ESSEX COUNTY TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE

Monday, November 13, 2006

1:00 PM

Present:                      Patsy McCaughin, Denise Carpenter, Vicky Heussi, Randy Douglas, Lauren LeFebvre, Ron Jackson, Nancy Dougal, Joe Beauvais, ORDA, Diane Hart, Carol Ferguson, Patty Bashaw, Mike LaBello and Angel Granger.

Also Present:  Judy Garrison, Deputy Clerk of the Board

           Nancy Dougal opened the meeting at 1:00 p.m.

Approval of last months minutes - moved by Randy Douglas and seconded by Carol Ferguson.

Old Business:

<         Mapping - Barry Miller has been out sick. Mapping will be picked back up upon his return to work.

<         Deb Buell has information for Nancy on the number per town of individuals with disabilities. As soon as Nancy receives the numbers she will get them out to the committee. Nancy will also be meeting with Deb on some issues she has with privacy.

<         DSS contracts - the Hudson Headwaters contract has been sent to Albany for approval.

<         Bus Drivers - will not be hired until JARC grant funding is received. There is one full time bus driver and one part time driver at this time, if funding is received they will hire two more full time and two more part time drivers.

<         Web Site - is up and running. Nancy will be making several changes in the next few weeks. She is working with Helen Coste who will be working on updating the schedules and distributing them in the next few weeks.

<         The Trip Report that was discussed at the last meeting should be implemented in early 2007. This will help to determine where we are transporting people to and from. A resolution adopting the Trip Report procedure is on the agenda for the Wednesday, November 15 Economic Development Publicity/Planning Committee.

<         A Policy committee has been selected, the members are Nancy Dougal, Scott Hommes, Vicky Heussi, Dan Palmer and Cliff Donaldson. Nancy would like to set up the first meeting. Members please notify Nancy with available times to meet.

* Additional note - During the regular meeting of the Transportation Committee Nancy did not mention that Lauren LeFebvre from the Tri Lakes Center for Independence is also on the policy committee. Nancy sends her apologies to Lauren and thanks her for being on the committee.

<         The Town of Jay has been taken care of as far as transportation during the bridge construction. Randy Douglas expressed his thanks to all the committee members who helped in making the transportation work for his town residents. It has been three weeks now and he has had zero complaints and no problems with the car that the Town is using.

New Business:

<         Nancy has invited a few new people to attend the next meeting, they being the operators within the County - Elizabethtown Community Hospital, Rod Boula and the Essex County Mental Health Director Nicky Bryant.

<         Nancy, Patty Bashaw and Patsy McCaughin will be attending a 211 meeting that has been arranged by the United Way of Clinton and Essex Counties. The option of having a central location for people to call for transportation purposes is looking brighter. Nancy will send Mike LaBello either the minutes or any information taken at the meeting for his review. Committee members agreed that a central office for dispatching is needed - the new public safety building was discussed as an option for that location.

<          Mike LaBello is sending out RFP’s for the scheduling software program. This software will handle billing, reporting, tracking of rider ship, counting of passengers, and mileage.

<         Nancy would like to spend a day or part of a day with Mary from Office for the Aging and with Ed or Suzy drivers from the DSS department, just to see first hand how things operate.

Other discussion:

<         Nancy requested departments keep track of their numbers (riders) and bring to the next meeting - this will give supervisors an idea of what their needs are.

<         Mike LaBello asked if the committee would be interested in having State members of the DSS and OFA departments attend one of the meetings to listen to the issues - the committee members felt that this was a good idea and that they might be able to help facilitate things and elevate some of the issues at the local level.

           There is no meeting scheduled for December. The next meeting will be scheduled for Tuesday, January 16, 2007 an email will be sent verify the location and time.

           As there was no further business to come before this transportation sub committee it was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Garrison, Deputy

Clerk of the Board