The meeting began at 10:00 AM in the District 3 Conference Room located at 1194 Prison Camp Road in Whiteville, NC.
In attendance:
· Joe Bailey, NCDOT Division 6
· Claudia Bray, Town of Sandyfield
· Drew Cox, NCDOT Division 6
· Nastasha Earle-Young, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
· Phil Edwards, Columbus County Airport
· Walter Freeman, Buckhead Volunteer Fire & Rescue
· Jennifer Holcomb, Columbus County Chamber of Commerce-Tourism
· Elton Ray Jacobs, Buckhead Volunteer Fire & Rescue
· Gary Lanier, Columbus County Planning
· Hiram Marziano, City of Whiteville
· Suzette Morales, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
· Charles Patton, Columbus County Transportation
· Allen Serkin, Cape Fear RPO
· Steve Smith, Resident, Columbus Trails Alliance
· Scott Walston, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
Welcome and Introductions
Nastasha thanked everyone for their attendance to the 1st Columbus County Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) Steering Committee Meeting. She introduced herself as the lead project engineer for the CTP. This was followed by introductions by those in attendance.
Future CTP Meetings
It was agreed on by the committee members that future meetings would continue to be held at the District 3 office conference room. Meetings will take place every 3rd Wednesday at 9:30 AM for approximately 2 hours.
Allen encouraged guests in attendance with specific needs of the CTP to regularly attend and participate in the CTP Steering Committee meetings if they are able.
What is a CTP
Nastasha gave a brief presentation to the group about what a CTP is and the process. She also provided a list of previous CTPs that may be referenced for the new Columbus County CTP. Charles asked if the 2006 Chadbourn CTP was adopted. Nastasha responded that is was however, only the highway portion of the CTP was completed and there is not a report.
Gary mentioned that the City of Whiteville Schools is doing a comprehensive plan and so is Columbus County Schools and these plans may be considered for the CTP. Allen said that he has contacted the schools to ask for their participation in the CTP.
Vision and Goals Statement
Nastasha provided the committee with example vision and goals statements from other counties and the most recent Tabor City CTP. She asked that the committee discuss the needs of the county in order to create their own vision and goals statement for Columbus County. Topics emphasized during the discussion were the need to accommodation tourist traffic that drive through the county while meeting the needs of resident drivers as well as access to rivers, lakes and trails for residents and visitors for recreational activities. Each mode of transportation was reviewed by the meeting attendees. The members created a draft vision and goals that will be reviewed and finalized at the next steering committee meeting.
Identify Study Facilities
A large map of the Columbus County was placed on the table for the committee members to review. The map identified key roadway facilities that would be studied for the CTP. Nastasha asked that the members identify/highlight on the map any facilities that should be added to or eliminated from the study.
Next the committee was asked to review the traffic counts location map and to identify if there were any additional locations that they would like traffic counts to be taken and when counts should be taken. The committee wanted counts to be taken between the end of June and late August (before schools started) but not during holidays. They added additional locations for counts at Old Lake Road (SR 1740), near a school to be counted during the school year and after the completion (September 30) of a nearby bridge project.
Next Topics
At the end of the meeting, Nastasha requested that the committee members review the public survey examples which were provided to them in their notebook so that the committee could start working on their own survey at the next meeting. Joe asked how quickly it could be done since there are some public events that will be taking place at the end of August and would like to provide the surveys to attendees at the event. The committee members also want to possibly place the surveys in water bills and to give to students for their parents to take. Nastasha responded that the time it takes to create a survey will depend on the committee members. A draft survey could potentially be completed at the next meeting then reviewed and approved by the August meeting.
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The next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The meeting adjourned at 12:10 PM.