Capital District January 13, 2012

Transportation Committee

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

DATE/TIME: January 12, 2012 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm

ATTENDANCE: Michele Abel—Catholic Charities Wheels to Work; Mike Barry—Center for Disability Services; Anne Benware—CDTC; Ed Biittig—Schenectady County DSS; Mary Broderick—Foster Grand Parents; Darci Carter—OTDA, Maryellen Casey-Usis—CDTA; Tim Farrell—Albany County DSS; Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Denise Figueroa—ILC of the Hudson Valley; Bill Garrison—Center for Disability Services; Rosemary Nichols—City of Watervliet; Margo Mahoski—Catholic Charities of Schenectady; Geoff Phillips—Family and Children Services Capital Region; Phyllis Relyea—Ridge Services; Jane Schramm—Senior Services of Albany; Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff; Tom Szczggicl—Department of Veterans Affairs; Tom Vaughan—NYSDOT; Kristina Younger--CDTA

STUDY DISCUSSION SUMMARY: Meeting participants introduced themselves. After introductions, each agenda item was discussed in sequence:

RTCC Activities:

a. 2011 Survey Results—Deb Stacey provided a PowerPoint that showed preliminary results of the 2011 Survey effort. The survey effort achieved a response rate of over 50%, which was due in a large part to the efforts of the United Way 211 staff to follow-up on non-response and partial responses. Deb ran into a few glitches in finalizing the data set and as a result did not have sufficient time to prepare slides comparing the 2006 survey data to the 2011 data. However, Deb verbally described some of the comparisons. Deb and Anne Benware will make an effort during the next few months to further analyze the data and will create some crosstab comparisons. Data anomalies will also be investigated. Deb will send RTCC members a copy of the preliminary PowerPoint in the meantime.

b. 2008 New Freedom Projects —Catholic Charities has completed the scheduling software project that was funded under the 2008 New Freedom program. The 2008 grant has been closed by FTA, with all monies expended. Catholic Charities entered The Eddy’s data using the new scheduling software and provided the output to them. The Eddy is reviewing the output and will likely incorporate some of the results into their schedules.

Catholic Charities also submitted a proposal to begin limited weekend service on a trial basis for seniors in the county. The service began in October 2009. The service just completed its second year and has enough in the budget to complete a third year of service as planned. The service operates 92 days a year and provided approximately 1000 trips in 2011. The service provides needed transportation to dialysis on weekends. Catholic Charities has been asked to provide service to senior groups located outside Schenectady County and is looking into the feasibility of doing so.

2009 Project— The city of Watervliet began their New Freedom supported shuttle service in July 2010. Ridership has been steadily increasing. Over 400 rides were provided in December 2011, up from 168 in December 2010. The route dovetails with existing CDTA fixed route service, and LINK tickets are available making it easier for seniors and mobility disabled individuals to get where they need to go using CDTA. The service operates five days a week from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm and carries approximately 20 passengers per day. Rosemary asked the group for feedback on whether these productivity figures justify the cost of the service.

Advantage Taxi (known as Yellow Cab) successfully bid for the contract to operate the first two accessible taxis. The taxi’s are in full operation. The taxi company has not been providing usage data as required by the contract; CDTA staff is working at getting data in a usable format. Anecdotally, the taxis are being used by the mobility impaired public. CDTA is looking at the MV-1 and other vehicles in preparation of circulating an RFP for quotes on vehicles. The RFP should be finalized shortly.

2011 Solicitation-- Approximately $214,000 of 2011 New Freedom federal funding was made available to the Capital Region. Four Capital District human service agencies submitted a collaborative project proposal and was awarded funding under the New Freedom 2011 program. With the New Freedom funds, the four agencies have purchased Digital Mobil Radio technology for the aggregate fleet of 124 vehicles. Some of the equipment has been delivered. Base stations will be delivered by the end of the month. This project will enable the four agencies to be in compliance with January 2013 Federal Communications Commission mandates with the added benefit of expanding inter-agency communication and transportation coordination. This project demonstrates how successful the Region has been in garnering partnerships between diverse human service entities.

CDTA:

a. CST Funding Update-- CST funding has been spent down by all of the counties. Albany County is currently using FFFS funds to fund the bus pass program. Schenectady and Rensselaer counties have joined CDTA’s Corporate Swiper Program and are buying passes at the bulk rate discount.

b. JARC—Maryellen Casey-Usis is now officially CDTA’s mobility manager. Maryellen will be managing the trip planners and the New Freedom program.

c. Access Transit the region’s brokerage, is no longer brokering Medicaid trips for Rensselaer and Schenectady counties. Access is still brokering trips under contract with the Albany County Department for the Aging and also administers the Safety Net Brokerage (JARC program) the region’s Guaranteed Ride Home Program (iPool2).

d. CDTA ridership is up 10% overall, and 15-20% in Albany, since significant route changes were made in that county. The BusPlus has reached its annual ridership goal in just 9 months (~ 4 million).

NYSDOT/Section 5310:

a. Section 5310—The FFY 2012 5310 Program is not fully funded and has not yet been announced. Once announced, the turnaround time will be much shorter—probably 60 days.

b. United We Ride—NYSDOT reported that about $34,000 in unspent United We Ride (UWR) funds are available for a project(s) that primarily focuses on Albany County. The federal government is close to rescinding the monies, so the project must be nearly ready to launch. The monies are to be used for planning and mobility projects, not vehicles. Back in the fall of 2011, CDTA on behalf of United Way 211 and the Department of Veterans Affairs submitted an application to FTA for a Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative Capital (VTCLI) grant to update the United Way 211 call center to include details on programs for veterans and their families. The grant application was for $38,000. Under the VTCLI Initiative, communities with existing one-call centers were encouraged to apply for a VTCLI grant to expand their services to incorporate veterans groups and needs that have not been addressed by the current one-call services. Kristina and Tom Vaughan indicated that a project such as this would be eligible for funding with the remaining UWR funds, and fits well with the recommendations outlined in the region’s Coordinated Plan.

CDTA was unsuccessful in securing a grant under this program. Since the application was submitted, the United Way 211 call center in Albany was absorbed by a larger United Way 211 call center located in the Hudson Valley. However, the project is still doable in Albany, as the Family and Children Services Organization in the Capital Region still maintains a call center and is co-housed with the Office of Veteran’s Affairs.

This information is brought to the RTCC because the RTCC needs to help make a decision regarding the use of UWR monies. The RTCC can either endorse looking into this potential use of the money or must come up with an alternative project soon, as the timeline to use the money is running out. RTCC members were asked to email CDTC with other project proposals that would fit the criteria for using UWR funds. Once other project proposals (if any) are received, Deb/Anne will email the group to get a consensus on which project we should proceed with. Time is of the essence—the money will go back to the federal government if we do not submit a project by the end of March.

NEXT MEETING:

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Tuesday April 24, 2012 at 1:30 pm at CDTC’s offices.