] Many boroughs don't necessarily have one

[1:21:37] or if they have one, they may not want to look back at it

[1:21:41] and see if there needs to be some updates.

[1:21:43] And then are there other things that we could do in terms of

[1:21:49] coaxing along our roads to be safer

[1:21:55] strategies and projects?

[1:21:57] We have actual lists in the the

[1:22:01] draft action plan.

[1:22:03] They have been drawn from the active transportation plan,

[1:22:07] the LRTP

[1:22:09] and then the lane departures

[1:22:11] that we are highlighting in this.

[1:22:13] The sidewalks are a little different

[1:22:15] and we'll go over that later.

[1:22:18] In terms of progress, we have to have a webpage

[1:22:20] that is dedicated to this, that is a requirement

[1:22:23] of the grant and the materials.

[1:22:26] Our progress have been posted on there.

[1:22:30] What we'd like to do is to have an an adoption in November.

[1:22:35] This sets us up as long as the stars align

[1:22:39] to look at potential projects.

[1:22:42] Two for implementation in 2027.

[1:22:45] Those could be part of another safe routes, safe streets

[1:22:50] and roads for all I grant.

[1:22:55] Or it could be something that's locally driven.

[1:22:59] All right, next slide please. So the sidewalk analysis.

[1:23:02] So this is a list of locations that were part

[1:23:05] of our inventory discussion in the parentheses, this is the

[1:23:10] actual miles that were inventoried for each area.

[1:23:14] So some have more than others, which is kind of interesting.

[1:23:20] I never really had any expectations.

[1:23:21] This came from the consultant in terms of an idea to track.

[1:23:25] So it's really good summary of of

[1:23:27] what these areas look like.

[1:23:30] State College is a little different.

[1:23:32] They have a very robust inventory already.

[1:23:35] They do regular inspections

[1:23:38] for their sidewalks.

[1:23:41] So the inventory did not include a redo of that work.

[1:23:45] Rather, they were interested in having an updated inventory

[1:23:49] for aada, a ramps.

[1:23:51] Next slide. So in terms of what we did with

[1:23:56] that information, you'll see in the map

[1:23:57] that their green lines are where the sidewalks are located.

[1:24:01] We used beon as an example.

[1:24:04] Typically county seats are the areas of activity

[1:24:07] that happen within a county

[1:24:08] and that seemed to make sense to do that here.

[1:24:10] So the inventory was completed with a quarter

[1:24:13] and half mile buffer to see if there was anything

[1:24:16] beyond the municipal limits.

[1:24:19] And as you can see, and this is pretty true of some

[1:24:21] of the other boroughs, it drops off like pretty fast.

[1:24:27] And what we did was look at these

[1:24:29] and looked at their condition,

[1:24:34] their, their cross slope,

[1:24:36] their slope, those were spot checks.

[1:24:38] And then the lengths of these sections are measured as well

[1:24:42] as having a d, a and CRO

[1:24:44] and crosswalk information,

[1:24:47] since we know sidewalks are a proven safety counter measure.

[1:24:51] But this helps advance, trying to make the system safer

[1:24:55] for our vulnerable road users,

[1:24:57] but also access to activity centers.

[1:25:00] We know that people sometimes they just have

[1:25:02] to walk somewhere because they don't have a car.

[1:25:04] So for example, from Bellon, someone may actually walk

[1:25:08] to the Weiss market that's on five 50

[1:25:11] because they don't have car access.

[1:25:13] And we wanted to create some sort of scoring

[1:25:18] and prioritization to try to get the conversation going,

[1:25:22] to try to develop priorities

[1:25:24] that the boroughs could think about.

[1:25:26] This is not us telling you what to do,

[1:25:29] but we have to start somewhere

[1:25:30] and what we look at in terms of prioritization.

[1:25:34] Next slide. So we had this scoring matrix

[1:25:39] where we looked at functional functional classification.

[1:25:42] Typically the higher functional class, the higher the speed,

[1:25:45] so the higher risk where those activity centers were.

[1:25:48] So if there were gaps to activity centers,

[1:25:51] that was something that we thought was a priority, whether

[1:25:55] or not there was a sidewalk, what was the condition?

[1:25:58] So for example, if it's poor condition,

[1:26:01] probably people aren't going to use it

[1:26:03] because there's lots of tripping hazards.

[1:26:05] And then other things like barriers, these were the ones

[1:26:08] that we selected and is there a right of way available?

[1:26:11] This is a limiting factor A lot

[1:26:13] of times in sidewalk development,

[1:26:16] this was a very high level planning review.

[1:26:18] It was not technical,

[1:26:20] but we thought we should highlight that as part

[1:26:22] of this prioritization.

[1:26:24] And then finally, as part of the 12 year program,

[1:26:27] that's the TYP, the first four years,

[1:26:31] typically those projects have already been started under

[1:26:34] design and trying

[1:26:35] to sneak something in would be extremely difficult.

[1:26:37] So that's why we're looking ahead.

[1:26:41] So this is what the scoring results look like for bail fund.

[1:26:45] Okay. And you see it's interesting in that

[1:26:50] it is really some of the more utilized roads

[1:26:55] into and out of the Borough

[1:26:57] and that speaks to the functional classification

[1:27:01] and then also where sidewalks are missing.

[1:27:05] I think in this case we didn't know what to expect.

[1:27:10] So we have left it as is in terms

[1:27:14] of a prior prioritization map with the idea that,

[1:27:19] and it was presented to the Beon Borough earlier

[1:27:22] that they can use that.

[1:27:24] We will have a suggestion in our plan for beon that

[1:27:30] the Willow Willowbank Street will,

[1:27:34] that red line that's kind of connects to

[1:27:39] Benner will be probably the prioritized route just

[1:27:42] based on the information.

[1:27:44] But Bellon did note that Potter Street was a priority.

[1:27:48] So we can also add that as part

[1:27:52] of the document.

[1:27:55] Each grow has their own priorities in terms of

[1:27:57] what they're trying to accomplish.

[1:27:58] So we wanna be supportive of that as well. Next slide.

[1:28:04] Lane departure crashes.

[1:28:06] So this is where the locations within Centre County

[1:28:11] PennDOT suggested for us to go and study.

[1:28:14] And you'll see they're extremely rural.

[1:28:17] They are not in our urbanized areas.

[1:28:20] So there's some themes that occur

[1:28:22] with this when looking at them.

[1:28:24] And we had the assistance of a subcontractor, Bowman

[1:28:28] to review these segments

[1:28:31] and make suggestions essentially

[1:28:33] how we can improve upon these locations.

[1:28:36] Next slide and flip through all of it.

[1:28:40] So part of this calculation is what the excess cost is.

[1:28:44] So it's generally understood that

[1:28:49] crashes have a cost

[1:28:51] and fatal have a higher cost

[1:28:55] than property damage.

[1:28:57] So what the Bowman did

[1:28:59] for us is do an excess cost analysis using the crash

[1:29:03] history of those segments.

[1:29:04] The the, the traffic that they were able to locate in terms

[1:29:08] of the data available and then the road curvatures there.

[1:29:12] Many of these segments do have some

[1:29:14] road curvatures associated with them.

[1:29:17] So then the expected versus the predicted.

[1:29:20] So when there is a higher ex

[1:29:24] excess cost than is predicted,

[1:29:29] that becomes a problem

[1:29:30] because that means there's a higher risk

[1:29:33] for crashes in those locations.

[1:29:38] Next slide please. So these are the segments

[1:29:43] that had positive excess costs

[1:29:45] and it seemed to be better to try to list them

[1:29:48] by municipality than trying

[1:29:51] to set up some other arrangement.

[1:29:53] But in the document there is more detail on these locations

[1:29:58] and we did not treat them any differently.

[1:30:01] Say for example, section 5 0 4

[1:30:04] that has the 11,000 excess cost, we didn't say

[1:30:07] that one was less important than the one at the

[1:30:10] top Ridge Ridge Road.

[1:30:11] We wanted all of them analyzed. Next slide please.

[1:30:16] So as part of this effort, Bowman did

[1:30:20] analysis within their office,

[1:30:21] but then they went out in the field

[1:30:23] and they actually took a map and marked it up

[1:30:27] and made field observations

[1:30:28] that they couldn't necessarily get from video log.

[1:30:31] And so I'm just sharing this, that there's a lot of work

[1:30:33] behind the scenes that goes on with this

[1:30:35] and I thought it might just be interest

[1:30:37] of interest to the group.

[1:30:39] Next slide please. And then of course,

[1:30:42] video log doesn't always give us good photos in terms

[1:30:46] of what's going on in the conditions.

[1:30:48] So they went out and took some photos of the,

[1:30:51] of each segment, this is in Marion Township, to see kind of

[1:30:55] what was going on and also document some concerns.

[1:31:00] Next slide. And then as part of that analysis,

[1:31:06] this is a simplified version of it,

[1:31:08] the longer version is in the draft plan.

[1:31:11] What they did was put together these project profiles

[1:31:15] so you kind of have a summary of what's going on,

[1:31:17] what are the conditions, what are the potential crash types

[1:31:22] and and was there anything unusual about the information

[1:31:26] that they were able to get from the data?

[1:31:29] The field observations were intended, oops, sorry

[1:31:32] to supplement that because data can only go so far.

[1:31:37] And they went out

[1:31:39] and looked at, see if there was anything in addition to

[1:31:42] what the data was showing.

[1:31:44] And this basically has put together for each

[1:31:47] of those segments with

[1:31:50] potential improvements for those segments.

[1:31:54] - Alright, - So then in addition to those areas

[1:31:59] of emphasis that the grant is covering, we wanted

[1:32:02] to recognize some projects that are going on

[1:32:06] as potential items for improvement in the

[1:32:11] active transportation plan

[1:32:13] and the safety projects from the LRTP.

[1:32:16] So the active transportation plan solicited for areas

[1:32:21] of concern and project for future project development.

[1:32:26] And those projects were compared to planning documents

[1:32:29] that had similar scopes

[1:32:32] or locations for potential improvements.

[1:32:35] So these are some of the projects that from that survey

[1:32:40] and comparing to existing plans were highlighted

[1:32:44] as potential safety projects.

[1:32:46] The ones on the right should look familiar.

[1:32:49] They are from the long range transportation plan

[1:32:52] and those have been adopted as part of that plan.

[1:32:57] The next item is the pen. Whoops, sorry, I meant to go back.

[1:33:03] Is the PennDOT network screening results,

[1:33:05] which are done periodically

[1:33:07] and they highlight sections of roadway

[1:33:10] and intersections that are of concern.

[1:33:12] PennDOT has been looking at the project list

[1:33:15] and has suggested that the, even though they're dated,

[1:33:18] they're a couple years old, that the the dozen

[1:33:21] or so locations from

[1:33:23] that screening exercise be incorporated into this plan.

[1:33:28] Next slide. In terms of countermeasures

[1:33:32] for lane departures, these are the most common items

[1:33:36] that are being suggested for the majority of those segments.

[1:33:40] These are not high cost items

[1:33:43] and so we're not sure that this would be a potential

[1:33:46] for a futures safe streets and roads for all grant.

[1:33:50] But we think potentially locally they could be incorporated

[1:33:55] as folks from the safety office at PennDOT

[1:33:59] as well as maintenance office.

[1:34:02] There could be an opportunity to make these improvements as

[1:34:06] funds become available.

[1:34:09] In terms of the prioritized sidewalk replacement,

[1:34:12] really the emphasis is replacing or installing sidewalks

[1:34:16] and then of course including a DA ramps and crosswalks.

[1:34:20] And what we'd like to continue

[1:34:21] to do is keep the conversation going for these projects

[1:34:25] because more than likely they are going to be locally driven

[1:34:28] by boroughs since many of these

[1:34:33] locations are along state routes

[1:34:35] and it is practice for PennDOT to not maintain those.

[1:34:40] So the municipality would be responsible

[1:34:42] for maintaining those.

[1:34:47] Next slide. So in terms of public engagement,

[1:34:51] we have had some very specific targeted meetings.

[1:34:56] We had a July 8th virtual

[1:35:00] engagement session countywide.

[1:35:01] We had a pretty decent turnout for that.

[1:35:06] And then we tried to spread our time out in

[1:35:08] a couple of locations.

[1:35:10] So in July we also went to Rush Township

[1:35:14] and held an open house.

[1:35:16] We met with the Ney Valley planning region.

[1:35:19] And then September, actually tomorrow I am going out

[1:35:24] to Penns Valley to meet with them

[1:35:28] right now we have the Public Comment,

[1:35:32] open house Public Comment period from September 11th

[1:35:35] to October 12th when you walked into the foyer,

[1:35:40] the, there's a notice on the board

[1:35:43] and there's a QR code you can use that.

[1:35:46] But we do have an open house next week

[1:35:50] doing the same times that we've done

[1:35:52] for other project plans like the Rail Access City

[1:35:55] and the LRTP to the extent that we are able, we are going

[1:36:00] to continue with our buy and annual municipal visits

[1:36:04] and also be highlighting this

[1:36:06] effort as part of those visits.

[1:36:10] Next steps are to refine the draft that is ongoing.

[1:36:15] We are interested in comments from the plan.

[1:36:17] So if you want to use the, the survey

[1:36:22] that is online or you wanna reach out to me

[1:36:24] and make a comment, that's fine.

[1:36:26] We have notified all planning regions

[1:36:29] that the draft is available

[1:36:30] through their municipal managers and secretaries.

[1:36:34] The safety subcommittee will be reviewing the draft plan in

[1:36:38] October with the idea that we are finishing it up

[1:36:43] and that the tech

[1:36:45] and coordinating committee meetings can adopt this

[1:36:48] in November at the joint meeting.

[1:36:53] And I talked a lot. Are there any questions

[1:36:57] - Before we open it up And thanks.

[1:36:59] We do have at least one safety subcommittee member

[1:37:03] here tonight, don't we?

[1:37:06] Yes. At least part, just wanted to recognize that person.

[1:37:10] Yeah, sorry. Offer him the opportunity if he so desires

[1:37:14] to provide any additional comments.

[1:37:16] He does. He does. I thought so.

[1:37:19] - It is an extremely lengthy document

[1:37:21] and I apologize that for that.

[1:37:23] We are currently trying to work with the sub-consultant

[1:37:28] of Michael Baker to make it more legible.

[1:37:30] So

[1:37:33] - Frank, any comments?

[1:37:35] No. Okay. Again, this is full document is in your,

[1:37:39] is in our packet full draft, right?

[1:37:41] - So it is a link to the draft. Okay.

[1:37:44] - Yes. Alright Joanne

[1:37:48] and then anybody online,

[1:37:50] this is not necessarily an action item, it's an opportunity

[1:37:54] to provide comment before we wrap it up into a final, right.

[1:37:59] - So does this draft or currently

[1:38:03] or can it include

[1:38:06] information on municipalities

[1:38:09] that have adopted a Complete Streets program?

[1:38:14] Beon did that seven months ago where in going

[1:38:19] through our streets committee they ha we have

[1:38:25] an all board contract that is correct,

[1:38:27] but we're working with the sustainability program

[1:38:30] and they've got a student group that is actually,

[1:38:34] and we've identified certain sections of town that need

[1:38:38] be improved for safety purposes

[1:38:41] and they are starting on that two weeks ago.

[1:38:44] - Okay. Yeah, we could certainly add that.

[1:38:47] I'm not sure there are many.

[1:38:50] The active transportation plan actually has a,

[1:38:53] a model guidance that your students could use and rely upon.

[1:38:59] But other than that, and I'm not going to pretend

[1:39:02] to remember all, but I think it's only one

[1:39:03] or two municipalities that have some type

[1:39:07] of complete streets policy or Ordinance in place.

[1:39:11] But I can definitely get that in there.

[1:39:13] - Okay, thank you.

[1:39:15] - Other comments? Looking online, not seeing any.

[1:39:21] Thank you Ann. We'll just,

[1:39:22] we'll see this again in November then, right?

[1:39:24] Yes. Alright,

[1:39:28] that concludes item number eight.

[1:39:30] That takes us to item number nine,

[1:39:32] fiscal year 20 27, 20 29

[1:39:38] UPWP Unified Planning Work program.

[1:39:42] We have talked about this in the past,

[1:39:44] but I believe this is the first actual official

[1:39:47] draft we're gonna see.

[1:39:48] Is that correct? And just to note, this is one

[1:39:52] of the core functions of the MPO.

[1:39:55] So this is kind of what summarizes what we're going to do.

[1:39:59] Both what we're required to do along with some

[1:40:02] of the other stuff we're gonna do

[1:40:03] and what we're gonna commit resources to.

[1:40:05] So Ann,

[1:40:08] - So we update these every two years.

[1:40:12] As Eric had mentioned, it is part of our core function.

[1:40:17] It's almost a task list for us in terms of MPO staff,

[1:40:22] what we do day to day.

[1:40:24] And we are our,

[1:40:27] even our time sheets are following the UPWP.

[1:40:31] So we make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do.

[1:40:34] So the next, we are currently in A-U-P-W-P

[1:40:38] that ends in next June.

[1:40:41] So we are looking ahead to update so that we are ready to go

[1:40:46] for a new UPWP in July of next year.

[1:40:50] And there are many things

[1:40:52] that are gonna look familiar in this document.

[1:40:56] Based on the guidance that we received this summer

[1:41:01] staff determined that what we are doing is in alignment

[1:41:06] with the guidance document.

[1:41:08] And at this point there really isn't a need

[1:41:10] to necessarily make significant changes to

[1:41:13] how we are operating.

[1:41:15] So many of those items you can see here in terms

[1:41:18] of plan development, making sure we have comment periods,

[1:41:21] making sure we have meetings

[1:41:23] to let people know what's going on,

[1:41:25] but also continue our locally driven priorities.

[1:41:29] And we have a history of wanting to provide programming

[1:41:34] for bicycling transit and maintaining local outreach.

[1:41:39] And then of course the one

[1:41:41] that many are interested in are our supplemental planning

[1:41:43] studies such as what we did with this past year,

[1:41:49] the Benner Pike study, as well

[1:41:52] as the passenger access rail study.

[1:41:55] So, so many

[1:41:57] of the items on the left hand column here are required.

[1:42:00] We can't get out of them. We have regular updates

[1:42:03] and they are, there is a cycle to them.

[1:42:07] So the tip is, is it always seems like we're looking

[1:42:11] to update the next tip.

[1:42:12] It's somewhat frequently the LRTP is

[1:42:15] roughly every five years.

[1:42:17] So while this actual UPWP will not look at

[1:42:21] updating any aspect of it, the next one probably will

[1:42:26] in order to stay on schedule.

[1:42:29] And then of course we will be looking again at our another

[1:42:33] UPWP after this one is adopted.

[1:42:37] In terms of maintaining the planning process,

[1:42:39] we have to maintain the tip.

[1:42:40] There will be amendments, alter adjustments,

[1:42:43] but we also have to maintain our meeting schedule

[1:42:47] to make sure we're keeping you the tech committee informed

[1:42:51] and following what we have in terms of

[1:42:54] getting Public Comment and and public input.

[1:42:58] We have last several years, maybe even longer than that,

[1:43:03] we have agreed to follow the performance measures that

[1:43:08] we have from pendot.

[1:43:11] For example, safety. We don't generate our own performance

[1:43:14] measures, we don't have the staff

[1:43:17] expertise or time to do that.

[1:43:19] As well as some

[1:43:20] of the other items which are air quality conformity.

[1:43:24] We need assistance with that.

[1:43:27] The county assists us, which with the HPMS inventory,

[1:43:31] I think that's kicking off in October.

[1:43:33] And then of course any related complete streets activities,

[1:43:38] things that you don't normally see are items

[1:43:41] that happen in the background.

[1:43:43] We often are part of the project delivery process

[1:43:48] and what we call DVF

[1:43:49] or design field views where we go out at certain stages

[1:43:54] of project development.

[1:43:55] For example, a bridge is going to be replaced

[1:43:58] and we meet with PennDOT

[1:44:01] and the municipality to see what the concerns are.

[1:44:04] So we are often out in the field doing that.

[1:44:07] But we're also a participant in the SCAC process as well

[1:44:11] as other projects that may be emerging.

[1:44:14] So we might have a municipality that wants

[1:44:17] to develop a project but they need help with the scope

[1:44:22] or they need data, for example, crash data.

[1:44:25] So we try to make ourselves as available as much as we are.

[1:44:31] Next slide,

[1:44:33] - Hey, be before end gets off.

[1:44:35] That for those of you who are new, those things we have

[1:44:38] to do are not things that we think we have to do.

[1:44:40] Those are things that the federal government requires us

[1:44:44] to do when they established NPOs in order to be eligible

[1:44:47] for our formula funding.

[1:44:49] So we have to do them if we want to get any

[1:44:52] of the funds we need to spend money on our projects.

[1:44:57] So just a clarification. Yeah, sure.

[1:45:00] That's, that's, that's a have and capitals for a reason.

[1:45:04] - Yes. So a couple

[1:45:08] of things we want to do.

[1:45:11] You can see here we have bicycle and transit planning.

[1:45:14] So as you know, my primary role is active transportation

[1:45:18] plan related work and Greg's role is transit.

[1:45:22] So we spend, we're kind of like specialists

[1:45:25] where we spend a lot of time with stakeholders,

[1:45:28] project development, responding to requests

[1:45:31] or in Greg's case, reviewing land development plans

[1:45:36] as they are submitted.

[1:45:38] We also have made a commitment to buy annual

[1:45:43] outreach to the municipalities.

[1:45:45] This is part of our strategic plan.

[1:45:47] This is not required,

[1:45:48] but this is something that we feel is important

[1:45:51] because we, those are the conversations

[1:45:53] where we get project development started.

[1:45:56] We know it's very difficult to get to our meetings

[1:45:59] and if we make ourselves available, we want to be able

[1:46:02] to help our municipalities in in any way we can.

[1:46:07] The projects committee is another example

[1:46:09] of project development that is something

[1:46:12] that has been locally supported the last couple of years

[1:46:15] to fund Marcella's position

[1:46:18] and work with municipalities

[1:46:21] and develop project prioritization methods.

[1:46:26] And of course, as previously mentioned, working

[1:46:29] to do other projects as municipalities may need assistance.

[1:46:34] Supplemental planning are those kind of projects that are

[1:46:37] outside staff's ability to do,

[1:46:40] don't necessarily have the technical expertise,

[1:46:43] but we can ask for financial assistance through the UPWP

[1:46:47] to retain a consultant

[1:46:49] to get those planning documents completed.

[1:46:53] And then of course, we're always looking at data at tools

[1:46:56] and how can we better support our members.

[1:47:00] And we have some abilities in terms of in-house abilities.

[1:47:03] For example, REACH is working on fun

[1:47:06] functional classification.

[1:47:08] We have Steve who has updated our crash dashboard

[1:47:13] and we want to look at other items that we can do in terms

[1:47:17] of we can get trained to help with future projects.

[1:47:23] Next slide. So the general schedule here is

[1:47:27] you had a presentation in June for the

[1:47:33] priorities and we received the guidance from

[1:47:36] PennDOT in July.

[1:47:38] So we reviewed that and determined, like I had said

[1:47:42] before, not a lot had to be changed in terms

[1:47:45] of how we operate.

[1:47:48] What we have here today is a draft.

[1:47:52] Feel free to comment on it if you, if there's something

[1:47:55] that you have a question on or whatever, that's fine.

[1:47:58] We have to submit this to Federal Highway and FFTA.

[1:48:03] They have a 45 day required review period

[1:48:08] and that is basically fri this Friday in order to meet

[1:48:13] a November adoption date.

[1:48:17] January is kind of like we're something fails

[1:48:21] and we need to have a meeting.

[1:48:23] We really wanna avoid trying to do it in January since

[1:48:27] that's not a typical meeting month for us.

[1:48:30] So our goal here is, is November next slide.

[1:48:37] So just to recap with supplemental planning studies,

[1:48:41] I've already mentioned what we've been working on.

[1:48:43] So we're looking ahead now.

[1:48:45] And year one would be the, the Philipsburg

[1:48:50] 3 3 22 safety study.

[1:48:53] This really had been a emerging concern from Philipsburg

[1:48:58] shared by Rush Township

[1:49:00] and was brought to light as part

[1:49:02] of the active transportation plan process.

[1:49:05] It was carried over into the long range transportation plan.

[1:49:09] Historically, we don't do a year one and year two.

[1:49:13] So Phillipsburg and Rush Township have been waiting

[1:49:16] patiently for their turn that we put together a scope

[1:49:20] and submit that for supplemental planning.

[1:49:22] And that would be in the

[1:49:24] 20 27, 20 28 timeframe.

[1:49:29] Year two is looking ahead,

[1:49:31] but as I mentioned, we don't typically put a year two

[1:49:34] in the document, but there has been interest expressed

[1:49:38] to have a North Atherton Street corridor

[1:49:43] basically study that would also look not only at

[1:49:47] the transportation network

[1:49:49] but the land uses that are along that corridor.

[1:49:53] And then the other candidate projects are listed below just

[1:49:56] for reference that we weren't doing this in isolation.

[1:50:01] I should note one last thing with the fills

[1:50:04] for Rush Township study, both Rush Township

[1:50:07] and Phillipsburg have each committed $2,000

[1:50:12] to advance this process, this project.

[1:50:15] Okay, next, next slide. So threw a lot at you.

[1:50:21] Do you have any questions?

[1:50:23] - Yeah, before we open it up, just to that last slide,

[1:50:27] it should also be noted

[1:50:28] that there is no year two supplemental planning study

[1:50:33] candidate listed in.

[1:50:36] - Yes. - The, the draft

[1:50:37] that was currently under consideration,

[1:50:40] that one was put in there right along

[1:50:44] with all the other potential candidates.

[1:50:46] We, we have come a long way in that regard

[1:50:50] 'cause it wasn't that long ago we had maybe one

[1:50:52] or two candidate projects.

[1:50:54] But our success in getting those projects,

[1:50:58] planning grants funded has probably led to a little bit more

[1:51:03] interest in, in, in, in topics that, that we could,

[1:51:09] we could secure funding for almost a victim

[1:51:12] of our own success there.

[1:51:14] Alright, again, this is a draft, we

[1:51:18] talked about this over the summer.

[1:51:21] That was an opportunity to provide big picture input,

[1:51:26] anything missing, anything we shouldn't be working on.

[1:51:29] In the interim, we've got the guidance we needed correct

[1:51:32] to put the draft together.

[1:51:34] So any comments from this group, suggestions

[1:51:38] before we move to submitting it

[1:51:42] and then seeing it again in November

[1:51:44] hopefully and not January.

[1:51:47] Looking in the room first, giving the folks online a chance.

[1:51:52] Alright Joanne.

[1:51:54] And if anybody online has a comment, just unmute

[1:51:58] or raise your digital hand or something.

[1:52:01] - Go ahead. So I attended the projects meeting on

[1:52:04] August 5th, Theran,

[1:52:08] the Ney Valley Transit came in number three

[1:52:12] and we talked to the CCMPO staff afterwards

[1:52:17] to find out why we didn't get more points

[1:52:19] and we thought we were should have gotten, but,

[1:52:22] and what I wanna do is just basically thank the CCMPO staff

[1:52:26] for telling us where our deficiencies were so

[1:52:29] that we can look ahead with whatever grants we go forward

[1:52:32] that we should be able to have a better sense

[1:52:36] of getting in a competitive grant process.

[1:52:40] We've, this afternoon we added the needs, needs, benefits

[1:52:44] as thing to our scope of work, which is one

[1:52:47] of the big things that you said we were missing.

[1:52:49] And next week we're going to be talking to

[1:52:53] the grants administrator to look at

[1:52:55] what our alternatives are.

[1:52:57] So that is very, very helpful. I wanted to thank you.

[1:53:01] - Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.

[1:53:02] And I wish Marcello was here. She's online. Oh is she?

[1:53:05] Okay, good. Then she can hear this.

[1:53:09] This is one of the benefits

[1:53:10] of establishing not only the projects committee,

[1:53:13] but sound metrics for which to evaluate, you know,

[1:53:17] competing projects.

[1:53:20] Not only for that reason,

[1:53:22] but for what the reason Joanne just mentioned, you know, how

[1:53:25] how does our project become more competitive?

[1:53:28] Because if it's not competitive within our own projects

[1:53:31] committee, it's gonna be less competitive when we go

[1:53:34] after those discretionary grants.

[1:53:35] So I think it's a win-win.

[1:53:37] I just want to tip my hat to this group for standing it up

[1:53:41] to the municipalities for funding those staffing needed

[1:53:45] for the projects committee

[1:53:47] and then of course the projects committee itself

[1:53:49] for the work they've done so far.

[1:53:52] So go Paul, did you have a question?

[1:53:54] I saw you appear momentarily.

[1:54:01] Okay. Anybody else in the room?

[1:54:05] Alright then. Thank you Ann. Thank you.

[1:54:08] We'll see this again in November. Yes.

[1:54:11] Hopefully none of us wanna come back in January.

[1:54:16] So a actually this is a good segue into the budget

[1:54:20] because a lot of

[1:54:22] what you just saw is included in our next agenda item.

[1:54:26] You know, we have to cost out what it, what it takes

[1:54:29] to, to accomplish that.

[1:54:31] So again, this is just a draft

[1:54:36] taking comments, but I think we're gonna give Jim a chance

[1:54:41] to present something tonight.

[1:54:42] Is that correct? Yes.

[1:54:45] - Alright. So again, if, if you haven't been here that long,

[1:54:50] the way this process works,

[1:54:51] the MPO doesn't actually approve the budget.

[1:54:56] The portion that's funded through the COG goes

[1:54:59] through the COG budgeting process.

[1:55:01] The portion that's funded through Centre County goes

[1:55:03] through their budgeting process

[1:55:05] and that the staff level, we're trying

[1:55:07] to tie this all together along with the UPWP, which is used

[1:55:10] to administer the pen op funds.

[1:55:12] So you've got three big chunks of this working together

[1:55:17] with this overview, we're trying to give you just an idea of

[1:55:21] how that all fits together.

[1:55:25] If you've got particular direction, it may have to come

[1:55:30] through one of those other processes,

[1:55:32] but we do put it in front of you so that you're informed

[1:55:35] and that you can offer comments on it to staff.

[1:55:38] And so that when you get, if you're involved in

[1:55:41] that process at one of those bodies to the point

[1:55:44] where you're a acting in approval

[1:55:46] or you're asked by somebody, that is,

[1:55:48] you have the background to be able to answer some

[1:55:51] of the questions part in terms aren't you,

[1:55:55] of the, you're

[1:55:56] - Part of that group that us, sorry Jim,

[1:55:59] there's some members here

[1:56:00] who actually will be in those roles. Yes,

[1:56:02] - I was just, yeah, so you around the table

[1:56:05] for both those bodies. So

[1:56:07] - Find anybody who's on the finance committee per COG.

[1:56:11] Also she, she used to answer all the questions.

[1:56:15] I didn't hear what you said. I said

[1:56:16] you get to answer all the questions.

[1:56:17] Yeah.

[1:56:22] - So some quick highlights from the current year budget,

[1:56:25] but we have wrapped up the, the 20,

[1:56:29] the Benner Pike quarter study and the passenger rail access.

[1:56:34] We've got the safe streets for all

[1:56:39] a study underway and just presented on that.

[1:56:43] It doesn't really show up in our budget

[1:56:45] because it's being administered through PennDOT,

[1:56:47] but we'll talk about in a couple slides.

[1:56:49] We've also been successful in getting funding

[1:56:52] for a protect study.

[1:56:55] Staff will act in that as more a stakeholder role it,

[1:57:00] but because of the number of things we had on our plate,

[1:57:05] we pushed that over to Pendot

[1:57:06] and we're very grateful for their help

[1:57:08] in administering the study.

[1:57:12] We do have some things

[1:57:13] that carry forward from previous years.

[1:57:15] We set funding aside to help

[1:57:18] to help us work on discretionary funding requests.

[1:57:21] We have enough to push forward from 2026 into 2027.

[1:57:25] We don't need to ask for more funding to refill those pots.

[1:57:29] Likewise for that UPWP study that we're talking about

[1:57:34] for 3 22, the local match that has

[1:57:37] to come from Centre County

[1:57:38] and from the COG, we've already funded that out

[1:57:41] of the 2026 budget.

[1:57:43] We'll just carry that forward into 2027.

[1:57:46] So there's no new request.

[1:57:50] We talked last year about funding

[1:57:54] to have our consultant help us learn to use some

[1:57:58] of the tools that are available to us

[1:57:59] through the Rita platform

[1:58:01] and potentially do a couple of updates

[1:58:03] to the travel demand model.

[1:58:06] We wanted to get into that in 2026.

[1:58:08] It's looking more and more like, we'll have to push

[1:58:10] that into 2027.

[1:58:13] We're working on that as quickly as we can.

[1:58:17] There's one new request as part of the budget process.

[1:58:21] That's for six bite counters

[1:58:24] and the software necessary to support them.

[1:58:26] There are, there are

[1:58:32] some funding increases included in this, even though

[1:58:36] as you'll see, our total expenditures go down

[1:58:40] and we do anticipate being able

[1:58:42] to continue discretionary funding applications.

[1:58:46] That's going. The opportunities for that are going

[1:58:48] to be tied up with reauthorization.

[1:58:51] We're currently in an extension that runs through,

[1:58:54] I think December 11th.

[1:58:56] We'll see what happens after that.

[1:58:58] Is there a new highway bill passed

[1:59:00] or do we work with another extension of the current bill

[1:59:04] that will help set the priorities moving forward

[1:59:08] for discretionary funding applications?

[1:59:10] Next slide please. This is just a,

[1:59:16] a deeper look at, at what we've been doing

[1:59:18] with those supplemental planning funds.

[1:59:20] You can see the amount that we spent there on Benner Pike

[1:59:23] and the rail access study.

[1:59:25] What we plan to spend on the 3 22 safety study

[1:59:28] that includes the local match that Ann called out pledged

[1:59:31] by the Shannon Valley municipalities.

[1:59:34] And the amount set aside for the, the training

[1:59:38] and travel demand model updates out of local funding.

[1:59:42] Excellent. For the discretionary funding

[1:59:47] efforts so far we've netted about

[1:59:51] a million and a half dollars.

[1:59:52] That's mostly in protect funds and safe streets for all.

[1:59:57] There is an award out there for additional safety funding

[2:00:01] to look at applying safety devices to EMS vehicles

[2:00:07] and police vehicles and can correct me if I'm wrong,

[2:00:11] but my understanding of that is that the,

[2:00:14] the award has been made,

[2:00:15] but there's been no steps forward from the federal side

[2:00:18] for the agreement necessary to actually put that in place.

[2:00:22] So we know we're gonna get it. It hasn't moved forward yet.

[2:00:29] We did submit a grant for the bill program

[2:00:33] for South Atherton Street for phase four, which is on the

[2:00:37] newly adopted tip.

[2:00:38] We were not successful in that.

[2:00:40] We got some good feedback recently from the evaluation team.

[2:00:44] So we'll continue to work on that.

[2:00:47] That will inform future application efforts if that's

[2:00:50] what we put in for.

[2:00:51] Again. Next slide please.

[2:00:57] As far as discretionary funding opportunities,

[2:00:59] what we think might become available,

[2:01:02] Ann's talked a little bit about what might come out

[2:01:04] of the safe streets for all.

[2:01:08] We hope to get far enough with the 3 22 study that

[2:01:11] that leads to some implement implementable projects.

[2:01:15] We know that the 45 study for the

[2:01:19] safety needs identified independently

[2:01:21] of the SCAC on the 45 corridor is moving forward.

[2:01:27] We think there will be some implementable

[2:01:29] projects that come out of that.

[2:01:30] So we want to keep it on the radar.

[2:01:33] We talked about resilient routes.

[2:01:35] Atherton Street, I guess I'd also note

[2:01:39] that we have the, a

[2:01:43] Carbon reduction Program

[2:01:45] project over on the branch road

[2:01:47] intersections at Whitehall Road.

[2:01:50] Well, Atherton Street with Branch Road and Whitehall Road

[2:01:54] and University Drive.

[2:01:58] It's looking like there's an opportunity to put a little bit

[2:02:01] of additional funding into that for signal improvements,

[2:02:05] especially if we want to get some of the work done

[2:02:08] that we're seeing at the Whitehall road intersection.

[2:02:10] So those are some of the things that are kind

[2:02:12] of hovering on the horizon that we might see

[2:02:15] putting applications in for depending on

[2:02:20] what comes out of this reauthorization or extension effort.

[2:02:24] Next slide.

[2:02:28] - The Resilient Road Route study

[2:02:31] is, I don't know what that is.

[2:02:33] - Okay, so that is a countywide study.

[2:02:38] We started going

[2:02:39] after a discretionary

[2:02:44] portion of protect funds and weren't successful in that,

[2:02:49] but we were successful in going

[2:02:50] after a statewide allocation of it.

[2:02:53] So it's the same funds,

[2:02:54] but it was allocated at the state level.

[2:02:58] They've allowed us funding

[2:03:01] to look at Centre County on a county-wide basis, identify

[2:03:07] areas where we've had repetitive closures.

[2:03:11] So some of the things that come up frequently are

[2:03:16] the Hannan Valley corridor around Hannan Creek,

[2:03:22] Penns Creek, down on the, the southeastern portion

[2:03:25] of the county storm water based flooding on College Avenue.

[2:03:30] And then some of the flooding instances

[2:03:32] that we've had along the Bald Eagle Creek corridor.

[2:03:36] Look at those closures in more detail.

[2:03:40] Identify what we think the, the, the causes of those were.

[2:03:44] So for instance, with the,

[2:03:47] with the Bald Eagle flooding a few years ago,

[2:03:49] they did an analysis

[2:03:51] and identified that there was a, a low capacity pipe

[2:03:55] underneath the railroad

[2:03:56] and that may have contributed to some of the flooding.

[2:03:59] They were able to develop plants to replace that

[2:04:01] with a larger culvert.

[2:04:03] We want to repeat that process for other

[2:04:07] areas in the county.

[2:04:09] Identify potential projects

[2:04:11] that will address the root causes of this repeated flooding

[2:04:16] so that the, the projects.

[2:04:21] So that should the Protect discretionary funding program

[2:04:26] continue, we've got some strong competitive projects queued

[2:04:30] up to put in for it.

[2:04:31] So the idea was to spend a little bit of money

[2:04:35] to get from the stage where we know there's flooding,

[2:04:39] but get through the, the questions of what do we do about it

[2:04:42] and how do we permit, what do we move forward, what's the,

[2:04:45] the funding actually needed?

[2:04:47] Kind of get to the nuts and bolts of the project

[2:04:49] so we can build a fundable application.

[2:04:53] So hopefully this project will result in a list

[2:04:58] of prioritized projects that we can put forward

[2:05:01] for implementation using state

[2:05:03] and federal sources in the future.

[2:05:07] We're just getting started in that process.

[2:05:09] It's been an awful long runway to get it off the ground,

[2:05:12] but we are excited about where it's gonna take us.

[2:05:16] Thank you. Sure.

[2:05:19] Again, our, our sig e request for this year was

[2:05:23] for six bike counters.

[2:05:27] We wanted movable counters so

[2:05:28] that we could set them up at different locations.

[2:05:35] Right now, you know, we know that our,

[2:05:38] our trails in the the Centre Region are well used,

[2:05:42] but it's just anecdotal evidence.

[2:05:45] We wanted to provide a, a backstop capability in the region

[2:05:50] so that if a municipality wants to provide annual

[2:05:54] or even seasonal counts to put some numbers on

[2:05:58] that the capability exists in the local area.

[2:06:02] Likewise for the outlying areas, if they've got a facility,

[2:06:06] you know, a roadway or even a partial trail that

[2:06:10] they think there's demand for it,

[2:06:13] they think there's some use in the area,

[2:06:15] but they need to get a counter on it to help build support

[2:06:17] for the application that we'd provide

[2:06:19] that capability without them necessarily having

[2:06:22] to go to a consultant.

[2:06:23] So the, again, it goes back to the idea, the UPWP,

[2:06:27] that we want to bring actual data into the planning process.

[2:06:32] This is where the capability comes from.

[2:06:36] We did look at a couple of different ways

[2:06:38] to provide this capability.

[2:06:39] Whether we could Borough, whether we could partner

[2:06:42] with someone else for it,

[2:06:43] or whether we could just work through a consultant far

[2:06:46] and away that the most effective way to do this is

[2:06:49] to purchase the six counters

[2:06:51] and the, the license for the software wired.

[2:06:55] So that is our request working through my understanding is

[2:06:59] that the finance committee approved that as part of the,

[2:07:02] of their recommendation for the general forum so that

[2:07:06] that request is moving forward as part of the budget.

[2:07:09] - Oh, Jen? - Yes sir. Oh,

[2:07:11] - The committee rejected it,

[2:07:13] but I do believe one of the townships is rescinding their,

[2:07:17] - One of the townships - Voted, but,

[2:07:18] but it was, it was by the committee shot it down.

[2:07:21] - But, but when they, - I know that I heard,

[2:07:25] - I just wanna make - Clear.

[2:07:26] So, you know, some people have no ballot.

[2:07:29] - Our, our representative voted incorrectly, so we asked you

[2:07:33] - To leave vote. Anyway, that's, that's

[2:07:35] - A whole nother story.

[2:07:38] Hey, I have an update on that.

[2:07:40] So I was in executive committee today

[2:07:42] and I actually amended the motion, the recommended motion

[2:07:47] to include those counters.

[2:07:49] It was, it was something

[2:07:50] that the committee did discuss today.

[2:07:52] So that is moving forward now to the municipalities

[2:07:56] with the counters in itself,

[2:07:58] - But it was not a unanimous vote.

[2:08:01] So there may be spirited discussion when the budget hits the

[2:08:04] municipalities over that particular item.

[2:08:07] Fair to say, very

[2:08:08] - Fair.

[2:08:09] Might, might, might need to come to general for it, but

[2:08:13] - Fair enough.

[2:08:14] We appreciate it. And it kinda underlies

[2:08:16] what we were saying earlier, that this is a complex process

[2:08:18] with a lot of moving pieces.

[2:08:20] Again, what we're trying to do is make sure that,

[2:08:23] that you have as much information

[2:08:25] as we can provide as we're working through that. That's

[2:08:28] - Fair.

[2:08:29] Automatically said.

[2:08:32] - And of course sure that would come from the county.

[2:08:35] So there's lots of discussion yet to be had

[2:08:38] Since I'm the chair, I'm gonna exercise my

[2:08:40] prerogative here, the floor.

[2:08:41] I want to reiterate what, what Jim said.

[2:08:44] A few different words we felt in supporting this.

[2:08:48] It was absolutely critical to have that data

[2:08:51] to be competitive,

[2:08:54] to be competitive in the discretionary grant applications,

[2:08:57] to do any kind of expanding

[2:08:59] or installation of bike amenities in today's world.

[2:09:05] And as Jim noted, we could get

[2:09:07] that data from hiring a consultant,

[2:09:10] but Jim said it would be more efficient,

[2:09:12] it would be far more cost effective to buy this.

[2:09:16] No offense to our friends at Michael Baker.

[2:09:18] They've done some good work for us.

[2:09:21] But this appeared to be a more cost effective way

[2:09:23] to gather the data we thought we needed to be competitive.

[2:09:29] Alright, Jim,

[2:09:32] - They count, they count scooters.

[2:09:34] - Oh, counterpoint. - They count scooters.

[2:09:36] - What's that? - Do they count scooters?

[2:09:41] - Just checking.

[2:09:46] - All right, so this is a,

[2:09:47] a quick look at the top line numbers.

[2:09:54] Our total spending is in line

[2:09:56] or a little bit lower than last year.

[2:09:59] As always, insurance costs drive some of the increase.

[2:10:05] Some of what you're seeing here as well is that there's a a,

[2:10:08] a decrease in special projects.

[2:10:10] We're not going after two studies this year.

[2:10:13] So more of the, even though the number's a little bit lower,

[2:10:16] more of that's made up of our own costs.

[2:10:20] I also want to call out the increase in contracted services.

[2:10:23] That's a number that we put on the in-kind labor

[2:10:28] provided by the Centre County Planning

[2:10:29] and Community Development Office.

[2:10:31] That's reaches time on staff, that's Ray Salinas

[2:10:36] and Liz LO's Time as they work on related materials

[2:10:41] and the the time of the GIS staff

[2:10:43] as they're working on the HPMS data collection compared

[2:10:47] to previous years, we're seeing a lot more hours.

[2:10:50] We can then go and reimburse or go

[2:10:53] and request reimbursement from that time for PennDOT.

[2:10:57] But really what it's doing is leveraging the efforts

[2:11:01] of the staff that we have here.

[2:11:03] We're really happy to see that team effort.

[2:11:05] If you haven't looked at, looked at some of the projects

[2:11:08] that REACH has put together,

[2:11:10] either summarizing the Liquid fuels efforts

[2:11:13] or some of the tools she's put together

[2:11:16] to support the federal functional classification revisions,

[2:11:20] please do so and you'll see the value of this contribution

[2:11:25] placed right in front of you.

[2:11:26] So I I I just wanted to call out that

[2:11:29] we've really been seeing the benefits of

[2:11:31] that in this budget process

[2:11:32] and to, to say thank you for the counting, for taking

[2:11:35] that approach and continuing to be

[2:11:38] just taking such a team approach in that

[2:11:41] for the revenue sides, the changes are in line

[2:11:46] with the expenditures

[2:11:49] and is working diligently to finish safe Streets for all.

[2:11:53] When that's done, it may drop off

[2:11:55] both sides of the equation.

[2:11:57] So revenues and expenditures

[2:12:01] and again, is, there's less special project funding than

[2:12:05] that translates to an increase for the county

[2:12:08] and Centre Region contributions even if your total number

[2:12:11] stays the same or goes down a little bit.

[2:12:14] So that is just a thumbnail sketch.

[2:12:20] If you, one step back again sure.

[2:12:23] If, if you look at that top line number, that's

[2:12:26] what we expect to get from PennDOT

[2:12:28] and what we're required

[2:12:29] to put in is a 10% local match to that.

[2:12:33] And if you're doing back of the envelope math,

[2:12:36] we're actually matching

[2:12:37] that something like two to one or three to one.

[2:12:40] So that, that represents the value

[2:12:43] of the local contribution to this.

[2:12:45] And we really appreciate that

[2:12:47] because that is what makes it possible for us to go

[2:12:52] after discretionary funding applications for us

[2:12:55] to do things like this municipal outreach

[2:12:57] where we literally go out

[2:12:59] and meet with all 35 municipalities.

[2:13:03] M MPOs don't have the ability to go out

[2:13:05] and have that kinda local level contribution.

[2:13:08] So it's the support of the, the budgeting partners

[2:13:11] that makes that possible.

[2:13:13] And I wanna make sure that I say thank you for

[2:13:15] that in this process.

[2:13:17] Any questions about this?

[2:13:19] - I've go to the next slide before we open up for questions.

[2:13:23] It's a good segue into our next agenda item.

[2:13:26] 'cause Ann mentioned that previous, he mentioned outreach

[2:13:30] to municipalities and what Jim just mentioned

[2:13:33] and I just wanna make sure everybody heard him that

[2:13:37] not too many, if any MPOs do that can do that,

[2:13:42] that level of outreach.

[2:13:43] How many municipalities? 35 municipalities. Alright.

[2:13:46] Even if you just sent one staff person to each one of them

[2:13:49] for a couple of hours, I mean, do the math

[2:13:52] and it's generally oftentimes more than

[2:13:54] one and then there's travel.

[2:13:58] But that's pretty significant. So questions on the budget?

[2:14:02] Again, it is what it is.

[2:14:04] We aren't the determining factors, but it's not a

[2:14:07] - Question on the budget, but I think you've already said

[2:14:09] this, these presentations will be provided Yes.

[2:14:12] This committee. Okay. Just wanted to confirm

[2:14:16] - Yeah, each one, even if we didn't ask for it,

[2:14:18] if we could get the PowerPoints out to everybody.

[2:14:21] - Hey Eric, I, I just a comment from,

[2:14:23] from our budget sessions, I, this one was

[2:14:26] fairly simple.

[2:14:30] The committee really appreciated over the years of,

[2:14:33] of adding personnel

[2:14:34] that have brought more money in than it costs us

[2:14:38] to pay for those individuals.

[2:14:40] And I believe the only thing that is left on yours

[2:14:45] that I I don't think we're worried about is,

[2:14:47] is the fund balance.

[2:14:50] And I, and I think we're gonna let that set for a year

[2:14:53] as a committee to let it equalize out.

[2:14:55] But I don't think the MPO fund balance

[2:14:57] is in that bad of shape.

[2:14:59] So I think we're good there, but,

[2:15:01] but I, I think overall we were pretty

[2:15:03] pleased with his budget.

[2:15:05] - Well that's good news coming from representatives

[2:15:09] who are responsible for funding about a third of our budget.

[2:15:12] So Thank you Frank.

[2:15:15] Jeremy, are you the fi finance comm you're exec.

[2:15:17] - Exactly. We don't,

[2:15:18] we don't let we Good stuff.

[2:15:24] - Hi, you are Patton's finance committee rep. I'm,

[2:15:26] - Yeah, I'm Pat.

[2:15:27] - Yeah. Are you the finance committee rep?

[2:15:29] - Yes. Okay. Yes. I'm

[2:15:31] - Alright.

[2:15:32] And we have the county's finance committee rep here, so,

[2:15:36] well we have to both of them.

[2:15:38] Right? And she's still Amber's still on.

[2:15:42] Alright, any other questions? Thank you Jim.

[2:15:46] Good segue into what you did.

[2:15:47] The last thing you mentioned, which I think Greg,

[2:15:50] are you gonna talk a little bit about

[2:15:52] this outreach effort? I will, I

[2:15:53] - Will

[2:15:59] - Prepared just a few brief slides on That's good.

[2:16:03] Our biennial municipal outreach process.

[2:16:09] Kinda hard to believe.

[2:16:11] We're jumping into this again and starting a new cycle.

[2:16:14] Actually most of the information's already in

[2:16:17] your agenda packet.

[2:16:18] The relevant information.

[2:16:20] I just drew up two

[2:16:21] or three slides here just to keep myself straight

[2:16:23] as I kind of walked through everything.

[2:16:26] So as Anne alluded to during the UPWP presentation,

[2:16:31] these efforts come directly from the MPO strategic

[2:16:35] plan process.

[2:16:37] I think all sides agreed, including staff that we wanted

[2:16:40] to kind of reaffirm our commitment

[2:16:42] to regular consistent local outreach.

[2:16:45] And so what that does mean is at least one

[2:16:48] of our staff visits each

[2:16:49] of the 35 municipalities at least once every two years.

[2:16:54] And, and sometimes we do a wee bit more than that.

[2:16:56] Even our last outreach cycle was in late 2024

[2:17:01] and the very early part of 2025, we were able to collect

[2:17:06] some really good information, start some good conversations

[2:17:09] with each of these municipalities on their local

[2:17:12] transportation needs as they saw them

[2:17:15] and any concerns that they had.

[2:17:17] Good byproduct of that is we were able

[2:17:19] to get some new project concepts

[2:17:22] for our LRTP 2025.

[2:17:25] So we had kind

[2:17:26] of some churn in our long range plan projects, some

[2:17:29] of the old stuff kind of aging off, brought in some,

[2:17:32] some new fresh ideas.

[2:17:33] And we did adopt that document in September of last year.

[2:17:38] So what we're doing now, the goal is to complete all

[2:17:41] of our visits by the end of calendar year 2026.

[2:17:46] A number of these sessions have already been completed.

[2:17:49] What remains are currently being scheduled by staff

[2:17:53] in conjunction again with those individual municipalities.

[2:17:57] One of the neat things this time around is it allows us

[2:18:00] to kind of double up on some other efforts that we have,

[2:18:04] either as the MPO

[2:18:06] or as the Center Regional Planning Agency staff.

[2:18:09] So some of Pam's visit, she's not here tonight,

[2:18:13] but she's been in attendance to talk

[2:18:15] not only about transportation issues,

[2:18:18] but also the Centre Region Comprehensive Plan update

[2:18:22] to those municipalities to whom that applies.

[2:18:27] Ann's also got the opportunity to go out to some

[2:18:29] of these Borough and Borough like areas

[2:18:31] to discuss the centered on safety project,

[2:18:35] which you saw presentation on earlier in this meeting.

[2:18:40] So we kind of have, we've developed a, a list

[2:18:42] of talking points for this round.

[2:18:44] Last round was a little bit more open-ended.

[2:18:48] This one we definitely have some items

[2:18:51] for which we would want municipal feedback

[2:18:54] and some discussion.

[2:18:56] Again as part of the centered on safety project,

[2:18:58] that sidewalk priority and inventory for boroughs

[2:19:01] and Borough like areas for the

[2:19:03] municipalities to which that applies.

[2:19:05] Obviously not all, not all of them do.

[2:19:09] We'll be discussing that lane departure information again,

[2:19:11] that Ann talked about in her earlier presentation.

[2:19:16] You've heard a little bit from Richa about the updates

[2:19:19] to the federal functional classification.

[2:19:22] That is something that we'll be rolling out on a little bit

[2:19:25] more wide basis to each of the,

[2:19:27] the individual municipalities we're including the planning

[2:19:30] region profiles that were completed

[2:19:33] during our last LRTP update.

[2:19:36] Marcella has a grant assistance survey that we're trying

[2:19:40] to publicize and get some local thought on.

[2:19:43] So we'll be discussing that during our visits.

[2:19:47] And then again, we want to kind

[2:19:48] of refresh those project request forms, get a sense of what

[2:19:53] the current and emerging municipal needs are.

[2:19:57] So we'll be circulating our new 2027 project request forms.

[2:20:02] I believe they're

[2:20:03] to be in once we've deployed everything I believe there

[2:20:06] to be in by the beginning of March.

[2:20:09] And then we also wanna leave some open-ended time

[2:20:11] to discuss other topics as well.

[2:20:14] So that's just kind of a rundown of our current process.

[2:20:18] If you have any questions, comments, we'll be glad

[2:20:20] to take those as staff.

[2:20:22] And if not, if we haven't seen you already, just be ready

[2:20:27] to see us at a municipal meeting near you

[2:20:29] between now and the end of the year.

[2:20:32] - Okay. Questions, comments?

[2:20:37] Okay, thank you Greg. I know this is a heavy lift.

[2:20:41] I appreciate the effort

[2:20:43] and I know having sat in some of these with some

[2:20:46] of the more rural municipalities,

[2:20:47] that is appreciated on their end.

[2:20:52] That would then take us to member reports.

[2:20:56] Let's look in the room first.

[2:20:57] We'll start with the county Mark or Amber

[2:21:01] - Quickly and maybe Richie can help me out with this.

[2:21:05] It's the fee for local use,

[2:21:09] liquid Fuels and Act 13 grant period

[2:21:14] for all 35 municipalities in Centre County.

[2:21:17] So make sure you get those applications in

[2:21:20] because we're what, one side or the other?

[2:21:23] Maybe a million dollars potentially this year.

[2:21:28] - Alright. Amber, anything else?

[2:21:35] - I think Mark covered it. That's it for now.

[2:21:38] - Alright, thanks. Let's go around the room.

[2:21:40] Bruce, half Moon, anything to report?

[2:21:43] - Yeah, just real quick, our expanding our Smith Road,

[2:21:48] the berms, getting that all fixed so that we'll be ready

[2:21:50] for the overlay in 2027.

[2:21:52] That continues it's way behind schedule

[2:21:55] because of the rotten weather we've been

[2:21:57] experiencing all summer.

[2:21:58] The road crew has been focused on storm damage versus

[2:22:02] working on this road.

[2:22:04] Also, we did meet with Isha

[2:22:05] and Pam in latter part of August

[2:22:08] to talk about the federal classification system.

[2:22:11] Get some input to the Penn. Not one tool.

[2:22:15] I I pick the ball's in Reese's Court right now,

[2:22:18] so we'll wait for the next round when,

[2:22:21] when we're called upon again. That's it.

[2:22:23] - Alright, thanks Frank Harris,

[2:22:27] - Couple small items and, and they were sidewalks.

[2:22:32] We have approved monies and, and put out a bid.

[2:22:36] We're gonna have all our sidewalks up to snuff by spring

[2:22:39] of 2027 and then we can look at gaps once we have that done.

[2:22:44] And the other thing is, we had some deed issues

[2:22:48] at our meeting the other night,

[2:22:49] but we're meeting tomorrow night to officially

[2:22:51] accept the roads in Rocky Ridge, so that'll help our fuel.

[2:22:56] Oh,

[2:23:01] - How about the Penns Valley deck?

[2:23:04] - Well we're, I'm ready to pave Decker Valley Road,

[2:23:07] which has been a dirt road for many years,

[2:23:10] so getting close.

[2:23:12] - Alright. Significant. Jeremy Ferguson.

[2:23:15] - I was gonna say, I think we've pretty much wrapped up a

[2:23:18] lot of our summer projects.

[2:23:19] Did a little bit of microsurfacing

[2:23:21] and did some paving in spots

[2:23:23] and went

[2:23:25] through our CIPI think we identified some things

[2:23:28] for next year and now we're into budget season

[2:23:31] and probably also either the favorite

[2:23:36] or least favorite part of

[2:23:38] Public Works collecting leaves followed by snow.

[2:23:44] Those, those times of the year are upon us.

[2:23:49] Yeah, they hopefully we can enjoy a few more weeks

[2:23:52] of pleasant weather.

[2:23:55] - Joanne Beon, Ney Valley Planning Region

[2:23:58] - One for Ney Valley and one for Bellfort.

[2:24:00] Alright. Ney Valley

[2:24:03] Planning Commission met last week

[2:24:05] and we started a review of updating our

[2:24:11] interim municipal agreements for Zoning

[2:24:14] and aldos.

[2:24:16] There were some things that were a little bit oblique,

[2:24:20] so we've sent it back to the Centre County

[2:24:23] Planning office administrative staff to correct

[2:24:26] or make it clear as to what we're talking about

[2:24:29] and we're going to finalize that at the November meeting.

[2:24:33] In terms of Bellefonte had a council meeting two weeks ago.

[2:24:39] One of our council members point out that his wife

[2:24:42] saw a little hole about this big two Aquar quarter size

[2:24:46] and it looked like she set a little sinkhole.

[2:24:49] It ended up when we got the streets committee up,

[2:24:53] it completely transversed an intersection at

[2:24:58] West Curtin and North Spring Street.

[2:25:00] They closed down the road last week, removed a tree, had

[2:25:05] to put in a new storm drain.

[2:25:08] We fixed the repair

[2:25:09] and right now they've opened up the road this morning

[2:25:14] and they're still working on replacing the sidewalks

[2:25:18] that failed as a result of this.

[2:25:21] So I am glad somebody was looking out for us.

[2:25:26] - So keep your eye open for little holes.

[2:25:30] - Yes. Yeah, it

[2:25:31] - Was a little hole about that big

[2:25:33] and she was walking at night and had her camera flashlight.

[2:25:37] She said, that looks odd.

[2:25:38] One took a closer lick

[2:25:40] and it was a 20 foot wide sinkhole.

[2:25:46] - Hello. - Hello. Hello.

[2:25:52] - Well, Eric topped that Ms. Shannon Valley,

[2:25:55] - Well in our area, a hole opens up.

[2:25:57] It's usually a coal mine in there.

[2:26:03] PennDOT got working on new truck,

[2:26:07] constructing a new truck pull off at the top

[2:26:09] of Port Matilda Mountain in Rush Township.

[2:26:11] That's eastbound where it goes.

[2:26:14] 3 22 goes from two lane to four lane.

[2:26:17] And so all trucks over a certain weight,

[2:26:19] I assume it'll be 21,000 pounds gross.

[2:26:22] We'll have to pull over and stop.

[2:26:24] And the benefit of this is hopefully it will save

[2:26:27] what I call Jim Sailor's guardrail, which gets smashed into

[2:26:31] repeatedly over the winter when trucks go down

[2:26:34] the windy section.

[2:26:35] And we've had some trucks go over the guardrail

[2:26:37] and hopefully this will help to improve that section

[2:26:42] of roadway by requiring trucks to stop

[2:26:44] and then adhere a a to a,

[2:26:46] a lower speed limit going down the mountain.

[2:26:50] This group previously had reallocated some funds to

[2:26:56] conduct some or to place more high surface,

[2:26:59] high friction surface treatment on Route three 50 on Sandy

[2:27:03] Ridge Mountain in Rush Township.

[2:27:06] And that was done about a month ago.

[2:27:09] I happened to live on that road

[2:27:10] and I know the, the treatments that were put down a couple

[2:27:13] of years ago, just anecdotally from my view, seemed to help

[2:27:18] particularly trucks from getting stuck in in bad weather.

[2:27:22] And so they've now basically completed

[2:27:25] that treatment going up all of the s curves

[2:27:28] between the bottom of the mountain of the Rush Township line

[2:27:30] and the top of the mountain at Sandy Ridge.

[2:27:33] So I anticipate that we'll continue to improve the safety

[2:27:37] of, of that road.

[2:27:39] So that that's what we have going on area. Good to hear.

[2:27:43] - How about the airport? Anything going on? George?

[2:27:45] - Oh, thank you again for allowing me to attend.

[2:27:55] Every day is kind of an adventure at the airport.

[2:27:58] We are still working through our due diligence

[2:28:04] with the university to

[2:28:08] make sure that we understand what we're taking over if

[2:28:13] and when the day comes, that we do

[2:28:16] assume control of the airport.

[2:28:21] Primarily we're going through the financial statements,

[2:28:25] trying to learn as much as we can about PennDOT

[2:28:28] or airport operations.

[2:28:35] One thing, and our chairman already announced it back in

[2:28:39] June, in about 10 days,

[2:28:43] American Airlines is starting a new service to Charlotte

[2:28:48] from State College Airport.

[2:28:50] - Got two trips booked already. Hopefully they happen.

[2:28:55] - You - Have an open house too?

[2:28:57] We have an open house coming, yes, that same day.

[2:29:02] And you're all welcome to attend

[2:29:07] and as long as I've got the floor, I thank you for that.

[2:29:12] - Well you've sat here for two and a half hours. This is,

[2:29:15] - I did and I didn't say anything.

[2:29:17] No, this thought came to me while Jim was going

[2:29:22] through the, through the budget presentation.

[2:29:28] Some of you may know I came out of PennDOT after I retired.

[2:29:32] I spent several years

[2:29:34] serving on the State Transportation Commission.

[2:29:40] I will tell you from a statewide perspective,

[2:29:46] and there are a lot of egos in this room,

[2:29:50] but from a statewide perspective,

[2:29:54] Centre County MPO is a very well

[2:29:58] regarded MPO.

[2:30:02] The things that you do, Jim

[2:30:04] and your staff to reach out to your members

[2:30:10] is a model for the rest of the state.

[2:30:14] And it's, it, it's been noticed.

[2:30:18] That's all I can say. Is that Okay? Thank you.

[2:30:23] - Just to follow up quickly on that, I know

[2:30:25] that we've got central office

[2:30:27] and district office reps here too, that our district

[2:30:32] and central office reps deserve a, a share of

[2:30:36] that credit right along with the

[2:30:39] Yeah, Heidi. I

[2:30:43] - Don't report.

[2:30:44] - Alright, let's look online.

[2:30:46] That's a good segue into our central and

[2:30:50] and district reps.

[2:30:52] Mark or Eric, anything from the district office?

[2:30:59] - I, I guess I would mention,

[2:31:00] I know Nate Walker probably has this on his list as well,

[2:31:03] Frank, the PennDOT, MTF

[2:31:06] Multimodal Transportation Fund is open for applications

[2:31:11] and that is available until October 30th.

[2:31:14] So you, I guess be encouraged to submit applications

[2:31:19] for those types of needs.

[2:31:21] - That's announcement number 14.

[2:31:23] - Nice. Alright.

[2:31:26] Eric, if you don't have anything, I'm gonna go to Nate

[2:31:28] and Frank Central.

[2:31:33] - The only thing I have is just form the shout out

[2:31:35] to Centre County here.

[2:31:37] We let about $82 million worth

[2:31:39] of work in Centre County this year so far.

[2:31:42] And we have about, we have three more projects

[2:31:44] to let in Centre County, then we'll be done.

[2:31:47] And if you don't know, just in case you don't know,

[2:31:49] this has been a pretty good year

[2:31:50] for district two in the whole so far.

[2:31:52] We've let $145 million worth of work in district two

[2:31:57] and we're on track for about $196 million this year.

[2:32:00] So pretty good year for district two

[2:32:03] and in Centre County this year.

[2:32:08] - Okay. And then I couldn't let Central go without noting

[2:32:10] that Frank Hampton is one of the reasons

[2:32:13] that George mentioned that

[2:32:18] the, the regard that this MPO has has held in, you know,

[2:32:21] Frank's been sitting with us for, for, for a long time.

[2:32:26] Anything to add, Frank?

[2:32:29] - No, I'll actually defer to the rep Nate.

[2:32:31] I know Mr. Walker probably has something

[2:32:33] - To share he wishes,

[2:32:35] - But I thank, thank George for that comment.

[2:32:37] - Alright, thanks. Yeah,

[2:32:40] - I, I was gonna say many, many thanks to Frank

[2:32:43] for all his time here working with you guys,

[2:32:47] but Mark, mark sold the words outta my mouth with the

[2:32:52] multimodal information.

[2:32:53] So nothing else to add this evening.

[2:32:56] - Alright, then we'll go to go Paul

[2:32:58] for the Borough State College Borough.

[2:33:02] Anything?

[2:33:03] - Yeah, well we've been working on our Zoning, Zoning,

[2:33:06] updated Zoning degree, right.

[2:33:07] That's been, you know, very, very tense

[2:33:11] and very productive

[2:33:13] but you know, at the same time there's been a lot of, a lot

[2:33:16] of input and community engagement.

[2:33:18] So we've been working on that, that as well as, you know,

[2:33:23] we approved our CIPA couple of weeks ago

[2:33:27] and now we're heading into budget season.

[2:33:29] So hopefully we left the Zoning rewrite all wrapped up

[2:33:33] by the early part of the year.

[2:33:36] - Alright, thanks. Go Paul. How about Jean?

[2:33:39] Anything to offer? Any updates?

[2:33:43] - Oh, not nothing from Stone two Township.

[2:33:47] - Okay. I think I covered everybody. Did I miss anybody?

[2:33:53] If not, then we will move to announcements.

[2:33:56] I only have one meeting announcement this month

[2:33:59] 'cause we're actually meeting November 18th

[2:34:04] when we meet November 18th.

[2:34:06] It'll be a joint meeting between,

[2:34:08] between the coordinating committee and

[2:34:12] and the technical committee.

[2:34:13] I think for those of us who were around last year, saw a lot

[2:34:16] of benefit in that and look forward to huddling

[2:34:19] with the tech committee in November.

[2:34:22] Beyond that, I'm gonna first give staff an opportunity

[2:34:26] to point to anything specifically in announcements

[2:34:29] before I open it up to questions from the

[2:34:31] group. Anything Jim?

[2:34:34] - And as David mentioned, we did complete an update to our

[2:34:39] crash database to add data up through 2025.

[2:34:42] There's a link right there

[2:34:43] in the announcements if you're curious on that.

[2:34:46] So thanks to Ann

[2:34:47] and Steve for getting us through that effort.

[2:34:50] Otherwise it's just the funding opportunities have already

[2:34:53] been called out and then there's a listing of

[2:34:55] of some of the recent awards.

[2:34:57] Nothing else to share

[2:34:59] - Questions on?

[2:35:00] Anything in announcements?

[2:35:03] - Anne's got - Something. Anne,

[2:35:06] - We also wanna remind you about the municipal

[2:35:09] transportation grant.

[2:35:10] Assistant needs survey. That's number 15.

[2:35:14] If you could fill that out, it would be greatly appreciated.

[2:35:17] It's probably going to go

[2:35:18] beyond the September 30th deadline.

[2:35:21] We had a request from a municipality to have it open

[2:35:26] until the second week in October.

[2:35:33] - Questions Alright,

[2:35:34] before I accept the motion to Adjourn,

[2:35:36] I just wanna thank you all for your patience.

[2:35:38] It's been two and a half hours.

[2:35:39] We had a lot of ground to cover,

[2:35:42] but I think we did it pretty efficiently.

[2:35:44] So it, with that, I'll accept the motion to Adjourn.

[2:35:49] Thank you Frank. We are adjourned.

[2:36:21] - The Centre Region Active Adult Center is a vibrant,

[2:36:23] inclusive, and happening location designed

[2:36:26] for active adults 55 years and over to be social

[2:36:29] and participate in new experiences while

[2:36:31] also staying close to home.

[2:36:32] We promote healthy aging through our many activities

[2:36:35] and health forums as well as lifelong learning

[2:36:37] through classes and social interaction

[2:36:39] that suit almost any lifestyle.

[2:36:40] Whether you prefer line dancing followed by a walk

[2:36:43] or a game of bridge and a meal,

[2:36:45] the center is sure to have something for you.

[2:36:47] Visit crpr.org for more info.

[2:36:54] - Did you know that CNET has over 30 years

[2:36:56] of program archives available to the public

[2:36:59] for a requested donation of $20?

[2:37:01] You can receive a DVD

[2:37:02] or digital copy of any program in our library going

[2:37:05] back to 1988.

[2:37:06] The senior archives include high school graduations

[2:37:09] and award nights, school district concerts

[2:37:11] and sporting events, school library, write

[2:37:14] and illustrate your own book awards.

[2:37:16] Memorial Day in Bosberg in the Central Pennsylvania Festival

[2:37:19] of the Arts, military history lectures.

[2:37:22] So round tables and many more.

[2:37:24] And don't forget about the meetings.

[2:37:26] We have an expansive archive of local government as well

[2:37:29] as Beon and State College area school board meetings.

[2:37:31] CNET has been covering the Centre County community

[2:37:34] for over three decades, and we have the tape to prove it.

[2:37:37] Visit CNET one.org to browse our archives

[2:37:39] and you can call or email us.

[2:37:40] Order your own DVD or digital copy today.

[2:37:43] Nothing good on tv.

[2:37:45] You're just not watching the right channels.

9/22/26 Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization

Agenda

Transcript