NPRPO Meeting Minutes
April 4, 2007
Taos County Commission Chambers
Taos, NM
Member’s attendance:
Ted Martinez – Chair Brent Jaramillo – Vice Chair/Village of Questa
Ted Garcia – Los Alamos County Francisco “French” Espinoza – Town of Taos
Patrick Nicholson – Ohkay Owingeh Sandra Sue Richardson – Picuris Pueblo
Commissioner Romero – Taos County Victor Robles – Taos County
Shabih Rizvi – Santa Fe County Gerald Romero – Nambe Pueblo
Rob Straebel – Village of TSV Commissioner Jaramillo – Taos County
Commissioner Barrone – Taos County Agnes Oakeley – Taos County
Lt. Governor Fred Lujan Sr. – Taos Pueblo Commissioner Pacheco – Taos County
Francisco Rael – Taos County
Dennis Wells – Village of Chama/Tierra Amarilla Land Grant
Councilman Raymond Martinez – San Ildefonso Pueblo
Paul Martinez – Sangre de Cristo Land Grant
Affiliate Member attendance:
Sandra Maes – NPRPO Planner Bob Widoe NMDOT – G2G
David Martinez – NMDOT – D-5 Phil Gallegos – NMDOT – D-5
Benny Martinez – NMDOT – Proj. Dev. Rick Chavez – NMDOT – Project Dev.
Lee Cabeza de Vaca – NMDOT – LTAP Dana Chavez – NMDOT – LGRF
Guests in attendance:
Joe Moore – JM Consulting
Citizen’s/Advocacy groups in attendance:
Rose Bauhs – Taos Cycle Club Neal Ogden – Taoseños for Real Traffic Relief
David Rigsby – Embudo Valley Acequia Assoc. Jean ViLenthe – Taoseños for Real Traffic Relief
Barbara Sheppard – Taoseños for Real Traffic Relief
I. Call to order by Ted Martinez, Chair
a. Ted Martinez, Chair thanked Taos County for the meeting location and the provision of goodies.
b. Wanted to personally thank Victor Robles, Taos County and Francisco “French” Espinoza, Town of Taos for coordinating the Taos Road Tour.
c. Agnes Oakeley, Taos County Manager, welcomed everyone to Taos and thanked the NPRPO members for meeting in Taos and agreeing to tour the roads of Taos County. Wanted to recognize the elected officials in the room and stated that if anyone needed anything during the meeting or tour, to please let staff know.
d. Commissioner Romero thanked the NPRPO staff, Town of Taos and Taos County staff, and Beverly Armijo for working together to make the tour a success.
II. Welcome and Introductions –
a. Attendees identified themselves and their representing entities.
III. Approval of Agenda –
a. Amendments
ü V. Public Comments
1. Chris Moquino – representative from Senator Bingaman’s office
2. Rose Bauhs – Taos Cycle Club
3. John Schrandt – Gannett Fleming
ü VI. Correction to the Name
1. Taoseños for Real Traffic Relief
ü VIII. NMDOT updates
1. add d. LTAP - Lee Cabeza de Baca
Ø Motion to approve agenda with amendments was made by Brent Jaramillo, Village of Questa, seconded by Commissioner Romero.
IV. Approval of Minutes for March 7, 2007
Ø Corrections
1. Section IX. a. should read David provided updates for D-5 in Section VII of the meeting minutes.
2. Section VII.a. third arrow – change but to cut.
Ø Motion to approve meeting minutes with corrections was made by Commissioner Romero, Taos County and seconded by Sandra Sue Richardson, Picuris Pueblo.
V. Public Comments
a. Chris Moquino – representative for Senator Bingaman’s office.
ü Chris stated that he had been assigned a new responsibility to service Taos County.
ü Chris has been with Senator Bingaman’s office for approximately 6 years working with local governments on their infrastructure needs
ü Chris stated that Senator Bingaman remains supportive of the NPRPO region on transportation, transit and economic developments.
ü Chris offered his assistance to the regional area and asked Sandra to forward his information to the NPRPO members.
b. Rose Bauhs – Taos Cycle Club
ü Rose spoke about the need to accommodate bicycles in preliminary engineering design and action plans.
ü The need to incorporate wider shoulders when new and updated construction takes place.
ü Rose asks communities to keep in mind the need for bicycle signing.
ü Rose emphasizes the concept of “sharing the road” and the visioning of multi-modal aspects.
ü Comments from the group
1. the need to understand the process of obtaining right-of-way (ROW) on certain roads can be somewhat challenging not only financially but also unavailability due to environmental and cultural obstacles encountered.
2. NMDOT is proactively working with their engineering design section with concept of wider shoulders.
VI. Barbara Sheppard and Neal Ogden – Taoseños for Real Traffic Relief
ü Barbara stated that the groups’ effort to work with local governments and the NPRPO to help with local road initiatives is their focus for the community.
ü The need to share resources and work towards creative financing with the local governments.
ü The need to provide information to the public is of great importance at the onset of project.
ü The group can act as a lead to educating the public on initiatives.
ü The group is willing to go to various communities to help identify needs and to help local governments access funding.
ü Neal Ogden stated that the goals group is to bridge the gap between the entities, NMDOT and the public.
ü Some road concerns that the group has been looking at:
1. Downtown congestion – 1 way pair initiative
2. SR240 impact solutions – more enforcement/signage
3. Blueberry Hill Rd
4. Callejon
5. Codom Rd
ü Welcome advice from the local governments and NMDOT
ü Would welcome the vision of advancements towards human powered initiatives
VII. Local Government Road Fund Program (LGRF)
a. Dana Chavez
ü Dana is the LGRF program coordinator for D-5
ü Dana’s current status for budget submittal requests will be May 15 for the counties and municipalities. The local entities should receive notification by the end of June.
ü The LGRF program for counties and municipalities is equivalent to the Indian Reservation Road Fund for tribal governments.
ü Types of projects that become eligible for funding are road and drainage improvements, base course, overlay, chip and seal.
ü The LGRF is requiring monthly status reports from entities. If the entity does not have any activity within that month, a report must still be submitted stating “no activity”.
VIII. NMDOT Updates
a. Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) – Lee Cabeza de Vaca, Director
ü The LTAP program provides training for local/tribal governments for free.
ü Training that has occurred in this region includes:
o CDL preparations for both Town of Taos and Taos County
o OSHA
o Heavy Equipment
o Arcview/GIS
o Mig Welding
o Microsoft applications
o Culvert installation
ü The LTAP program paid for the Bicycle Facility training that occurred in Santa Fe and Las Cruces
ü If an entity required specific training on subject matter that is not provided, the entity can request specialized training.
ü Regionalized training has been successful within the NPRPO region with Santa Clara Pueblo, Rio Arriba County and City of Española.
b. District V – Assistant District Engineer - Phil Gallegos
ü Phil announced the D-5 ZIPPER meeting will take place on April 12 at 10:00 am at the District conference room. There are 3 RPOs within D-5 that will be discussing and re-prioritizing their RTIPRs that become the D-5s 2007 ZIPPER.
ü Phil clarified that the RTIPR is a planning document. As an entity submits proposals to the RPO and those projects get ranked and rated into the RTIPR they become consideration for funding. Please note that these do not become funded upon submission. The entities are provided the opportunity to work through their RPO to ensure that NMDOT is in consideration of their individual needs for major arterials and state routes.
ü Due to fiscal constraints, D-5 will be establishing a 4 year STIP as opposed to its original 5 years.
ü Project updates include:
1. US64 – El Prado – October letting is on schedule; in the process of finalizing ROW agreements with Taos Pueblo. Have met on JPA agreements; will be scheduling a meeting with the Pueblo within the next 2 weeks to discuss updated information as requested by the Pueblo.
2. NM585 – June letting possibility – construction in late summer, potential for completion in 2008.
3. Railrunner Phase II – Bernalillo to Santa Fe is in the design build stages – potential for ground breaking in late August.
4. Safety project list was put together by David Martine, Technical Support Engineer that listed 22 projects within D-5 regional areas.
c. Government to Government Unit – Bob Widoe, NPRPO liaison
ü GRIP2 is now HB2 of the Legislative special session.
ü The total bill at this time is at $102M, and that is subject to change until the bill is signed by the Governor.
ü Please note that the match requirements have increased dramatically, which may affect the entities potential for project readiness.
ü The email that was sent out on the Federal Rescission of $3.4 Billion is for funds that have not been spent in the prior years.
ü NM is currently at approximately $33.3M of unspent funds. It is imperative that an entity spend their allocated funds within the appropriated time.
ü Survey update will be coming out with a report in about a month. The survey results have been shared with the RPOs and recommendations will be made to each RPO through their individual Annual Work Programs.
d. Project Development – Benny Martinez
ü Recommend if an entity has a GRIP2 project that they start to review their projects for project readiness and required match.
ü Please contact Benny for assistance.
IX. Miscellaneous/Announcements
a. 2008-2013 RTIPR review
ü Sandra provided an overview of the final RTIPR. A handout was provided to members present.
X. Next Meetings
a. May 2 - Pojoaque Pueblo Tribal Council Chambers–39 Camino del Rincon
b. June 6 – Rio Arriba County Commission Chambers – 1122 Industrial Park Rd. Espanola
c. July 10- Los Alamos County – Fuller Lodge -20th Street – Nambe Rm.
XII. Adjourn
a. Motion to adjourn by Dennis Wells, seconded by Cathy Martinez.