MINUTES – May 31, 2005
Highway 2 Safety Coalition Meeting
Community Center Room, 319 Main Street
Sultan, Washington 98294
Meeting called to order at 7:05 PM.
Attendees:
Self-introductions were made.
OLD BUSINESS
Chairman Walser stated the purpose of the meeting was primarily to update the membership on the RDP (Rural Development Plan) and announced that Rene Zimmerman was handling some of Kamuron Gurol’s projects.
Rene Zimmerman stated she wanted to talk about the status of (1) the consultant process, (2) the grant application of the PSRC, (3) public involvement portion and (4) the Corridor Working Group for the RDP. Four consulting firms submitted proposals and were interviewed, with the contract awarded to H. W. Lochner and their three sub-consultants: Perteet Engineering, Environmental Issues and [sounds like, “V-dow”). WSDOT is currently developing the consultants’ scope of work and hope to have the contract negotiated and signed by July. The RDP study area covers Snohomish to Skykomish, about 44 miles, with a 12- to 18-month timeline, hoping to complete the Plan between July 2006 to January 2007, assuming that things progress well.
The PSRC’s Advisory Committee received all the applications, two of which were dropped, but the RDP application is moving forward, based on PSRC’s approval to move ahead with review by the Policy Board June 9th. She believes they will approve the application. If so, it would then move to the Executive Board on June 23rd. Any projects, including ours, would then go into the Draft Transportation Improvement Plan, to queue up for federal authorization to receive funds, hopefully in January 2006.
The original study was estimated at $500,000. Donnetta Walser stated another $500,000 has been applied for, which will be a federal revenue request. In response to a question from Deputy Brand, Mayor Walser confirmed that the City of Monroe took the lead in learning how to write the application and in its implementation. There was a joint resolution signed by all cities along the RDP corridor. The over-arching agreement among all cities is the commitment that whatever benefits any part of Highway 2 would benefit everyone. Brand if there was any matching state funds or a requirement for local funds? Mayor Walser responded that no requirements existed for the federal request, but there is for the PSRC. There is a 16% match for the corridor study. What bothers her is that the county is contributing a match for improvements to Highway 9 improvements, but none for this one. Chairman Walser stated the county applied for a $200,000 PSRC grant to study Highway 9 improvements, and agreed to match moneys. The Highway 2 RDP corridor cities have agreed to meet a $16,000 in-kind match, because of lack of available funds. In response to a question from Deputy Brand, Walser responded that King County is a signatory on the application. Deputy Brand offered his assistance.
Rene Zimmerman summarized the public involvement portion. Within the next couple of months, she’ll be setting up meetings with cities and their staff, Chambers of Commerce and other stakeholders. Eventually the entire corridor will be “chopped up” into different segments in order to grapple with issue-specific challenges and needs. ‘This should be done early on with public involvement; and the $100,000 PSRC money would be of great assistance. She has considered holding smaller community meetings to try and elicit some stronger input.
Rene also summarized the working group configuration and purpose. She said it would be comprised of the impacted local jurisdictions. Their next meeting would be approximately July, but it depends on when the consultant comes on board. Then she envisions monthly meetings, which will be public in nature.
Chairman Walser gave a brief summary of the formation of the Safety Coalition and the strong continued interest in the future of U. S. 2 within the public sector because of the anticipated growth, the increasing inability to travel the highway and the frustration being experienced. He therefore highly recommends a strong public meeting presence. Deputy Brand asked whether the concern and interest for highway improvements was positive, or negative because people did not wish to see more development coming? Chairman Walser responded there were two sides to it: Most of the concerns were due to safety issues, and some of the left-turn lane areas in the Valley were a direct result of those efforts. The second part of it was the increased growth in vehicular and truck volume without any capacity enlargement. The Highway 2 Safety Coalition was formed in early 1998 and its primary mission was to improve safety. Now, the mission and focus has turned to capacity. Everyone from Leavenworth westward is interested in this issue because U.S. 2 is the ONLY east-west access. Rene requested any notes or other information from the early meetings and effort by the Coalition.
Mayor Walser gave a Valley’s-eye view of Highway 2 and it’s importance in the East County areas. She said all cities, with the exception of the City of Snohomish, are all “cut” by Highway 2, sharing more similarities and concerns than differences. Chairman Walser highlighted that, unlike Monroe, when a bad accident occurs on Highway 2 east of Monroe, everything is blocked, and the only “alternate road” is Old Owen Road, which is now becoming quite congested due to increased growth. He briefly recapped the initial negative reaction in Sultan to the concept of a roundabout when presented at the April meeting.
Chester Marler expressed surprise that a roundabout was not well received. He’s a real fan of that configuration. In response, Chair Walser gave a brief synopsis of the earlier WSDOT presentation, and the fact that at least part of the negative reaction was due to the almost-certain destruction of two (or more) businesses in order to facilitate a roundabout.
Chairman Walser then explained the erroneous perception of Highway 2 users that the signal at Old Owen Road is the problem, when it is the capacity and volume. He explained that Governor Locke had personally called him Labor Day weekend, 2004 to ask why he couldn’t “do something” about the back-up on Highway 2 (because of Sultan’s Old Owen signal), and asked “Why can’t you put a patrolman there to direct traffic?” He had received several complaint calls. In reality, the traffic was backed up from Gold Bar through Sultan and all the way to the City of Snohomish, and it was due to the volume. The actual traffic count that weekend totaled 104,000 vehicles. So there’s a lack of understanding by non-valley-residents using Highway 2 and some education as to capacity problems is needed.
A general, several-minute discussion of the capacity and “political” situation as it guides transportation funding, ensued.
Mayor Walser stated a direct result of the lack of funding (with the long-planned 522 bypass stalled) is that the City of Monroe, as a responsible city in the throes of an economic and residential growth boom, is attempting to try and fund their own “bypass,” an alternate, parallel roadway from approximately the Galaxy Theatre eastward behind the Safeway store. She also stated there is another roundabout planned at Chain Lake near the Galaxy.
Chairman Walser briefly recapped summer projects for U.S. 2.
Loretta Storm asked Rene Zimmerman what public groups she’s targeted. Rene said none at this point. She will ask the cities what groups she needs to meet with to effectively elicit public comment on the Plan. She also mentioned that during a recent Sultan Visioning Workshop, one of the facilitators had suggested enlarging U.S. 2 to four lanes by making the current U.S. pavement two lanes eastbound, with the two U.S. westbound lanes on Main Street and asked whether WSDOT had considered that as an option. No one had heard of this concept as an option.
Chairman Walser expressed the desire to ramp up support for funding from the Legislature. It would need effective participation from all the corridor cities. More funding other than the $500,000 for the RDP will be required, so this needs to become a multi-city priority. Mayor Walser indicated a temptation to go for another federal fund request, rather than the one from PSRC grant, but ultimately rejected that. A big benefit for federal support is the personal recognition of the federal legislative representatives of the Coalition’s members and its past efforts.
NEW BUSINESS
Chairman Walser distributed copies of a study published by MSNBC Dateline on the deadliest roads, which listed every road in Snohomish County and the number of fatal collisions broken down by category. It revealed that U.S. 2 is the highest in the county, with Highway 9 as a close second. The study also indicated 10 fatalities on U. S. 2.
Chairman Walser announced the next meeting of the Coalition would be June 27th.
The meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.
[Minutes respectfully submitted 9/22/05 by acting secretary Loretta Storm.]