The Kenosha County Transit Planning Advisory Committee
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Minutes of the Second Meeting THE KENOSHA COUNTY TRANSIT PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE Date: April 29, 2009 TIME: 1:00 p.m. PLACE: Community Idea Center Gateway Horizon Center 4940 88th Avenue Kenosha, WI 53144 Committee Members Present Todd Battle ................................................................................ President, Kenosha Area Business Alliance Len Brandrup ......................................................... Director, City of Kenosha Department of Transportation Dr. Arthur Cyr .................................................................................................... Professor, Carthage College Dennis DuChene II .............................................. President, Kenosha Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Carolyn Feldt ................................................................................ Manager, Elderly and Disability Services, Kenosha County Department of Human Services Florence Hammeleu (representing Sandy Milligan) ....................... Congregations United to Save Humanity William Jordan ................................................................................ Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 998 Jeff Labahn ..........................................................................Director of City Development, City of Kenosha Roger Lincoln (representing Paula Williams) ................................................. Kenosha Achievement Center Jeff Marx ......................................................... Transportation Supervisor, Kenosha Unified School District George E. Melcher ................................................................................................. Director, Kenosha County Department of Planning and Development Michael Pollocoff .............................................................Village Administrator, Village of Pleasant Prairie Sarah Probasco (representing John Alley) ......................................................... WETAP Program Manager, Wisconsin Department of Transportation Patricia Reikowski (representing Donna Brown) ........................ Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Southeast Region Jude Tindall ................................................................................................... Citizen, Village of Twin Lakes Stan Torstenson ............................................................................................. Citizen, Village of Twin Lakes Guests and Staff Present Valjean Abrahamson ....................................................................................... Kenosha Achievement Center Albert A. Beck ................................................................................................... Principal Planner, SEWRPC Sonia Dubielzig ................................................................................................................ Planner, SEWRPC Steve Herr ......................................................................................... Member, Kenosha Transit Commission Donald K. Holland ......................................................................... Chairman, Kenosha Transit Commission Ronald Iwen ....................................................................... Supervisor of Operations, Kenosha Area Transit Jim Major .......................................................................................... Member, Kenosha Transit Commission Stephanie Phillips ........................................................... Transportation Coordinator, Kenosha Area Transit Kenneth R. Yunker ......................................................................................... Executive Director, SEWRPC -2- WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Mr. Yunker called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. He asked those present to introduce themselves and indicated that roll call would be taken through the circulation of a meeting sign-in sheet. CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 30, 2008, MEETING A motion to approve the minutes as published was made by Ms. Feldt, seconded by Mr. Brandrup, and unanimously approved by the Committee. CONSIDERATION OF CHAPTER III, “LAND USE AND TRAVEL PATTERNS”, OF SEWRPC COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE PLANNING REPORT NO. 281, “KENOSHA COUNTY TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT PLAN: 2010-2014” Mr. Yunker reviewed with the Committee the third chapter of the Kenosha County transit development plan on a section-by-section basis. During the review, the following questions were raised and addressed: 1. Referring to the Kenosha County disabled population identified in Table 3-4 on page 3a, Ms. Feldt stated that the number and percent of the County population shown was much lower than she was used to seeing. She asked how the disabled population had been defined for the table. Mr. Beck and Ms. Dubielzig stated that the definition, identified in footnote “b” to the table, included persons age 16 and older having a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting for six or more months that made it difficult to go outside the home to shop or visit a doctor’s office. Mr. Beck noted that this definition identified those persons who would most closely match the disabled population identified as eligible to use complementary paratransit services that are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 such as the Care-a-Van service provided for Kenosha Area Transit. Ms. Feldt suggested that a broader definition such as that used for the American Community Survey should be used in identifying the disabled population for the Kenosha County transit development plan, noting that disabled persons as a whole are more likely to need public transit service. Mr. Yunker stated that staff would look at the definitions used for the decennial census and by the American Community Survey, and include the most appropriate numbers in Table 3-4. [Secretary’s Note: The American Community Survey used a broad general definition of “disability” as follows: “A long-lasting physical, mental, or emotional condition. This condition can make it difficult for a person to do activities such as walking, climbing stairs, dressing, bathing, learning, or remembering. This condition can also impede a person from being able to go outside the home alone or to work at a job or business.” The 2000 Census data for disabled persons presented in Table 3-4 was based on a more targeted definition. However, the 2000 Census also collected information using the general definition of disability used for the American Community Survey, and the Census data for the year 2000 has been revised to use the general definition. This definition results in a total disabled population of 23,695 persons in Kenosha County, or about 16 percent of the total County population in the year 2000. Comparable data cannot be generated for the 1980 and 1990 Censuses as there was no general disability status question included in the Census for those years. In addition, Table 3-4 has been -3- expanded to include estimates for all the transit dependant population groups taken from the 2007 American Community Survey. A revised copy of Table 3-4 is included in Attachment 1. The first four sentences in the first bulleted paragraph on page 3 have been revised as follows: “Persons in low-income households accounted for the largest share of the transit- dependent population in the County estimated for the year 2007, constituting about 25 percent of the total County population. The elderly population and school-age children groups represented smaller, but significant, segments of the total County population, at about 11 percent. The disabled population represented about 16 percent of the population and the households with no vehicle available represented 7 percent of total County households.“ The first sentence in the second bulleted paragraph on page 3 has been revised to strike the reference to persons with disabilities.] 2. Referring to the employment density for the year 2000 shown in Map 3-4 on page 4b, Mr. Battle noted that the employment densities shown on that map did not always match up well with the number of employees indicated for major employers shown on Map 3-8. Mr. Yunker stated that the two maps used different years for the employment data being presented and essentially represent different ways of looking at the same information. He noted that the employment data for the year 2000 had been presented in Map 3-4 by U.S. Public Land Survey quarter-sections instead of by employer as done for the year 2009 in Map 3-8. Mr. Cyr stated that using an area smaller than a quarter-section to calculate employment density might have indicated greater employment density. 3. Committee members commented on the major activity centers identified in Chapter III on Map 3-7. Ms. Phillips stated that both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club would be relocating to the new Somers Market Center at STH 31 and CTH S in the near future. Mr. Labahn stated that he also had some minor revisions to the commercial centers in Table 3-7 and to the governmental and institutional centers in Table 3-10, and that he would email them to the Commission staff. Mr. Brandrup and Mr. Holland identified changes to the list of major employers in Table 3-11 including the relocation of the Rust-Oleum warehouse and distribution center from the Village of Pleasant Prairie to the Town of Somers and two proposed new employment centers: Affiliated Foods Midwest north of the Kenosha Regional Airport and Gordon Food Service east of the Business Park of Kenosha. Mr. Herr noted that Abbot Labs, Inc. and Uline, Inc. had also proposed building