Attending:

Sue Ann Fitch, TAC; Duane Dailey, Bob Anderson, James Newberry, Grand Co. BOCC; Kent Crowder, Jackson Co. Administration; Steve Saffle, Mike Fudge, The Lift, Gary McGraw, WPRA; Joni Yaussi, Jim Gerton, SolVista; Don Dempsey; Chuck Swanson, Town of WP; Eunice Marte, Grand Co. Council on Aging; Ingrid Karlstrom, Grand Co. P&Z; Bob Latham, Graham Wood, Mtn. Goat Tours; K. C. Bechaver, Deanna Huibregtse, Deborah Holsinger, Sagebrush Tours LLC; Jim Cervenka, Town of Grand Lake; Don Van Wormer, Town of Kremmling; Tom Hale, Town of Granby; Catherine Ross, WP/Fraser Valley Chamber; Kent Meyer, YMCA

Meeting was held on January 24, 2001, 6:00 PM, at YMCA. Meeting was called to order by chairperson Sue Ann Fitch. Sue Ann asked that committee members write a thank-you to A. T. Stoddard for writing and completing the Transportation Development Plan for Grand County. Also, Sue Ann extended a thank-you to Chuck Swanson for getting her the plans for the Town of Winter Park bus shelters and to Kent Meyer for providing room and dinner for this meeting.

The TAC agreed to go ahead and pay the CASTA annual dues of $250.00 and to join the Colorado Rail Association for annual dues of $10.00.

Discussion was held on the number of copies of the TDP that are in the community and if there are any extras. There are seven extra copies, 1) YMCA, 2) Chamber of Commerce, 3) Town of Grand Lake, 4) Grand County Commissioners, 5) Town of Winter Park, 6) Town of Kremmling, and 7) Winter Park Resort. Catherine and Ingrid agreed to give their extra copies to the Town of Fraser. Should anyone need a copy, contact one of the above mentioned entities and get their extra before we go to the expense of running more copies (estimate, $57 each from Kopy Kat). Perhaps the individual who is requesting the copy should pay for the copy to be made. Joni Yaussi will make 4 black and white copies for distribution by the TAC.

A general discussion was held on the transit system and how it is working throughout the county. Everyone seems to agree that it's working as well as can be expected. However, Winter Park is thinking of eliminating certain Grand Lake shuttles due to limited ridership and financial constraints. A decision on which routes might be eliminated will be made sometime the week of February 5. Jim Gerton of SolVista will provide input to Gary McGraw and Steve Saffle about how the SolVista transit schedule might supplement any changes. The TAC agreed that shuttle schedule changes will necessitate revisions and reprinting to existing publicity in the community (every Friday schedule publication in local newspaper, rack cards).

Next there was a discussion concerning the §5309 grant application which will require a $1300.00 fee in order to get $40,000.00 to construct bus shelters throughout the county. Presently, the TAC has $15,000.00 remaining in the budget. The voting members decided in December to use $1300.00 in order to pay for this grant application and participating in the joint costs of the §5309 state-wide coalition. In order to apply for the grant, Grand County has signed off with CASTA and 15 letters of support for the application are needed. These letters of support will come from the two Boards of County Commissioners, the various Chambers, YMCA, Towns of Granby, Kremmling, Grand Lake and Winter Park, Ingrid Karlstrom, Mountain Goat Tours, the Grand County Council on Aging, Sagebrush Tours LLC, First Student, Winter Park Resort, CIFGA (hopefully) and SolVista. The agenda packet includes examples of support letters ­ more letters from other folks are extremely encouraged!! Deadline for the letters to be in is February 15, 2001. Winter Park Resort will take a photo of an existing bus shelter, with visitors, to send in as a sample for this grant application.

Steamboat is also applying for §5309 grant funds. They asked the TAC to write a letter of support for their application. Grand County will write that letter of support.

CASTA also requested 60 blank sheets of "our" stationery to support the §5309 grant application (presumably for use by the lobbyist). After discussion, it was decided that CASTA will simply be informed that there is no "official" TAC stationery and thus we cannot comply with this part of the request.

Now that the TDP has been completed, this segment of the Transit Advisory Committee job responsibilities is complete. We need to decide where we are going to go from this point forward. Discussion was held concerning the TDP recommendation to hire a 'transit coordinator' either in-house or via a consultant. The Town of Fraser indicated to Sue Ann that they might be able to provide office space and supervision for an individual should we decide to hire someone to continue from this point. It was a final consensus that job tasks need to be outlined and very specific duties defined before we can move ahead with this position and what is expected of the person filling it. In the meantime, Winter Park and SolVista will continue to run their systems. Duane Dailey and Jim Cervenka suggested that we take a 'breather' interlude and meet again at the end of the summer on these issues.

SolVista said they could operate their system in the summertime, running 4-5 times daily between WPRA and RMNP w/deviations to YMCA/SolVista & Grand Lake, for a cost of $10,000. First Student (Ryder) could also provide this service for $37/hour. This issue is another to be taken up in further discussions.

Further §5309 grant applications could be made, per the TDP, for $1,200,000.00 in grant money to build a maintenance/storage facility; however $300,000.00 in matching funds would need to be raised. This too is another issue to be taken up in further discussions.

The consensus (and the CDOT recommendation from 2 summers ago) that the community transit oversight needs to continue in some form, but it was unclear on what the format or make-up of the group would be. We all believe that at this point in time the TAC needs to continue as a volunteer group.

The conclusion of that discussion was that the existing TAC needs to meet and decide whether to hire a transit consultant, and what the duties of that person would be, in February so that momentum toward increasing transit options in our communities is not lost.

Next meeting date was undefined. The proposed dates would be February on a Thursday, 8, 15, or 22, 6:00 PM at Schlessman Commons at the YMCA. Sue Ann will work with Kent Meyer to determine the best date and contact all of the interested parties with that meeting date. Kent will provide a $ cost for us to purchase our own dinner this time.

Meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.