May 12, 2015

Mr. John

Koenig Public Works Staff: Mr. David Fanning

Commissioner Schinhofen

called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.

Commissioner Schinhofen

opened General Public Comment. Michael Lach wanted to come before the Commissioners as a citizen who drives these roads and stress how important it is that we take care of these roads. Mr. Lach stated that he has researched the roads and everything that goes into them and we haven’t increased the budget for roads as much as the roads have increased over the past 20 years. He also stated that it’s hard to have roads increasing but not increase the amount that it takes to keep those roads in shape. The roads ultimately make up this town and if we have a new resident or business that comes to town and our roads are full of pot holes and not striped then that looks terrible on the town and that is the first reflection. Mr. Lach stated that other towns obviously take care of their roads by increasing the Gas Tax which is a user tax, if you use your car a lot then you pay it. If by adding 2 cents, 5 cents or 10 cents justifies us actually showing what we are going to do with the money. He also stated that if we put ourselves in a position where our gas prices are higher than in Vegas then no one is going to buy it here so we need to watch how that works and then determine what we are going to do. Mr. Lach stated that if we hamstring the Road Department by not giving them these funds to keep these roads nice that would be a disservice.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that this item is on the Agenda and if Mr. Lach would like to help get the word out then he should go to the newspaper so that it gets put in an article. Mr. Lach stated that he will work on that this afternoon. Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes May 12, 2015

Commissioner Schinhofen

skipped this item and moved to item 3.

Mr. Koenig

stated that he had no comments at this time.

Commissioner Schinhofen

asked if the entrance way on Calvada would be done by July 4th. Mr. Fanning stated yes.

Commissioner Carbone

asked if there was a plan in place for the traffic while the entrance was being put in. Mr. Carlo stated that he spoke to Wade Christensen, Nye County Road Supervisor and he is working on a plan. Commissioner Carbone stated that it should probably be put in the paper so that when people come this way they will know where to go. Tim Carlo stated that the newspaper, the Police and the Fire will all be notified.

Mr. Fanning

stated that he gassed up his personal vehicle a week ago at 2.75 a gallon and he pumped 25 gallons. That averaged $68.75 so a 3 cents increase off of what he pumped would be $2.06. If you were to raise it to 5 cents it would be $3.43 average. Commissioner Carbone stated that we don’t receive taxes on Diesel Fuel only on gasoline.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that we have discussed this three times at this board and this is the second time we have seen the presentation and there is a lot more in this one. He also stated that last time we had public that was in favor of it and this time we have no public in attendance. Commissioner Schinhofen turned the floor over to Mr. Tim Carlo, Public Works Road Superintendant.

Mr. Tim

Carlo stated that he would run through this one more time with the updates. Tim read through slides. On slide 7. Tim stated that the pie chart is in gallons. On slide 8. Tim stated that we are in the bottom third in the 4 cent area. Tim stated that on slide 9. it is just a representative slide for some of the miles we could improve with added funding and currently we are on the first dark blue bar on the chart system. Tim elaborated on slide 11. He stated that we have projects that have been identified but put on hold because there is not available funding and we cannot initiate them yet. On slide 16 Tim stated that he added this graph back in here and he has the Superpave in there at 1 inch and at 1 ½ inch, they are really close but we currently have two projects that utilizing those 2 depths. Tim also stated that he wants to be transparent on this. If you have a road with no gravel base you would have to combine that gravel base with an AC 30. Commissioner Schinhofen stated, right. Tim also stated that Superpave is a little different because it’s layed over the existing paved structure. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that Superpave is used for a road that has a base. Tim stated, yes. Tim also stated that if you take a gravel base and a chipseal this bar graph would go down.

Commissioner Schinhofen

thanked Tim and stated that he could see where Tim had added the information that the board had asked for. The board members had asked how many miles could get Superpaved chipped, graveled or slurry and those graphs 2 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes May 12, 2015 really lay that out. Commissioner Schinhofen also stated that the important thing is that in 30 years this was left to the board to increase or decrease and no board has ever done it. It’s gone to votes. Last meeting we had people in favor of it and this meeting we have no public. Commissioner Schinhofen deferred to the board for any questions they may have for Tim.

Mr. John

Koenig stated that he doesn’t have any questions. He has gone through it with Dave and Tim and they answered all of his questions in the presentation.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that on the charts you need to clarify what you mean by bridges meaning “across the road” or “box culvert” type. Mr. Carlo stated that we have one actual bridge up north. Commissioner Carbone asked how much time we spend on that bridge. Mr. Fanning stated that we had a bridge study analysis done by NDOT back in 2008 or 2009 and that study showed that we are due for maintenance repairs by this year or next. Those maintenance repairs are for surfacing. Mr. Fanning stated that this is a wooden structure and the weight limit is 13 ton. Mr. Fanning stated that we have gone out and posted that sign as per NDOT’s request. NDOT is the only one who has engineers to inspect the bridge no one else with in the State does unless it is an outside consultant.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that he remembers the conversations with NDOT when they were here and they said that there are other items they consider bridges other than that type, so if Mr. Fanning knows what those are then he should bring it up. Commissioner Carbone also stated that anything that can make it more specific about bridges so people understand what a bridge is. There are a couple different types of bridges in this county. Commissioner Carbone stated that the slides talked about signage. He wants to clarify that it is outside of town borders. Mr. Carlo stated, the entire Nye County. Commissioner Carbone asked if the towns were responsible for their own signage. Mr. Fanning stated that the Town of Pahrump actually has a fund that they have adopted and set aside for ordinance to assist in street addresses, street names and speed limits but that is the only one. Everyone else is under the auspices of the county. Commissioner Carbone asked if Tonopah who is an elected board had a fund. Mr. Fanning stated, not to his knowledge.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that the elected boards don’t have funds and they rely on the county to support them. Mr. Fanning clarified that Round Mountain receives all of their Gas Tax so they take care of their own. If you drive the roads in there they are horrible, the street signs are horrible but they get the funding to do that and they should be doing that but at times they don’t. Commissioner Carbone asked Mr. Fanning if he knew who much Round Mountain was getting. Mr. Fanning stated anywhere from $200-300,000. Commissioner Carbone stated that people need to know that we don’t take care of Round Mountain but Round Mountain is not taking care of itself either and we don’t get any of those funds.

Commissioner Carbone

asked if the 2,746.68 miles on slide 5. could be broke out between what’s graveled and what’s paved. Mr. Carlo stated absolutely.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that we are mostly concentrating on the highest which are the paved roads. Mr. Fanning stated that we send that information to the 3 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes May 12, 2015 State each year. Commissioner Carbone just wants to broaden how we get the information out there. The BoCC is going to have to sell it.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that gravel roads require more maintenance because you have to blade them. Mr. Fanning stated yes it’s more frequent.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that just because it is a gravel road doesn’t mean it won’t require money or time. Commissioner Schinhofen also stated that once you lay down the asphalt on a good base you won’t have a lot of maintenance for the first few years. Mr. Fanning stated that the rule of thumb for a gravel road is that within a year you are going to have an inch and half lifted off that road so you have to go in and treat the road which makes the costs go up. We try to do that two times a year in a maintenance cycle. The Lumos study says four times a year depending on where you are located. Mr. Fanning stated that we could not do that with the man power that we actually have and that is why we cut it back to two. Mr. Fanning also stated that Commissioner Schinhofen is right in that fact.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that ADT’s should be spelled out on the chart so that people know what Average Daily Trips means. Commissioner Carbone stated that the chart, specifically MILES OF ROAD BY SURFACE TYPE is a good chart and that it should be emphasized more as far as timing for the roads like what is the best thing to do for the roads as they are today. Commissioner Carbone stated that this chart is important but it leads you to say that we could do more slurry on certain roads to keep them from deteriorating or we could do more chipseal. The roads up North are more critical because they fall apart quicker from the freezing and the snow vs. the southern areas. The chart should speak about the best geographical areas for these things to take place.

Mr. Koenig

made a motion to the Board of County Commissioners to raise the Gas Tax by 3 cents to 7 cents per gallon. Tim Carlo wanted to clarify that we are increasing by 3 cents making the Tax at 7 cents instead of 4 cents.

Commissioner Carbone

seconds the motion.

Commissioner Schinhofen

asked for further discussion.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that they will move this on to the Board of County Commissioners. He feels confident that there is more than adequate information to move this forward. Commissioner Schinhofen moved back to item 2. Commissioner/Member Comments.

Commissioner Schinhofen

asked staff to recommend the next meeting. Mr. Fanning stated that he would like to do it June. Commissioner Schinhofen asked about the budget. Mr. Fanning stated that the budget will come to the Commissioners on the 18th of May. When that gets done the Budget is then set and then comes to us and we will do our annual budget preparation through the RTC. We will put our average projects and street lighting projects and intersection improvements on there. 4 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes May 12, 2015

Commissioner Carbone

asked if there was a tentative budget. Mr. Fanning stated that we have a budget based on what the State has already granted the county and we are looking at the same amount of flow rate of $839.000.00.

Mr. Keonig

motioned for the next meeting to be June 16th at 8:30 am.

Commissioner Schinhofen

second. Motion passed.