"Responding to the Demand for Transit"
FTA Region VIII Conference in Denver Colorado
By Peggy Morris
South and North Dakota were well represented at the Region VIII Grantee Conference held in Denver on August 7-10. Our first day of the conference was full and packed with all the changes and info that was given to all the Grantee's.
Charmaine Knighton Region VIII Deputy Regional Administrator opened the conference with a welcome, then turned it over to Lee Waddleton who has been with FTA for over 30 years, Lee is the Region VIII Regional Administrator.
Cal Marsella, Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) General Manager, gave us an overview of the FasTracks-RTD's 12 year transit plan for the metro Denver Region. RTD is a very fast growing transit system in the Denver area.
Rich Steinmann, Senior Advisor to the FTA Administrator, and Susan Martin, FTA Region VIII Legal Counsel, discussed the new legislation and highlighted some of the new programs and changes SAFTEA-LU.
Ryan Hammon and Jennifer Stewart of FTA Region VIII discussed the new coordinated planning requirements, competitive project selection process and other cross-cutting program requirements.
Dave Beckhouse, Deb Duggan and Sandi Streff of FTA Region VIII discussed the grant-making process to identify areas where grantees can make improvements, how to better manage grants, and the oversight process. There were lots of questions by the attendees to gain a better understanding of the grant process.
In the evening they offered a walking tour of Historic Denver Union Station.
On Wednesday, August 9th David Schneider, FTA EEO Specialist, and Rebecca Tanrath, FTA Region VIII, lead a panel discussion on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) planning and goal-setting, the new Title VI and EEO circulars and Americans with Disabilities ACT (ADA) were also discussed.
"Best Practices" Presentation and Discussions
This session was for all invited grantees from around the Region to have an opportunity to highlight their outstanding work in the areas of United We Ride, Integration of Services and Spanish for Transit Employees. Small little books with Spanish translations were handed out to those who wanted one. These little books were nice for those that live in a community with a large population of Spanish speaking people who ride the transit and drivers and dispatchers to be able to decipher and understand the translation.
Our noon luncheons for both days had great keynote speakers, with Cal Marcella speaking at Tuesday's luncheon. Then on Wednesday, our speaker was Sandra Bushue, FTA Deputy Administrator.
Charmaine was moderator for the discussion of topics that were selected by the attendees and staff on items that needed attention in order to improve our working relationships and processes.
A nice surprise visit by past FTA Region VIII Deputy Regional Administrator Chick "Charles" Dolby. He gave a formal goodbye to many of his grantee's that he worked with in the past and many of the FTA Regional VII co-workers. It was good to see a familiar face. Many of us had worked with Chick for so many years as our representative.
RTD Elati Maintenance Facility Tour was given on Wednesday night. You could explore the new $40 million, 125,000-square foot facility that was built to support maintenance of RTD's light rail vehicles.
Many of us had to leave on Thursday to head back to our jobs, also the day of the long line security checks at the airport. We were prepared enough by listening to the news to get to the airport early to avoid any delays or canceled flights.
On Thursday morning Safety & Security and ITS Architecture, Mike Taborn, FTA Director of Safety & Security, and Dave Genova, RTD Manager of Public Safety, presented information on security measures for small- and medium-sized bus properties. Charmaine and Tiffany Gallegos also discussed FTA's ITS Architecture requirements and how they should be incorporated into grant agreements.
Susan Martin, Tiffany Gallegos and Tim Sullivan of FTA Region VIII lead the group through a discussion of the various requirements for vehicles and facility procurements and other contracting requirements.
 Attendees include from left to right; Peggy Morris, Roger Foster, Jane Hannestad, Brenda Schweitzer, Carol Wright, Ron Baumgart, Jackie Mattheis, Bruce Lindholm, Rich Sagen, Robin Were, Julie Bommelman, Bruce Fuchs, Dale Bergman & Lori Van Beek Susan Martin, Tiffany Gallegos and Tim Sullivan of FTA Region VIII lead the group through a discussion of the various requirements for vehicles and facility procurements and other contracting requirements.
Charmaine had the closing remarks and as the Region VIII FTA conference came to a close. All of us that attended this conference expressed that it was very informative, plus a good way to get to know our Region VIII FTA representatives.
|
