Presidents Report – December 2013 – March 2014
Highlights of the last quarter include;
· The transition to a new Vice-President has been very smooth and Richard has fit in perfectly. The combination of his personality and experience has made his joining the team here a big success.
· We have had some good budget news having received $5000 form Bayer Health Care and a commitment of $2500 from JCP&L. We are also hoping for a renewal of last year’s grant of $5000 from Thor Labs for JSS and $500 for Bike to Work. In addition, KMM notified me that they are unable to use their HTS money so we have access to additional monies totaling about $8700. We will divide it between labor and commodities. Lastly, we have already received our 2014 grant from Morris County in the amount of $26,500. This is about five months earlier than last year.
· We have been told by NJTPA that there will be two solicitations for proposals in the areas of safety and environmental programing. They will make available $50,000 to each TMA for each solicitation for a total of $100,000 depending on the program. I am hopeful we will qualify for the full amount. Timing is uncertain.
· I was just notified by NJTPA that we are authorized to submit a full proposal for our anti-idling TCAM (Transportation Clean Air Measures). This is a collaborative effort among five TMAs and our initial “thumbnail” was accepted. The budget for all could be as much as $250,000 over three years. I hope to secure as much as $30,000 per year for TransOptions. I will keep you posted.
· Joseph Caravella will be retiring on June 30, 2014 after this year’s JSS competition. I am hoping that the new solicitation can cover a new employee to replace him. He had agreed to accept a small consultant agreement that will cover the Student of the Month Award on WSUS and some transition training and contact making with all the schools he has worked with over the last dozen years. Details to be worked out.
· JSS this year will be the biggest ever – 64 schools have signed on. One school is from Montclair and is “testing the waters”. They hope to host our sixth site in 2015 as part of our measured expansion.
· Joseph, working with Cheryl Wasserman of the Ridgedale Ave. Middle School met (via Skype) with the President of Pitsco, the company that makes the bulk of the JSS supplies. After the conversation, they agreed to reduce the cost of the materials by $2500.
· Livingston High School invited us to see their Shell Eco-car. Shell Oil sponsors a competition each year for students to build a car that carries one passenger and tries to break MPG records. Livingston is only one of about 20 high schools in the US that compete; all the other teams are from top engineering schools. The car is literally designed and built in the high school. All costs are borne by the students who also do all the work on their free time. I was amazed at their accomplishments. I decided to “pay forward” some of our good fortune in JSS grant fund raising by sponsoring the car with a donation of $1500. I presented the check to the students at the February Livingston School Board meeting. After the meeting, I was talking to one of the students who told me that he had competed in JSS when he was in the sixth grade and it was “really awesome”. Several of the students had gone from JSS to H2 and now to the Eco-Lancers car. This is why we do what we do.
· We did our part in disseminating information about the traffic impacts of the Super Bowl. I was more concerned with commuters trying to get around events than I was dealing with getting fans to the game. The best thing that we did was the creation of the Flipagrams that we sent out each day of the week leading up to the game. They were entertaining, creative and full of information. We got very good feedback on them. Kudos to Dan, Judy B. and Laura for their work on these.
· We will do the same type of outreach to keep commuters and travelers informed of the reconstruction of the Pulaski Skyway which will have major impacts on those going to Jersey City or through it to the Holland Tunnel. Construction is set to begin April 12. Stay tuned.
· Dan, together with Richard and Bill Feeney, has totally revamped the Bike to Work Challenge marketing materials and the program itself. The goal is to have the materials fit into our branding and to make the event less labor intensive for us. Dan will present the marketing materials at the March Board meeting. We have also begun the fundraising to cover the costs of the prizes for this event.
· Dan has also designed a Recognition Breakfast Sponsorship solicitation for the Board to use in raising funds to cover the costs of this event and the annual report. The breakfast is on September 17th this year at the Villa at Mountain Lakes. The speaker will be announced in the next month or so.
· Hanover Township has established a Traffic Safety Committee to address their concerns and the Chief of Police met with us last week to discuss what we could do. The answer was we could do most of what they were looking for except enforcement: Safe Routes to schools, bike education, and pedestrian education. We will have a full schedule of programs for them over the next months. Also, they may be the next town to utilize our Speed Sentry machine. (See next bullet).
· Last year, HTS purchased a Speed Sentry device for our municipal sign loan program. It has been in place in a spot in Madison that was of concern to the Madison Police. The goal is to recommend low or no cost improvements that towns can take to make a particular area safer for pedestrians. Hanover will select a site to use it. Once we get our kinks worked out, we will have it on loan to six communities per year. Report on Madison available on request.
· The TMAs have been working closely with NJTPA and RideShark on the new ride matching system. There are a lot of problems that we hope will be worked out over the next four weeks. Laura Cerutti has been asked to serve on the TAC to help resolve issues before we launch publically later in the spring.
· We have been asked by James Jones to make a presentation at the March Mayor’s Council meeting of the MCEDC. The objective is to inform Mayors, Administrators and Council Members of the work that we do and how we can assist them. This is scheduled for March 11.
· Amazingly, our calendar for events surrounding Earth Day and summer bike and community “fests” is filling rapidly. We are truly in demand throughout our service area.