Salt Lake County Bicycle Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes from April 1, 2015
Attending: J Herbert, D. Ward, K. Sturgeon, K. Jones, AJ Martine, B. Byrne, P. Mair,
M. Kaller, S. Malone, A. Searle, B. Wheeler, I. Scharine
Absent: J. Staley, Bud T., M. Gregory, T. Jackson, R. Topham (all excused)
5:37- Meeting begins: Introductions and public comment period.
AJ Martine discussed weed management strategies and the need for cohesive county cooperation. Planning requires a long-term strategy that must be carefully designed and implemented as well as consistently funded. One of the biggest problems with invasive species plants such as puncturevine is that they take over easily and require years of maintenance to eradicate completely. They also allow other invasive species to accompany their growth. The recent fire along the Jordan Riverway around 4800 south is precisely the type of situation that could allow new invasive species to gain a foothold as the vegetation in the area attempts to recover.
5:48- County updates: M. Hillyard reported that SLCo had initiated a bicycle commuter benefits program for County employees in an attempt to encourage more bicycle ridership and hopefully inspire other organizations to follow suit. The Mayor's panel is expecting a bulleted list from SLCBAC that outlines aspects of the Strategic Plan for implementation by all of the County's divisions. Mayor McAdams will be aiming to project more results of ongoing projects throughout the County as he has declared 2015 the "Year of the Dashboard". Focus is on government transparency and aspects of citizen interaction, this includes the following aspects:
· Healthy People- public safety and healthy lifestyles throughout the county.
· Healthy Places- recreation, transportation, use of infrastructure resources other that automobiles.
· Expanded Opportunities- features Active Transportation, children's education, economic development.
· Responsive Government- representation, accountability and transparency.
A communication and public dashboard on the County's website will be available soon.
W. Gilmore (Parks & Rec) announced work on several areas of the Parley's Trail to stabilize rockfall areas and drainage work. This will result in limited access to some of the bicycle trail for extended periods of time. Links to the areas of construction are available on the County's Parks & Rec webpage that will be linked to the SLCBAC webpage, Facebook page and sent out to the mailing lists. Work to complete cosmetic appearance on the Draw under 1300 east will also be engaged in the spring. The results of the East-West Study of the county are also expected to be released in the coming month which will be linked to websites and mailing lists as well.
6:05- National Bike Conference report:
W. Gilmore was among the Utah attendees as his first time and recognized much of the focus placed on bicycle advocacy. His impression was that SLCo was ahead of where many other communities in the country were and poised to move into the list of top bicycle cities.
G. Deneris recognized that much of the advocacy focused on in the conference was an aspect that could be taken up by the Bicycle Ambassadors Program. He also declared that a lacking aspect of the BAP is the establishment of a consistent recruitment program which he has asked Chicago's BAP program to assist with. One area he would like to see more focus on in future conferences is more training on education methods for public audiences. Currently the state of Active Transportation is trying to focus on just this effort to engage the public. The charter program for this has been nicknamed CATNIP and is in the formative stages of assembling a steering committee which they would like to have a minimum of one member of SLCBAC sitting on the committee. Recruitment and training will require at least two fairly information-intensive training sessions. The SLCo Map Project is nearly completed and GIS data now exists to generate a digital map of the entire county's transportation networks. In order to create a bicycle map, that layer of information would have to be translated by a cartographer into a format that would make sense applied to an digital app or even physical paper map.
AJ Martine recognized the focus at the convention on encouraging more female ridership and establishing safe routes to schools for children. He also thought that baby boomers will play a big role in pushing advocacy and putting pressure on cities and communities to include Active Transportation in their future planning. He recognized NYC's "Vision Zero" policy as a charter program for establishing safer city policies and engineering for bicyclists. He discussed the need for Utah's representatives to be able to form a dialogue with the Washington D.C. political delegation where they could openly discuss bicycle-related issues with policymakers on a regular basis.
D. Jones commented on the report by a group called "How America Rides" and its findings as well as the importance it could play on how communities approach bicycles and Active Transportation moving forward.
Business Meeting
6:33- March meeting minutes approval, no corrections noted. K. Jones made a motion to approve the minutes, K. Sturgeon seconded the motion; minutes approved unanimously.
Website update: the site has been moved to the new software host, requested links to be placed on the site include Big Cottonwood Canyon Community Council, Emigration Canyon Study, East-West Trails Study, SLCo Parks & Rec link. New images to be placed on slider panels as well and personnel changes will be necessary pending leadership changes.
6:36- Emigration Canyon update: At the last meeting a presentation summarizing some of the study results and analysis of traffic conflicts and user concerns was made to attendees. Public input on such concerns and future strategy is still being solicited but a cost estimate report based on the study group's findings is expected to be released in the near future. D. Iltis reported that the Mountain Accord Group should be contacted by anyone interested to persuade them to include canyons use in their overall long term development plan.
6:40- Fundraiser results for A. Searle's organization, Karma Bike Shop, were reported. They earned approximately $2900 during the Give Utah, Love Utah drive which obligates SLCBAC to $1K of matching funds. The paperwork will be filled out and turned in to the County ASAP.
The SLCBAC spring ride was discussed with an approved route designed by K. Jones. The route begins in Daybreak and continues through Kearns to the Mountain View corridor before returning to Daybreak. The committee agreed on Saturday May 2nd for the ride with departure from the Daybreak TRAX station no later than 9:30am. The route map will be sent to I. Scharine to send out to the lists and post on social media.
6:50- Strategic Plan list for the Mayor's Cabinet was discussed including the edits that the subcommittee has come up with. The list consisted of 14 bullet points of primary aspects to execute goals of the plan. AJ Martine made a motion to present the plan to the Mayor as soon as possible, M. Kaller seconded the motion to do so. The committee discussed coordination of the plan with Mayor McAdams' countywide plan as a result of having it now edited to a bulleted list. Upon vote, the committee voted unanimously to have the plan sent to the Mayor.
7:00- Budget update: D. Ward had totaled the current budget amounts for 2015 and estimated the cost of the BAP request excluding the additional training request with the SLPD and Unified Police Departments. The committee discussed approval of the request pending BAP seeking a matched amount from the law enforcement agencies to cover the cost of training.
D. Ward made a motion to approve $4800 for the BAP program and allow for a 60-day trial for matching funding to be accepted or rejected for law enforcement training. I. Scharine seconded this motion and the committee passed it unanimously. G. Deneris will have an update on the status of establishing a match at the next meeting.
7:15- Succession: John Herbert had announced that he would have to step down as chair as a result of his acceptance of a job in Atlanta, GA. This results in the immediate need to replace the chair position. AJ recommended that the vice-chair be the next in line to become the board's chair as stipulated in the bylaws. D. Ward confirmed that this was indeed the order of succession according to the bylaws.
AJ motioned to nominate K. Sturgeon to succeed J. Herbert as chair, B. Wheeler seconded this motion. With the vice-chair's consent the committee unanimously elected Kate Sturgeon as new acting Chair (Sturgeon abstained from voting).
With the vice-chair position now vacated, D. Ward nominated B. Byrne to serve in the position. This nomination was seconded by K. Sturgeon with no other candidates put forth. The committee voted unanimously to elect Betsy Byrne as vice chair (Byrne abstained from voting).
7:27- Outgoing Chair's comments: J. Herbert reiterated his hope for the committee to take some of their meetings on the road and visit other cities within the county to encourage wider participation. The board discussed possible ways of holding meetings at different locations in the future and also the concern that if meetings were not held at the City Government Building it could be perceived negatively. An agreement that efforts could be carefully coordinated to establish which cities to take the meetings to would be explored through outreach to these communities and based on their interest. Possible funding could also be offered for startup bicycle committees with gained interest in some of these cities.
Closing notes: AJ suggested that SLCBAC look into assisting the Camp Kostopoulis fundraising efforts with a donation and perhaps having County representation at their events. www.campk.org
April 22nd is set for Murray City to discuss development with the public at Murray Library.
Midvale City is also set to discuss a development plan with the public, these dates and times should be available on the cities' county .org pages.
7:40- Meeting Adjourned.