February 17, 2016

Mr. John

Koenig Public Works Staff: Mr. David Fanning

Commissioner Schinhofen

called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Koenig

led the Pledge.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that he was going to change the order of the items to be discussed. There was no public comment at this time.

Commissioner Schinhofen

will come back to this item at the end.

Commissioner Carbone

requested that the RTC Agenda be formatted like the BoCC on the website. Commissioner Schinhofen asked when we were going to get the right-of-way for Homestead. Mr. Fanning stated that we had a meeting last week and we are trying to get a form together with one of the local realtors.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that we have the funds for it. He would like to get that approved and started as soon as possible. Mr. Fanning stated that he would like to present it one of 3 ways, eminent domain, and outright purchase and explain what and why. The owner has expressed that he would like to be bought out and that expense is huge so he thinks there is reason to define it in an agenda item.

Commissioner Carbone

asked how many square feet we are talking about. Mr. Fanning stated 10, 159 and some of the estimates are around $35,000.00.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that he would prefer to buy him out. Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016

Mr. Koenig

stated that he checked with DA on the bus item before this meeting and apparently that was not the proper way to donate the bus to the Coalition. Mr. Koenig asked for staff to get the bus on the next agenda.

Mr. Koenig

motioned to approve the minutes. Commissioner Carbone second. Motion approved.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that he met with Lee Donner the government liaison for NDOT and he has a lot of good information if we should ever need it.

Commissioner Schinhofen

met Mr. Donner at Lathrop Wells to look at the corridor and there is something that is not on their plans but we want to get it on their plans and that would be a spur from Jean through Sandy Valley to the 160. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that if they are going to build this corridor then a spur like that could be very beneficial in the southern part. Commissioner Schinhofen also stated that the northern part of the county is going to have a lot of issues. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that the reason he wanted to talk about this item is because the RTC needs to officially suggest preferred routes. They have talked about a possible route down Poleline Rd and cut out Mineral County. They are also talking about going around the west side of Tonopah. Mr. Darrell Lacy of Nye County Planning stated that in the back up is a potential I-11 route, he thanked Mr. Ken Plewe the GIS Administrator for helping get this together. Mr. Lacy stated that Nye County has been commenting on the Interstate 11 for several years now and up until recently they have been focused on the Las Vegas to Phoenix piece of the corridor. Now they are scoping and getting the input for the Las Vegas to Reno piece. Mr. Lacy stated that it is his understanding the Nevada is the only state right now that does not have interstate connectivity between their two largest cities. Getting an interstate was something that congress voted on last year and it is coming one way or the other.

Mr. Lacy

also stated that we should be proactive and try to make sure that the route is beneficial to Nye County. There are many issues that have been mentioned in the past that we think would be beneficial to us. Large portions of Interstate 11 would come through and affect Nye County. Mr. Lacy thinks it’s important that the routes do not have an adverse impact on the towns of Beatty and Tonopah; they are going to be difficult to get around. Mr. Lacy also stated that we need to be active in identifying the routes around those two communities. We have advocated for the Poleline Road corridor from Tonopah north that deviates from the existing HWY 95 corridor and it would save a significant amount of time and distance for those going from Vegas to Reno. Commissioner Schinhofen asked if that is supported by Congressman Mark Amodei. Mr. Lacy stated yes and it is also supported by Churchill County, the ones not supporting this are Mineral County because they would like to keep the existing HWY 95 route, however it is very difficult to get around Walker 2 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016 Lake. There are also challenges around the tribal reservation on the north side of the lake and getting the right-of-way would be difficult. The Poleline Road route that we have coordinated with Churchill County, he think, would be fairly simple to build because most of it is flat as well as providing benefits to the citizens of Nevada. We have also advocated that this is a multi-motor corridor to include things like, electrical transmission, natural gas and rail. Pahrump has purposed a bypass on the east side that would go south through the town. We have been advocating this for years. There are 2 or 3 potential routes to the Jean area that benefit Pahrump in regards to direct access to Southern California and direct access to the purposed future airport in the Jean area also it gives us an alternate route in the winter time when the pass into Las Vegas is not usable. Mr. Lacy stated that the map is a good proposal. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that the reason he asked Mr. Lacy for this is because the rail study is part of Yucca Mountain. Commissioner Schinhofen asked Mr. Fanning his thoughts on the Poleline Road route and if the RTC should support it or not. Mr. Fanning stated that this is a great connection. He also likes the west side route around Tonopah because it lines up with everything going northern towards the Fallon connection. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that it is also a business loop exit. Mr. Fanning stated that you will have to deal with some of the terrain but it’s a good connection.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that this is an interstate highway project so we are not talking about our funds. Mr. Lacy stated that at this time we are just discussing and being proactive as NDOT is scoping out their route. Mr. Lacy stated that some of the routes would be bad for Nye County like the one that goes from Goldfield to Hawthorne.

Mr. Koenig

asked what it is he was looking for from this board. Mr. Lacy stated that he is just looking for support for these routes and advocate for it. Commissioner Carbone stated that this will have to go to the Board of County Commissioners as well. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that our comments would help.

Mr. Koenig

agrees with the route and Commissioner Carbone stated that the route around Pahrump would be great and Commissioner Schinhofen stated that the spur through Jean would be great too.

Mr. Lacy

stated that it might be best to take a vote of support. Commissioner Carbone motioned to support the I11 corridor as it is noted on the draft. Mr. Koenig second. Motion passed.

Mr. Lacy

stated that he will communicate this to NDOT.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that the busses are actually in the name of Nye County and he would like to see one of them go to the Veterans but he would also like to see a plan before he just agrees to give them a bus. He would also like to see that it is insured and repaired. Commissioner Schinhofen referred back to the Nye Ryder program in that his questions from the get go was how much and what is the operating budget. He has yet to see those figures and would like to. He also stated that getting funds from the Town is another good idea.

Ms. Holecheck

stated that is their intent and they are good questions. When they appear before the Board of County Commissioners those are reasonable requests and they will certainly present an operational plan with full details and at that time. She believes that they will be in a position to offer or proceed with a “not to exceed amount”. She also stated that they are hoping to keep the amount low, maybe around $20,000.00 but not to exceed $50,000.00. Right now they are just asking permission from the RTC to move this program to the Town of Pahrump and to get a bus donated. Albert Bass, Southern Nevada Rural Motilities Manager, stated that part of securing the funds was a grant that was available from the NVDVS for Veterans’ Transportation. Nye County has never been on the list to have accessibility to these funds. When Mr. Bass found out about this grant he got in contact with the director and even though the grant applications were due last October, the director gave Mr. Bass a week and half’s notice to design and build a program for veterans’ transportation to help fulfill the gaps that we have. Mr. Bass stated that with the time constraint the Nye County Coalition stepped in and is willing to take it for the time period. Mr. Bass stated that as we move forward we could move it under the 4 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016 Coalition but in the mean time we need to secure a vehicle for them to allow the program to happen because it is designed within the program that they have an ADA accessible bus. This will help the program to move forward. It is now in the hands of the VA Director in Washington D.C. This grant was submitted directly to Washington and not through the website portal so that we could get the approvals done as soon as possible. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that he would like to have had a copy of that grant. Mr. Bass stated that he could get him one. John Koenig made a motion to move the Nye Ryder program from the auspices of the RTC to the Town of Pahrump. Commissioner Carbone second. Commissioner Schinhofen wants to clarify that we are not going to be running a bus service but it is ok if the Town does. He also stated that his concern is the legality of it because he thought that the RTC was supposed to run the transportation. Further discussion,

Commissioner Carbone

stated that in Koenig’s motion he can add the legality of us doing that. Mr. Koenig stated that all we are doing is recommending this to the Board of County Commissioners and once it gets to them then the District Attorney can layout what it is legal and what is not. Mr. Koenig also stated that he wants to get this moving along because we are running out of time and they will end up missing the grants again. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that he agrees with that but he’s not sure if we have to refer it to the Board of County Commissioners because they do not run the transportation.

Mr. Koenig

amended his motion to move the Nye Ryder program from the auspices of the RTC to the Town of Pahrump. Commissioner Carbone seconds the motion with a legal evaluation done by the District Attorney of Nye County.

Mr. Bass

stated that they were hoping to have a guest with them today. The Transportation Grants Manager from NDOT, Pat Torven, was hoping to be here for support but they had a problem with their plane in Carson City. Linda Hatley came forward for public comment on this item and stated that maybe this board should vote on the bus before voting on moving the program. Mr. Koenig stated that the busses are still ours.

Commissioner Schinhofen

took a vote, all in favor.

Mr. Koenig

made another motion to lease to the Nye County Coalition the extra handicap accessible bus for use in the Veterans program for $1.00 a year and that the Coalition will take all responsibilities for licensing, insurance and maintenance, it will also be titled in their name. Commissioner Carbone second.

Mr. Bass

stated that there are provisions in the grant that gives them funding for vehicle maintenance, registration and what not. Mr. Bass also stated that Mr. Fanning had asked about the busses. The busses are 2008 E-450 style busses. They have a 6.0 motor that has been expertly maintained by UTA since 2008 and they have between 150,000 and 190,000 miles on them so most if any problems that the motors have had they have been dealt with or upgraded at this time.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that this bus cannot be used by the Coalition for anything other than the Veterans. Mr. Koenig stated if they do then they will need to come back to this board. Commissioner Schinhofen took a vote, all in favor. 5 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that he wants to make sure that Linda Hatley had a copy of this outline because there is a checklist of items in the appendix that will be helpful. Commissioner Schinhofen turned the floor over to Tim Carlo. Tim Carlo put together a list of problem items that may come up. Tim stated that the main concern is the right-of-way, on the first leg of this path going down Stephanie St. the easement is only 30’ on either side with utilities. There is 30’ on the south side of Simkins up to Murphy and from Murphy to Barney there is 60’ with utilities on both sides also. He also stated that if you went to Bell Vista and up to the feed store like we had talked about in previous meetings, there would only be 40 feet of right-of-way on what would be the south side up to Corbin St. so you would have to cross the road or trespass or make an agreement with the private land owner. Tim also stated that if you look further into the document there are going to be issues within the county right-of-way with ADA requirements on crossing driveways, landing zones and unloading zones. If you move to appendix D in the back-up documentation you will see the FHWA came out with a Trail Proposal and Evaluation Process for Open Space and Trail Program checklist. Tim stated that if you could answer most of the questions on that checklist then you would have a pretty good trail program so he included that in the back-up. Tim also wanted to bring up utilities and utility agreements, for instance, our phone company has flower pots and utility pedestals all over the right-of-way. Some are in the easement and some are on the property line some may be in the middle of a bridle path and these are all issues that need to be addressed. Tim stated that he wanted to make note that he did a lot of research on the city of Norco. He spoke to their Public Works Director and he found the financing from their ADHOC Committee that states “Previous funding for trail improvements came from development impact fees. The City had approximately $273,000 of available funds to spend on the trail system at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2014-2015. The City plans to spend estimated amount of $166,000 during the Fiscal Year which will reduce available funds to $107,000 by the end of the year. This amount is not sufficient to meet the City's annual trail system expenditure requirements. Consequently, without new revenue source, this unique feature will be in serious jeopardy by Fiscal Year 2016-2017.” Mr. Carlo stated that he included this so that you could see that it is not cheap to maintain these trails.

Ms. Hatley

stated that further down in her reading it stated that they have not maintained them for a couple of years and now all of the sudden they have stuff to do to maintain them. She was thinking that if you stayed on top of it then you wouldn’t have that deficit. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that there would still be a cost with maintenance of the trails. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that he is in favor of this idea but we need to work the right-of-way issues and funding issues out. He thinks that the Appendix D is great place to start. Commissioner Schinhofen stated to Ms. Hatley that he would encourage her and her 501c3 to start with that and go through the checklist and then make a presentation based on that. 6 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that we are also looking at the costs for the right- of-ways. Mr. Carlo stated that there is also cost involved for signage. There will also be landing points involved and grading of driveways. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that we have to hold harmless our citizens too. Mr. Carlo stated that when he was doing his research on this there was a small town in Arizona that had a private committee that put in some horse trails and they did a good job but over the years that committee went debunk and the trails were left in the right-of-ways of that community to manage, maintain and remove. He also stated that the checklist has a series of steps you can take to alleviate the County and tax payers from being responsible.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that when you look at our easements and right-of- ways we will have problems because of the utilities. We will have to ask them to move them and that costs money.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that it is important to identify all the routes for the trails because Bell Vista will be improved soon and some of those right-of-ways issues will be addressed.

Ms. Hatley

stated that she was told for the newly adopted standards that she wouldn’t have to do anything with the footing and the existing footing would be fine so they would not have to spend any money to improve that. She also stated that most horse people in Pahrump don’t go riding after it has been raining because they know the ground is going to be bad. Ms Haltey stated that those that are in wheelchairs could use these paths too. Mr. Carlo stated that they would have to be build to ADA Standards for that kind of use. Ms. Hatley stated that this is a community path. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that if we designate these areas then we have to be ADA compliant. Ms. Hatley stated that she has not been able to get together with Tim Carlo. She also stated that she just printed the backup out last night and she has a question about the map that is included. It states that Murphy St. from Murphy to Barney go the same direction. Mr. Carlo clarified that if you look at the arrows it would be Simkins St. because originally you wanted to go down Stephanie and then down Simkins to Barney so it would be a 30’ ROW on the south side of Simkins St. up to Murphy St. then from Murphy down to Barney on Simkins is a 60’ ROW. Ms. Hatley stated that they had discussed going down Stephanie and on the west side and then going up Bell Vista on the north side to the feed store. Mr. Carlo stated that it would be private lands all the way to Corbin St. Mr. Carlo also stated that the west side of Stephanie is private property. Ms Hatley stated that she has the gentleman’s name and she talked to his friend that will get in touch with him and that he would be happy to let them use his property.

Commissioner Carbone

stated that even if this gentleman says he will give up some right-of-way on Stephanie, you will have to get him to deed the ROW to you because if he sells the property the easement would go along with it if it is not deeded away from it.

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that staff knows how to do all of that and that her best bet is to get with her group and go through that check list that is in this backup and give us a presentation based on that and how much funding you think you can 7 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016 come up with, then we can figure out how many miles it is. Mr. Carlo stated that we would require a 40’ ROW on Bell Vista and 30’ on the Stephanie side from center of street deeded to us from the owner. Ms. Haltey asked if she had permission to ask for the deeded right-of-way. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that he wouldn’t do that at this point because she cannot speak on our behalf.

Mr. Koenig

stated that she should get something in writing from the property owner stating that he agrees to give the ROW. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that he would like to see that section get done so that he can see what kind of support we have for it. Mr. Koenig stated it would be nice to have something to show the public. Commissioner Schinhofen asked Tim Carlo if the stretch on Bell Vista was one of the areas that we were looking at getting ROW for. Mr. Carlo stated that we have contacted the owners east of Leslie. The area that Ms. Haltey is talking about is phase II of the Bell Vista project. Commissioner Schinhofen stated to Ms. Haltey that she needs to start with that checklist. Ms Hatley stated that she has $1,000.00 + for the project. Beverly Spoor took the floor. Beverly stated that on Bannavitch there is land and she wants to know if it BLM. Mr. Fanning suggested that we take this offline and get together at the Public Works office to discuss further.

Mr. Fanning

stated that in the backup is a spreadsheet. He also stated that the State runs 3 months behind on reporting gas and gasohol. The spreadsheet is from the month of November in 2015 so that you can get an idea as to what we might see for December, January, February and March gas tax but we won’t see those figures until probably June. Mr. Fanning stated that if you look at the figures on the spreadsheet you will see the numbers at 4 cents being $78,243.49 and then with the 9 cents you would have $179,641.08. Commissioner Schinhofen stated that it is almost a hundred thousand more. He also wanted to know when we would get our first cut.

Mr. Fanning

stated probably April, May or June. Commissioner Schinhofen asked if this would be for our next year’s budget. Mr. Fanning stated absolutely but we are trying to see how this is truly going to affect us. The fuel prices have dropped so we are looking to see if people are driving more since the prices are down but what he is seeing is that people are staying equal with what they did when the prices were high. Mr. Fanning stated that it might show something different in 6 months. Mr. Koenig stated that he doesn’t go anywhere different just because the gas is cheaper. He also asked when we would actually see the money in our account. Ms. Lynnette Atkinson, Nye County Public Works Secretary, stated that the reports run 3 months behind and we wouldn’t see that revenue until June. She also stated that she could get with the State to find out. Mr. Koenig stated that it would be 9 months after we approved it before we see the money that we can spend to make the roads better.

Mr. Fanning

stated that a year and a half ago the county found $60,000.00 that was never paid to us and they had to go back in to repay it and took them about that long before it was back into the 205 account. 8 Regional Transportation Commission – Minutes February 17, 2016

Commissioner Schinhofen

stated that going up to 9 cents was up to the board and he is really proud of the BoCC and this board for doing this after 30 years. Mr. Fanning stated that back in 1998 they did a tri-fold pamphlet and handed them out to the gas stations in Nye County. It failed miserably but there was information in them on how the gas tax was spent by the RTC. Mr. Fanning also stated that over time your costs go higher. The roads deteriorate, repair costs go higher and so does maintenance.

Commissioner Schinhofen

wants to set a meeting for April and if we have to call a special meeting for the bus item before then, then we will. Commissioner Carbone motioned for April 13th at 8:30 a.m. and Mr. Koenig second. Motion passed.