Pedestrian Safety Board

Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board Meeting Minutes Public Safety Building – Training Room 1 4:30 – 5:30 PM February 13, 2017 The Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board’s mission is to promote a walkable environment throughout the City by developing safe, attractive, and accessible walkways that connect neighborhoods and destinations. 4:30 pm Call meeting to order I. Introductions Members (Quorum NOT present): Matt Cross, Jessica Bladow, Gypsy Denzine, Christiaan Abildso, Jimmie Simmons, Jen McDonald, and Bill Reger-Nash Ex-officio: Bill Austin, Jing Zhang, and Lt. McCabe Guest: William Blosser Absent: Jan Derry, Jay Redmond, Stan Cohen, Kim Hartsell, George Lilley, Maria Smith, Ella Belling, Damien Davis, Amy Boggs, Michael Graham, Mary Gutmann, David Small, Dwight Harshbarger, Bob Anderson, Ilana Chertok, Dan Harris, Daniel Shook, Martha Summers, Regina Mayolo, Drew Gatlin, and Frank Gmeindl II. Approval of January 9, 2017 Minutes. Motion by Jen McDonald second by Bill Reger-Nash, passed by (unanimous voice vote). III. New Business • Pedestrian Safety Plan update with MPO: • Public Service Announcements (PSA) – the Board currently has one out for snow removal; another will be added soon about concurrent crossing/ pedestrian rights. There are 8 intersections that will be upgraded downtown, and some of these upgrades might embrace concurrent crossing. o Interesting side note that the City is only responsible for 6 traffic signals total. • Pedestrian crossing at Greenmont; project could be implemented this summer • Matt mentioned Damien’s comment from previous meetings about giving locals 1 year to repair sidewalks before the street gets paved; the following discussion occurred: o Jimmie mentioned that there is a potential road block with out of state property owners o County developments do not require sidewalks (issue when effectively the county jurisdiction is within the city limits) o Christiaan asked if there will still be a 50/50 match incentive? à with the new City user fee; this is something that might be an option once again § We should meet with city to see if money for incentive is still available  o Previously, Councilman Redmond said that we should provide a revised priority list to the City by Feb. 2017 since the City budget is to be finalized by April 2017 with the new City Manager. With this short deadline, we didn’t have enough time to perform a full blown inventory; so, we used the time during this meeting to select the following priorities (ordered alphabetically by neighborhood) based on the projects from Section 6 of the Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Plan (which was finalized in August of 2010). 1. Project #25 (3rd & 4th Wards: Evansdale neighborhood) 2. Project # 30 (1st Ward) 3. Project # 39 (2nd & 6th Wards: Greenmont neighborhood) 4. Project # 47 JP (6th Ward: Jerome Park–Sabraton neighborhood) 5. Project # 56 (3rd & 4th Wards: Seneca/Sunnyside neighborhood) 6. Project # 72 (1st & 2nd & 6th Ward: South Park–South Hills) 7. Project # 85 (4th Ward: Suncrest) 8. Project # 126 (3rd Ward: Wiles Hill-Highland Park) 9. Project # 136 (5th Ward: Woodburn) § Matt will bring these forward as our top priorities for each neighborhood. He will also get feedback from each neighborhood to make sure that these priorities align with their priorities. • Dan Shook reached out to Matt; he has offered to get a slogan on a billboard and wanted our input à Gypsy’s idea was to involve the schools and have them do a slogan competition (the slogan could also be posted on PRT monitors; Jimmies’ idea) IV. Old Business • Membership: o Matt will follow-up with Mary Gutmann (to see if she is still interested in being on the Board) and o Matt reached out to Margaret Stout and she is willing to have her name removed from the membership list since she can’t make the meetings § We’ll need to have a quorum present to officially drop her from the list • Coliseum walking cessation: Matt spoke with the WVU Athletic Director, Shane Lyons, and the University has already made a decision (which came down to liability). They will maintain walking rights outside the coliseum and are planning on adding additional lighting in this area. • Sidewalks Priority List Sub-committee: Bill Austin and Jing Zhang are on this committee to help us update our priority list form 2010. The Board sincerely appreciates the MPO’s assistance with updating our policy. V. Reports -Mountain Line Maria Smith: absent -WVU Kim Hartsell: absent -Rail Trail Ella Belling: absent  -MPO Bill Austin: Had 30 people attend their I-79 Access Study Meeting (Jan. 26 th), which was pretty good considering that it snowed that day. -City Engineer Damien Davis: absent -City Council Jay Redmond: absent -Police Lt. McCabe: no new business to report -Traffic Commission Matt Cross: no new business to report -Amy Boggs: absent VI. Action Items • Matt Cross to reach out to Mary Gutmann and see if she is still interested/able to participate on the Board. • Matt will discuss our priority list with each neighborhood and get their feedback. • Matt to schedule a meeting with the City to determine if the sidewalk improvement incentive will still be available for property owners. Next meeting: March 13, 2017, Training Room 1, Public Safety Building, 4:30 – 5:30 pm. Minutes Submitted by Jessica Bladow; Edited by Bill Reger-Nash on 2017-02-19