 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name's Adam Pange, Sheboygan County administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Bill Gehring. And today we're very pleased to have a couple of guests to talk about the non-motorized transportation pilot program in Sheboygan County. First, Dirk Zeilman, who is chair of the advisory committee and Mary Ebbling, who is our project manager. Welcome. Thank you. There's been quite a bit of talk about this program and I'm sure folks who are watching this are following this little bit in the newspapers or perhaps have watched a program before and heard an update. But we're getting into the point now where project applications are coming in and there's just some excitement building around this program. And we wanted to start with setting the stage a little bit and Mary, perhaps you could start. What's the primary mission objectives of this non-motorized transportation program? Well, the primary mission of this program is really to create a mode shift, sort of encapsulate it. And what we mean by that is making it possible for people to have the opportunity to choose to bicycle or walk to a destination. So walking from their house with children to school or potentially jumping on a bike to go eight, 10 blocks to go to the grocery store or pick up a gallon of milk around the corner on foot. That's what we're really trying to do. So not a mode shift. No, not a mode shift. A mode shift. So transportation mode, one mode being automobile, the other two, pedestrian and bicycle. Very good. And Adam, I think there's a lot of sentiment out in the county that this is recreational trails. And that, as Mary said, that's not really the purpose. It's to try to get people out of their cars to bikes or walking to work, to school, to church, rather than just riding around for recreational and exercise purpose. And that, I think, has to be clear because a lot of people are thinking, when they think biking, they think recreational. And we're trying to shift, as Mary said, that mode shift or that kind of mindset shift, that we can walk or we can bike. And I advise your listeners and watchers, don't just think about the last couple of days where it's been minus 20 degrees. The weather will get nicer and we want you out there walking and biking. So really the intent of the program was really to change people's behavior, to make different choices about how they're going to and from. Now we heard a little over a year ago that Sheboygan County was gonna receive up to $25 million for the implementation of this program. What's the status of the funding? What's been happening with that? I guess I'll ask for a little bit of clarification. Up to $25 million, basically up to $6.25 million a year. And as far as the status goes, I guess I'm looking for a little clarification. Have we received any of the funds yet? Are you anticipating a certain amount each year, as you mentioned? And how does it work? I mean, when you say you're gonna receive up to $25 million from the federal government, is that just written on a check and handed to you or what's that process involved? Okay, we have not received our funds for 2007 yet. And that has to kind of do with a little bit of, excuse me, the change up that's going on in Washington right now. The monies are funneled to Sheboygan County on a reimbursement basis. The State Department of Transportation is administering those monies. So as projects move forward and work is completed in Sheboygan County, then the project sponsor can apply for reimbursement of their costs. So it's really a reimbursement program. It's not just granted to the county and we can spend it as we wish. Correct, might be simpler in some ways, but that's not the way it works. Basically, it's a pass through dollars. So what that means is the federal government is passing those dollars through the State Department of Transportation. And I think early on, some people may have been under the impression that, well, geez, we're gonna have $25 million handed to us. And as you just described, doesn't quite work that way. But also we've been careful to emphasize up to $25 million. What happens with some portions of that money? You just mentioned the Department of Transportation is involved. Well, the federal government charges for their administrative costs. I don't get to see a line by line breakdown of what those are going to be. And that's determined on a yearly basis. And the department, so there'll be a, basically it's being referred to as a takedown almost. It's like a bill or an invoice we're getting from the federal government for them to provide us and handle this money. The State Department of Transportation is working very hard to reduce their administrative costs and have committed to doing certain project reviews in-house. We don't know what those costs are going to be because it's going to vary project by project. For example, if there's a very complex infrastructure project with a lot of, you know, basically legislative reports and surveys to do, environmental surveys, for example, there might be additional work that needs to happen to clear those projects so we can spend our money. And that's when we might get some administrative costs. The bottom line over the next four years of that 25 million we're thinking maybe 18 to 20 million will actually make it to Sheboygan County. Okay, very good. And that's a nice transition. We now know that, you know, you've just shared with our viewers who perhaps are watching something like this or following this for the first time. We're getting up to 25 million. It's going to be from bold shift to change people's behavior, get more people walking and biking. And we're gonna see this money over a four year timeframe. Dirk, you've been just taking the lead with this advisory committee and perhaps you could share a little bit about the advisory committee and some of the work that you've been doing with the advisory committee for nearly a year now. Not quite a year. We started in June of 2006, but it's a 30 person committee and it's a marvelous committee. We have just the widest diversity of people. We have doctors on there. We have business people on there. We have just volunteers. We have people who like to bike and our great recreational bikers. And putting that all together, it's turned into I think a spectacular committee which has been very committed. We have had numerous meetings. I was telling Mary, I counted it up last month in January. I attended 16 meetings, the advisory committee. So that keeps us hopping, but we think we're making some progress. And what kind of progress have you made? What have you been working on? What we did as a committee is we said, how are we gonna get applications? And we went out and we encouraged people to talk to the planning department. And we said, we don't want them to just trickle in because then we don't really have a good way to assess them. So we created cycles. And the first cycle deadline was December 15th of last year of 2006. And we got 18 applications. From here on in, over the next three and a half years, the cycles will be March 31st and September 30th. We take the applications that come in over that six month period, bunch them together and then try to assess them and recommend them to the County Board Joint Resource Transportation Committee either for approval or there may be some cases where we just don't think it's the proper application or the proper project and we might recommend denial. So I know you've developed criteria, you've developed applications, you've sent out applications, you've gotten your first round in. In a nutshell, how would you describe the role of the advisory committee? I mean, what's really their job? What's the bottom line from a standpoint of their role and responsibility? The advisory committee has a lot of different inputs, I think. Part of it is just the understanding of the larger Sheboygan County community. That's where we can add value because we're dealing with professionals. But we also need to know what are the needs of that community and even though it's 30 people, we have contacts all throughout Sheboygan County. So that's one, the other is oversight. We talked a little bit about it before. Many of us in the citizens committee come from the private sector and I think most of us probably scratch our head at the complexity and frankly the cost of just the administrative portion of this and we wanna make sure that the dollars that have been allocated to Sheboygan County are spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. We talked a little bit about it at committee and I think in the first few months we said, wow, there's 25 million, how do we spend it? Now we're focusing on how do we create the most mode shift and whether that's gonna cost us 10 million or 5 million or 15 million, that shouldn't really be the major motivator. It's how do we get people out of their cars to bikes or walking. And the final question before turning it over to Bill, folks might be thinking, all right, this advisory committee, I know it's very active, they've got a lot of good people on it, a lot of good work is going on, but are they the final decision maker? How's that working in the overall process? Right, the advisory committee works very closely with a very professional county planning staff and we analyze each of the applications that come in at our full committee then we'll vote on what to recommend or what to deny but then we make those recommendations to a board, a county committee that has been formed by the board chairman and the board. It's a joint resource and transportation committee. There are nine members and they really have been delegated by the full board to make the decision. So they are really the ultimate deciders. We recommend, they have indicated to us that they're gonna put a lot of weight on our recommendations but the final decision is theirs. Very good, thank you, Dirk. Personally as the board chair and I think that the board also shares this concern that the projects somewhat be spread throughout the whole county. Have there been outreach efforts and what has been going on in that area to alert communities to what they might apply for? I take that, Mary, or? I guess so, the most recent efforts that we've done is a series of three listening sessions that actually our public outreach subcommittee formed from the count of the citizens committee decided that they wanted to do. So we have to give them the nod for really taking that on and wanting to do the extra work. And we made sure to hold those at a variety of locations around the county. We had one in Elkhart Lake, one in Sheboygan Falls and the next one is going to be in Cedar Grove and that's on the 19th, which I believe is Monday. So we're trying to get to a broad section of the community. We paired, just trying to think how to say this, we also paired that with other meetings that the consultant did for the comprehensive plan that tried to broadly sprinkle those meetings across the entire county. We've also worked with a number of communities that are not in our urbanized area, you know, Sheboygan Coal or Sheboygan Falls, to develop proposals for safe routes to schools applications for one thing, repaving of roads with bike lanes and sidewalks and small villages in the county. So we're working with those communities to try to get those applications out there because we're very concerned with making sure. Chairman Gehring, you can be assured that we're very cognizant of that. It's just fun and interesting. When I talk to people in Sheboygan, they're convinced that all the money is gonna be spent out in the county and then I talk to people in the county and they're convinced that it's all gonna be spent in the city and we have actually developed some calculations and it's not gonna be exactly. I mean not $132.44 for every population but we wanna be very careful in making sure that it does get spread out equably throughout the county. Okay, that's good to hear. How will the actual selection process be made? You now have 18 applications pending there will be more coming in. What's the process? We go through the Citizens Advisory Committee. The initial step however is that our planning department works it through and we had developed a ranking and rating system and the planning professionals take a look at each of the applications and review them, rank them and make some comments on them. Then they come to, they get assigned to some of our subcommittees. Within the subcommittee one member is really assigned to be the expert if you will or the person that's really the in-house go-to person and he or she then presents to the subcommittee and then on that recommendation we will go to the full Citizens Committee and after that it goes to the resource transportation committee. So it sounds a little bit complicated but there's a process here where we're looking at it from almost every direction so we can give good recommendations to the county board. Do we have any rough timetable at this point on when the first recommendations might be made internally? Time is getting close. The Citizens Advisory Technical Committee will be voting on these applications on February 22nd. That same day it will go to the Joint Resource Transportation Committee. Now it is their choice. They could if they wished make a decision right that day or they might say well we've just seen this we want a little time to chew on it and look it over and study it and defer it till their next meeting but from the Citizens Advisory Committee standpoint our recommendations will be coming down on February 22nd. With that timetable do you foresee that there could be projects that would be begun at least in the summer? I think it'd be good to get something going to show the public that we mean business but I don't know what the timetable might be on your end. Well I think that that's realistic particularly if we're talking about projects that don't involve construction because there are additional check-offs that need to be made before you can actually essentially stick a shovel in the ground but when we're talking about things like education and outreach projects or installing racks for bicycles at county facilities things like that those can happen on a much quicker timeframe so I think summer is a pretty good estimation. But it is our goal to get to at least some ground broken this spring. We have been encouraged by members of the Joint Resource Transportation Committee don't necessarily move too fast because you want to develop that overall vision or that overall framework of what you want to accomplish because it's so tough you might look at one application it looks pretty good but if you don't have anything to judge it against we don't want to be in a situation where in the first year or two we've allocated all the funds and then in year three a really marvelous project comes through and we say sorry we can't do it so we're working closely with the consultants that have been hired by the county and with them saying develop that framework and then we'll try to plug in the projects that make the most sense and so that probably the first round the round that's going to the transportation resource committee on February 22nd will be one of the smaller cycles and it will just build up over the next year and a half. And obviously before we commit millions of dollars we want to make sure that the money is in the pipeline to come back to us in the state so that the county wouldn't be on the hook for the projects. It'd be easy for me to say that's your problem but I think if that happened that would be all our problems. The other thing is it's going to have to be made very clear to grant recipients that they cannot spend any monies until they receive basically notice to proceed their authorized to spend those monies so that kind of checkpoint should keep us from getting in that uncomfortable position that you just referred to. And then finally is there a drop dead date by which we have to spend the last dollar or can it kind of sit around for a while and tell all the projects go through the pipeline? We have to have it obligated by the end of 2009 but it can be spent and I'm not sure if there's an absolute deadline but over the I would say maximum the next 12 to 18 months but it has to be obligated by the end of that four year period. Okay, thank you. Mary you just mentioned that it would have to be authorized before the dollars could be spent, authorized by who? By the State Department of Transportation and Federal Highways. They're the basically the administrators of this grant money. So Federal Highways is passing the monies through to our State Department of Transportation. I'm glad you raised that because again those who are watching this from the outside thinking well why does this take so long or how difficult can this be? And frankly it's one of the more complex pilot programs around right now because again you're working with the Federal level, the State level, the local level. We're working with municipalities that are applying for all the applications so you can easily have a minimum of four units of government involved. And anyone who knows anything about government things are gonna take some time. So there's lots of checks and balances and I know part of our frustration frankly at the county level has been cutting through some of the tape at the State and Federal level to get this rolling. But what makes it even more interesting is that this is a pilot program with one of only four communities in the country that were allocated dollars. So that means there isn't all this precedent out there. So you can't say well what did this community do and then just kind of follow it. You're, we're creating precedent with virtually everything that we do and that unfortunately takes a little bit longer. It's kind of cool because we're breaking new ground and nobody really knew how to administer this. I mean from the Federal level all the way down we're trying to figure out as we go what the best way to move this forward is. So we're struggling together to do the administrative part of it. Bill and I recently attended a Wisconsin County's Association meeting and I've heard this at a couple of late, themes of late when you talk about taxation and communities and what people are looking for. And again and again we're hearing, people are really looking to go to communities where there's good schools and good infrastructure and bike trails and places you can safely walk to and from your employment or to school, things of that nature. And obviously we had this grant more or less dropped in our lap but really is a tremendous opportunity to make some good things happen for this community. And people are becoming more energy conscious as the cost of gas goes up. But yeah this can be a way for Sheboygan County to set ourselves apart from some of the other communities and if we do this right it will make it more attractive to live in and to work in and to go to church in and raise your families and that's what it's all about. It's important though that we take these dollars and we spend them wisely. You talked about people and what their concerns are and sometimes I think there's that concern are you just gonna get out there and just spend it for the sake of spending. And our commitment is that we're gonna try to do the very best we can to make sure that these dollars are spent effectively in Sheboygan County. Our viewers watching this might be wondering all right, gained a lot of information here. I understand what it's about and where the money's coming from and how the process is gonna work but they might be thinking well what kind of projects could really happen? What's possible with this money? My question would be what kind of applications Mary have you received so far? What are some of the range of applications you've received and give our viewers a flavor for just where this money can go? Okay well I can start and you can feel free to jump in because there's a lot going on here but we've received a wide range of applications. Anything from doing a county wide safe routes to schools planning program and outreach into some of the schools to kind of bring them in and start implementing it on the ground. We've received applications for some sidewalk connections in communities that don't have those yet. Some actual physical infrastructure projects to connect safe routes to schools. I guess go ahead and feel free to jump in. And a lot of it is connected to schools in some way as we as a committee look at that that's probably where you're gonna get the most mode shift, kids that will walk or bike to school as opposed to taking the bus and there are some benefits to the community then too because if you have the proper bike ped paths around a school that lessens the obligation of the school district to bus your kids and we talked with Sheboygan Falls and they have identified certain areas that if we have the right bike paths there over 200 kids could walk or bike to school that now have to be bused and that's a savings and that happens in Cedar Grove and Usberg and Elkhart Lake, virtually every school district has some benefit there and it's also a health benefit because it's healthier for the kids to walk or bike to school as opposed to jumping on that bus. I've also heard discussion about interconnecting more of our trails and curtain infrastructure in place that we may have, we have the old blank road and we have some pretty nice trail system already in place. There's always room for improvement from a standpoint of sidewalks but I know there are some areas that you're aware where the trails may not connect and it's really impeded the ability for people to come and go or for kids to walk to school. Do you have any applications along those lines or are you anticipating any? We could talk about town of Sheboygan as one example of an application we have in. We've heard a lot from the community about wanting to make a connection out to Maywood Environmental Center. The Environmental Center started to work with the town of Sheboygan to kind of craft plan that will connect to the old plank road trail using existing county roads that have paved shoulders but also creates a route for safe routes to schools to Lincoln Erdemont and to the new Firehouse Park. So that's a really interesting proposal that we've received. But that is why it is important to develop that framework, share it with the larger Sheboygan County community and then as projects come in we can kind of plug them in. Does it work or does it not? If we just look at each individual project at the end of the five years or four years you could have a pile of good projects but if they're not interconnected you haven't really accomplished what we're trying to accomplish. So building, looking at specific projects but also looking at that larger picture is important. We all know that if you build it, they will come although that's not always necessarily the case if people don't feel safe or frankly folks get so used to getting in that vehicle to take their child a few blocks down the road or to go to the local supermarket. We know that a lot of that is educational and just getting people more comfortable to look at other alternatives. Do you have any applications that you're looking at supporting or recommending for approval to help get awareness out there, raise awareness out there so folks know more about the benefits of walking and biking? We do. A couple of outreach proposals, a proposal from somebody who works with what's called safe routes to schools and it's kind of a code word but it's making it easier and safer for children to walk or bike to their schools and they've been working with communities all across the state and they've got a proposal in to help us. As you said Adam, it's not just building the infrastructure it's also convincing people to change the way they've been doing things. In America, the culture is you might live one block away from a convenience store but if you need that quart of milk you jump in your car. It's not that you're a bad person it's just the way we've been I think we've grown up thinking and to try to change that mindset but that's going to be difficult. You said there's been one round of applications 18 received so far I think it was around $14 million in applications for $4 million in applications and as you said you're going to be looking at that very carefully and taking additional time to make sure we do this right. When do you see the next round of applications and do you offer us any assistance in completing those applications? The next round is coming up fairly quickly because we had kind of periscoped it just to get going but the next round or the next cycle deadline is March 31st and our planning department has been very helpful in the past and I'm sure that... Yeah, what we've done for the first round and what we're going to do in the future is potential applicants have questions or need some help we're offering assistance to that applicant to get some mapping together if they need it to work on helping them sort of focus in their application to make sure it really meets the intent of the legislation basically we want to see good applications too and we want to see good projects so we're willing to help to the maximum extent possible to get that accomplished. Well we only have a couple of minutes remaining and a couple of thoughts I wanted to share it was December of 2005 that Shannon Hayden our former planning director and Roger Lanning our former highway commissioner that the three of us went out to Washington D.C. where they had the kickoff for this program when we learned about the opportunity. Do you have two of the three are former's? Yes and that's something. Roger Lanning has since retired and moved on to another position Shannon has moved on to another position and I can't tell you how grateful I am that the two of you are in your leadership roles because Mary you stepped in and provided outstanding project management and your position is so key to this and Dirk as you've heard me say on a number of occasions your role in leadership with the advisory committee has been exceptional and we thank you from a standpoint of county government for the work you've done and the work that all the advisory committee members have done and I know Mary you recently hired an employee who was working with you, his name? Aaron Brault he comes with many years of planning experience so mapping experience in particular and he's doing excellent job he's jumping right in and really adding value. So I think we've got some good people in place our new highway commissioner is Greg Schnell who certainly is now engaged in this process and we are going to be hiring a new planning director hopefully within the next few weeks and that person will certainly have to jump in and get involved but appreciate not only your leadership but also leading by example from a standpoint of the biking you're doing. Dirk I think has gotten on the bike more in the last six months and probably in the last six years how many miles you got? Probably more in the last six months than the last 30 years. 30 years. But I do think that it does make sense to lead by example and when I became part of this committee my wife and I went out and got bikes. When I became chair I figured I better get a bicycle or they're gonna throw me out the window but between the beginning of August and the end of 2006, Sue and I kept track of what we call the utilitarian miles where we otherwise would have used the car and 895 miles. So it does make a difference and I think as households look at this that's a benefit to a household. You're not only getting exercise but you're saving money by going places that otherwise you'd be taking the car. Absolutely and Mary it doesn't seem like no matter how cold it is outside you're riding your bike to work to and from each day and I think what are you putting on? A few miles one way or? Slightly less than a mile from work and I've been walking recently. Yeah there's benefit to doing both and it depends on what errands I need to run after work and how far away they are from the work place I might walk or I might bike. And yeah it's really nice when I walk I kind of laser in on the sidewalk conditions and things like that which I can't really focus on when I'm on my bike. And really what Mary has said I think we have to remind it we so often kind of revert to biking but walking is just as important a part of this project and we encourage any of our viewers if they are aware of some place where they would walk but they're concerned about the safety or something let the planning department know so we can be working on some of those projects. And that's a good point if anyone watching this program wants to ask additional questions, get additional information, has some suggestions do you have a general phone number that you can provide that people can call? I sure can it's 459-3060. 459-3060. Yes and either speak to myself or to Erin. Outstanding. Well, Dirk Seilman, Mary Ebbling thank you so much for joining us and talking about the non-motorized program and again we appreciate your leadership. Thank you. Next month Sheriff Mike Helpeke will be here to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the Sheriff's Department. Some good things going there and until then on behalf of Chairman Bill Gehring and the Sheboygan County Board thanks for joining us.