HomeMy WebLinkAboutTCSP Oversight Committee Minutes (2)TCSP Oversight Committee
Laurel, Montana
I- 1.9 43O
MEETING MINUTES OF JANUARY 13, 2000
The Laurel TCSP Ove~ight Commillee (OC) met on Thursday, January 13, 2000 in the City Council
Chaml~r$ from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Those in atlondanco were: Cai O~min~ Gay Easton, Mayor Charles
Rodgers, Kea Olson, Bud Johnson, Kale Stevenson, Dcbbie Ricei, Diane Walker, Kathleen Banmgaflnex,
Larry McCann and John H. Smith.
Bud Johnson called the meeting to order. Bud asked ff everyone had a chance to read the mimHes from
the December 9~ meeting and all said th~ they had. Bad anko~ if th~ ~ ~ additions or con~etions to
the mi.utes. The minutes were then approved as wri~m by a ~manimol~ vote ofth~
A sketch from the visioning plan from Dan Bunion's presentation outlined some of the ideas that can be
done to different paris of! ~nrel. T~ included: Main Street: sidewalk improvements, poss~ole diagonal
parking, bike lane, landneaped uredian, and a parallel RV parking lane on the south side of the slxeet in
front of the Visitors' Centex (Main is about one hundred feet wide here); First Avenue South: median,
signage COurdlnatioa, boulevard sidewalks, and land.aping; First Avenue North: crosswalks with bulb-
outs thai extond the sidowalk areas into the sU-~t m least the distanee of the parked cars, diagonal parking
in downtovm, aud plamers and similar traffic-calming deviees~ The visioalng plan aetivity refleeted idens
~ could hap~n that would enhance the shopping ~,nd living exparionc~ in LaureFs downtown, the how
to do it and the costs are tl~ next steps. Cai noted that the underpass presents a real complex challenge.
South Fh-st Avenue to and including Main Su-eet are State highways, and it is imporamt that all our
pl~nnin§ efforts be coordinated with MDT--which has ~na! say on their roadways.
Papers were handed out to Committee members: a corrected copy of the Carter-Burgess conlract,
current invoices, current budget, and turning movement and other mw data from traffic activity at Main and
First Avenue South and First Avenue and First Street. Tm~ing movement data wus collected at ~ tral~e
volume periods, and this will be sent to the traffic engineer doing the traffic analysis part of this project
Part of the GIS work being developed is to also plot this d~a on City maps and in graphs for thc final
report. The data will also be scat to Dan Burden who indicated he can dra~ a roundabout for the
intersections that will give ns some idea of what we can do with it.
Cai e~plninexl the progress of th~ GIS program and showed examples of what is bein~ worked on.
McCann said there va:re some e~ors in thc maps showing multi-lane roadways. In addison to the Uaffic
dala, land use has been mapped in the Laurel area, but there are still problems with entering aH the land use
that the work team ha.q gath~-ed into the Conn~'s major GIS ~'tem. Wllat~er data we do aceurnl~te
into a Lam'el database can be continually fine tuned by just computer entry, so, even though the effort is
~ coll~a~min§ now, it is not a wasted effort - rather the be~olnning of a d~hqbaso that will continually
grow and change to meet the City's various mapping and date manipulation needs.
Dcbbie Ricci presented a dra~ of the vision statement that can be used for this committee. Debbie
stated that the function of the oversight eemmiltee is stated on page one, but she tried to create this
s~atemeat to be more of what the group would like do. This statement reads, '°this group will remain open
and flerJble to follow the function out included in the projecr Our goal is to present a plan that is realistic
for our comm~mity - one that will benefit the community as a whole for change in a positive and orderly
fashion. We will work hard to r~mnin lmified and forward looking in our cndcavors." Dcbbie asked all to
review this ~amment and if it is not needed, to throw this meat out. Bud Johnson said that it has merit
and will help.
Cai preseated the bills for approval. Dan Burden - $7,000.00. Ca/explained that this item was set into
the budget for $14,000.00 as a line item. Cai stated that Dan produced an excefianL exnennive report in
rough draft form that he has an diskette. Another bill presented was Cossitt Consulting - $490.00. This
amount is for the evaluation that Anne Cossitt was hired to do and part of that is for the newsletter.
Approxim~lely 500 copies of the newsletter was printed with 200 of these mailed OUt and 300 dism'buted
around the community. Cai stated th~ the addresses were taken from five different lists ofbusinesse~
Fast food restaurants and some o ~r~niTatiens were deleted from thc lisC Cai further explained that the way
that the budget was ~ is: amount budgeted, amount COmmitted. flmomtt already palc~ r~mainder
amount, and amount paid vs. budgeted amount. Bud asked ffthere were any questions about the bills
presented. Kathleen Baumgarmer made a motion to pay these bills, seconded by Ken Olson, and all
present voted in favor of the motion.
A sm'vey form was given to each of the members. Cal stated that Anne CnssiR would like each to fill
out this form of wbere each now stands in this proeass. This will help to gather the base clara needed and is
one of the responsibilitias of each for being in this group.
Bud lolmson stated that the next meeting will be Thumtay, February 10* at 7:00 p.m. at the City Council
Chamher~ Cai stated tiat he would update the OC on the traffic work being done and the statc of the GIS
development. This whole project is to be done by November, but Cai soys he is more COncerned in doing a
very good job with the oppommity that this grant has ~d us.
Bud Johnson slated that Cai has done a good job of COvefin~ all of the agenda itm brought from the
last meeting. Lan-y McCann stated that he would like to get the inferma6on from the GIS so he can
proceed. He also said that the next newsletter needs to talk about the efforts of the Laurel agw'itali?ation
Leagne sinee it will be adding a lot of questions to the taxpayer. Bud stated that there is a need to get an
idea of where the group is at each meeting. Debbie asked ffthere was a need to still promote the slide
program. It was stated that the group needs to know exactly where it has been in orcl~ to know where else
it needs to go. Ken Oison suggested Vaking the slide program to the Civics class at the high school. By
doing this, all seniors COuld be roached on a given day. He will approach either Mm. Sulter or Mr.
Yovetich about getting this set up. Bud Johnson asked ff there were any other groups tha~ should view this
program. He asked flit should be shown at the Council meeting and/or thc Planning Board meeting. He
explained that this would brin~ about more exposm-e to the pmgrsm by showing it to the atleudees of these
meetings. Ken Oison said that it COuld be shown at the City's January 22nd mee~g. Lany McCann
suggested showing this to the Fire Deparaneot and to City employees. Bud said this is an excellent idea
since it is the City employees that are asked the most questions. This can be shown at the City's union
meefinga. COl suggested that I_any McCaun set up the best approach to take since it is important to get the
evaluation sheets back in order to create the database. Debbie Ricci said that Cra~ Franklin is doing a good
job keeping the e-,mluation on the COmputer updated. Mayor Charles Rodgers asked about showing the
program to juniors at the high school and then do a COmparison between the jmors and senims. Kan said
this might be difficult since only the seniors all bevc a class in COmmon. Debble suggested using a, study
hall for this or possibly doing this with the fifth grade class at Graft. Bud suggested a showing to senior
citizens also. Lany asked ffthe newsletter would come out qtumerly. Cai slated that he was not sure and
added that it will mainly id~otify some topics and references as well as report what is going on. Bud
suggested that ff anyone has any thoughts that they would like to see in the newsletter, he is sure that Aune
would app/eeiat¢ to beer tbese. Discussion was held on the mailing of the newsletter. Money could be
~ved by doing a bulk mailing. Dcbhie Ricci stated that these could be stuffed in Ricci's flyer for free.
Kathlean Baamgattner said that she would like the committee to l'view the newsletter before it goes out
since this is the group's public voice.
The meOi~4 was adjourned.