Pedestrian Safety Board

Morgantown Pedestrian Safety Board Meeting Minutes Public Safety Building – Training Room 1 4:30 – 5:30 PM May 8, 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 Present): Matt Cross, Dan Shook, George Lilley, Jan Derry, Jen MacDonald, Jimmie Simmons, Jessica Bladow, and Bill Reger-Nash Ex-officio: Lt. Matt McCabe, Bill Austin, Ella Belling, and Drew Gatlin Guest: William Blosser and Janet Fraser Absent: Christiaan Abildso, Gypsie Denzine, Stanley Cohen, Dwight Harshbarger, Maria Smith, Kim Hartsell, Damien Davis, and Amy Boggs II. Approval of April 10, 2017 Minutes. Motion by George Lilley second by Jen MacDonald, Passed by (unanimous voice vote). III. Officer’s Reports • Matt attended opening for new Falling Run trails o WVU is the leading force on building these trails o Already having issues with Mountain Bikers building ramps and tearing up the trail • Jessica asked about inviting Fouad (Fred) Shoukry (Traffic Operations Engineer) as a WV DOH District 4 representative to attend our Ped. Board Mtgs. and Bill Austin said that he would try to remember to invite Fred when he sees him next. IV. Action Item Follow-up • Jessica Bladow – Fairmont Connectivity Plan: 26 connectivity projects outlined with corresponding priorities and a funding resources section towards the end of the report. Christiaan might have more background information on this project, as he was involved with writing the references section. • Matt Cross/Bill Reger-Nash – Exemplar list of sidewalks: maybe make a post on the state or City website or with the Dominion Post and write a note to the property owner V. New Business • City to enforce property owners to repair and improve their sidewalks; so, we need to prioritize sidewalks for the 2018 paving plan. The City intends to give a one year compliance period for code enforcement.  o How should property owners determine the acceptable level of damage (just cracks or breakage or complete failure)? Can the City provide some guidance on this? o It would be good to pull people/funds together to fix sidewalks (neighborhood associations could get together and maybe receive discounts for repairing multiple blocks); potentially also prepare a construction company list for homeowners to contact to come help fix their sidewalks – is this something that the City could provide as a flyer for property owners? o Bill Reger-Nash to ask Maria Smith about getting a list of bus structure locations to ensure that we have sidewalks in these areas. o Grant program for home repairs – would sidewalk count as a home repair? (Chris Fletcher now handles this) Community Development Block Grant Funds (specifically for people within City Limits) – Matt Cross to look into this and see what he can find out. • Comprehensive planning with the Bike Board/Mainstreet Morgantown/ Green Team à to attend future meetings o Ella talks to Rick (with Green Team) regularly; this organization might become more active this coming summer • Donnie Williams is new WV DOH District 4 Engineer • Pedestrian Activated Signal discussion à potentially input something like this on University near the law school (Matt to ask Damien to look into doing something like this) – there is a bus shelter in this location too • North Street is a hot spot right now for neighborhood and traffic commission • MUB to reroute sewer line through green space near Krepps park; potentially make this area a more complete green space (which is owned mostly by city) • Drew mentioned that the Bike Board has a goal of 5% mode share by 2020 (and have objectives to help meet this goal) • Create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound) goals for bringing a consultant into Morgantown (esp. if we coordinate with Chamber of Commerce) o One goal might be to focus on connectivity throughout Morgantown o We need to identify a few people to do this: Bill RN volunteers, bike board rep., mainstreet Morgantown, chamber of commerce (chamber has a new contact) – maybe we can finalize this list at our June meeting o Jimmie suggests getting DOH members to attend our meetings to share with us their requirements for working on State owned streets in the City before finalizing these goals (so that we understand the restrictions more clearly) • Dan Shook would like the Ped. Board to be at the forefront of the “Distracted Dave” effort. Dan also mentioned the idea of creating a “Safety Town” which would be a miniature Morgantown; he would like the Ped. Board to be involved in helping create a curriculum for this with a focus on pedestrians. Finally, Dan mentioned that he is trying to get Morgantown to be a “Blue Zone” community. He explained that the idea of Blue Zones were created by Dan Buettner who located some areas that where people lived the longest and observed what  environments and lifestyles these communities shared in common. Dan further mentioned that he is especially focused on trying to get people moving as this was one of the nine common elements found in these Blue Zones. • Jan Derry said that we should keep our eyes open for House Bill (HR) 620 which is the ADA education and reform act. It provides an additional 180 days to come into compliance with ADA and prevents folks from making a civil claim against a property owner that violates their rights. This bill is dangerous for people with disabilities. VI. Old Business • WV DOH Collins Ferry/University Meeting – alternative 5 is the preferred alternative, which is the non-traditional shaped roundabout. • Sidewalk improvement incentive still available? • Website Updates: o Membership list o Meeting minutes VII. Reports • Mountain Line Maria Smith: absent • WVU Kim Hartsell: absent • Rail Trail Ella Belling: DOE (Department of Energy) & MRTC (Mon River Trails Conservatory) finally signed the license agreement for Collins Ferry Road Trail access – sent this on to WV DOH for approval to get engineering designs in place. Damien submitted a grant on behalf of Morgantown to extend sidewalks in this area; however, this is dependent on the city annexing this location. • MPO Bill Austin: The MPO had the kick off meeting for Beechurst study. Dr. Fei Dai is a new professor at WVU in the Statler College of Engineering who will help the MPO use micro simulation software for this study. The data collection for this study is complete; just waiting on land use data from the city (limits on the study are from 8th Street to the waterfront) – this is a key corridor; will have some state pedestrian initiative folks come look at this. It is a traffic operations study to get pedestrians across without heavily impacting the vehicle traffic. • City Engineer Damien Davis: absent • City Council Jay Redmond: absent – he did not get elected again; so, we’ll need to find another council representative • Police Lt. McCabe: had to leave before he was able to provide an update • Traffic Commission Matt Cross: finally have map to show which roads are state owned vs. City owned VIII. Action Items • Matt to reach out to Fairmont (about their connectivity plan) • Matt to see if Community Development Block Grant will help fund sidewalks • Matt will follow-up with Bill Kawecki about the Green Space meetings • Bill RN to reach out to Maria Smith and ask her about bus shelter locations to help us prioritize sidewalk list Next meeting: June 12, 2017, Training Room 1, Public Safety Building, 4:30 – 5:30 pm. Minutes submitted by Jessica Bladow.