Capital District                                                                                               December 21, 2006

Transportation Committee      

 

 

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

 

DATE/TIME: December 13, 2006, 10:00 am11:30 am

 

ATTENDANCE: Luis Acosta—CDTA; Tammy Brooks—Catholic Charities of Schenectady County; Dennis Brunelle—Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council, Carol Croak—Rensselaer County DSS, Linda Doyle—Albany County Department of Social Services; Ed Dugrenier—CDPC/Schenectady Vocational Services, Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Kathy FletcherClearview Center; Paul Germain--Albany County Department of Social Services; Gloria Hessell—NYS OTDA, Carmel Patrick—Senior Services of Albany; Ralph Scarano—Albany County Department for the Aging, Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff; Maryellen Usis—CDTA; Tom Vaughan—NYSDOT, Kristina Younger--CDTA

 

STUDY DISCUSSION SUMMARY: After introductions, the items on the agenda were discussed in sequence:

 

RTCC Activities: 

a.   “Coordinated Plan” Development—CDTC staff continued to document coordination efforts that have been pursued since the late 1970’s.  Staff has summarized material through 2002.  The document summarizing this region’s history regarding coordination efforts should be complete within the next few months.  This document will allow the RTCC define some coordination gaps, “next steps” and identify goals for the coordinated plan.  The Greater Buffalo Region MPO (GBNRTC) has distributed their draft coordinated plan to other NYS MPO’s, including CDTC.  CDTC staff will look at this plan to identify pieces that should be included in the Capital District’s plan.  The GBNRTC has also drafted a funding application for JARC and New Freedom monies.  The RTCC can use GBNRTC’s application as a starting point when it is time to draft a grant application for the Capital District.

b.     Survey of Human Service Agencies--CDTC and Albany County distributed over 600 surveys to human service agencies located in the Capital District.  CDTC has received completed questionnaires from 25 Human Service Agencies that do not provide transportation (non-providers) and 32 agencies that do provide some form of transportation (providers).  Albany County received about 100 completed surveys, with about 2/3 from providers.

 

CDTC staff distributed several preliminary graphs and bar charts that summarize some of the data that was collected from the respondents located in Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties.  These graphs and charts are included in the attached PowerPoint file.

 

 

Access to Jobs:

a.     CST Funding Update—CDTA does not have a contract yet, and in good faith, is floating the money for the program.  The contract is expected by the end of the year.

b.     JARC Funding Update—CDTA will submit for additional JARC funds in the 2007 Federal Fiscal Year, once the “coordinated plan” (that the RTCC is working on) is in place.  A concern with regard to use of JARC funds involves the match requirement.  In the past, CDTA used CST funds as match for JARC activities.  This is specifically prohibited under the proposed rules. The proposed regulations suggest a project by project match, not program by program.  This means that a source of funds to match (20 percent) the $250,000 allocation to the area will have to be found if the existing JARC programs are to continue.

 

United We Ride

a.     Working Group Activities—A sub-group was formed to explore options for a third entity to provide maintenance services, loaner vehicles, technical assistance or even take over their whole transportation operations. This group met in October and is exploring avenues for group purchasing including the Council of Community Services, for-profit purchasing agencies and group RFP’s. 

The Albany County Coordinated Human Services Transportation Workgroup has formed a workgroup to stat to draft a Mobility Management Program.  If CDTA is an integral part of the program, the program will have to have a regional focus, rather than a specific Albany County focus.

b.     Status of Funding—Albany County has approximately $9,000 left from Phase 1 and has been approved for an additional $25,000 under Phase 2 of the United We Ride effort. 

 

Other

Schenectady County Long Term Care Consortium— The Center for Governmental Research (CGR) was hired by the United Way of Schenectady County to work with a Schenectady County consortium to examine aging demographics in Schenectady County, conduct focus groups to identify most pressing needs and recommended improvements, and facilitate the development of a strategic plan for the consortium.  The consortium has requested that CDTC present information regarding the RTCC, goals, objectives, products, etc. at their January meeting.

 

NEXT MEETING:

 

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Wednesday February 14, 2007 at 10:00 am at CDTC’s offices.