Baldwin County Public Transit Coalition

It was a wonderful meeting, my final opportunity to preside. Over five of the past eight and a half years, it has been my profound privilege and pleasure to serve as President of this fine organization. It is a mark of our success that I can pass the leadership to a group of new officers having broader influence and more solid capacities than mine. They are:

President – Darrelyn Bender,
  CEO, Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce
Vice President – Donna Watts,
  CEO, South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce
Secretary – Twyla Davis,
  Financial Administrator, Tanger Outlet Center
Treasurer - Patrick Northcutt,
  Hartmann, Blackman & Kilgore, CPAs

Carolyn Doughty, Council Member, City of Gulf Shores
Taylor Rider, Director, BRATS
Nathan Jurgens, Manager, LDS Employment Resource Center
Bob Higgins, VP Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance
Joe Savage, Real Estate Sales, Mandoki Realty
Rev. John Whitfield, Ecumenical Ministries
Stan Virden, Holy Spirit Episcopal Church
Mike Sullivan, Director of Human Capital, Marriott's Grand Hotel
Edward Carroll, Council Member, City of Orange Beach
Suzanne Torbert, Director of Human Resources, Thomas Hospital
Michael Neuendorf, South Baldwin Regional Medical Center
Paula Dicks, Director of Marketing, The WAVE Transit System
Carl Wegener, Regional Manager, East Coast, Kvichak Marine Industries
Donna Givens, Director of Legislative & Governmental Affairs, Baldwin EMC
John Lake, Council Member, City of Daphne

As a continuing Board member I am relieving Carolyn Doughty as Chair of our South Baldwin Committee, which is being reconstituted to serve as a citizens advisory committee to the contractor who starting next month will conduct a transit development study for the cities of Foley, Orange Beach, and Gulf Shores.

Karen Glover, Operations Manager of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, advised that she will assume duties as the Baldwin County coordinator for Envision Coastal Alabama. This good move that will enhance our participation in that excellent organization.

Donna Watts stated that she has a large supply of membership application brochures for distribution through the mail, on counters, or by hand. Please get in touch with her at her Foley office if you need a supply: (251) 943-3291 or donna@southbaldwinchamber.com.

Darrelyn Bender reported that The Eastern Shore Transit Committee is progressing well toward issuance of a request for proposals to perform a transit development study for that area.

Joe Savage presented a well-organized set of alternative budgets for the coming year, which will be acted on at next month’s Board retreat. It is clear that membership development and fund raising need some steam to get us to the point of hiring an executive director. Bob Zeanah described a $5700 grant to assist with public education on the environmental advantages of transit development and predicted that other grants will soon follow. We’re gathering momentum!

We have been invited to make a presentation on 29 November to the Alabama Association of Regional Councils’ 2006 Annual Conference, at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, regarding our South Baldwin transit project. Interest in transit is developing throughout the state, and we are regarded by many as an example of how to get it going. The South Alabama Regional Planning Council (SARPC) is working with us and the three South Baldwin cities on this matter. On 18 April 2007 there will be a state-wide conference to raise consciousness of the advantages of transit systems. More information on this event will be provided soon.

In my last official act as President, I had the consummate pleasure of presenting the 2006 Director of the Year Award to Donna Watts, “in recognition of outstanding distinguished service to the residents of Baldwin County, Alabama, through her intrepid, indefatigable, indomitable, and unflagging support of regional mass transit development.” This award was accompanied by a 6½” diameter apple wood bowl, which I turned especially for her in my woodworking shop. I am most grateful for the effective support and successes of the Board in general, but felt that Donna’s particular meritorious exertions deserved most special applause.

Not to be outdone, our new President, as her first official act, presented me with a fine wood encased clock inscribed with good words. I am very pleased, and have installed it where visitors can see it. Now my wife and I are departing on a long vacation over many time zones. I am shutting down my communication facilities for the next month. If you have an issue, please refer it to Darrelyn Bender at (251) 621-8222 or dbender@eschamber.com.

Our November meeting will be a retreat restricted to the Board of Directors. Future meetings, of course, will be open to the public. I hope to see you there.

Another great meeting today that highlighted the substantial progress we’re making toward the realization of public transportation for our county. Donna Watts reported that our new membership recruiting brochure is at the printer and will be ready for distribution later this month. Baldwin EMC is sponsoring this project, which will provide 60,000 copies for distribution through various channels throughout our area. As you can see, this is a serious effort to expand our membership. You don’t have to wait for the brochure, however, if you’re not a member and wish to become one. Just go to our web site to print your own application. We need your name among our numbers!

Bob Zeanah, our grants expert, presented a Power Point discussion on how to acquire donations and other revenues on line. This idea is more than interesting and will be discussed in more depth at the Board retreat in November, as will several other notions about creating a treasury that can fully support our mission to educate our public on the needs for and advantages of fixed-route public transit. We even considered logo mugs, caps, and, T-shirts. Well, whatever works.

Following Bob’s presentation I reported on my two recent trips to South Carolina and to Minneapolis. Inspection of the ferry landing facilities at Hilton Head and Daufuskie Island made it clear that construction of adequate facilities to handle passenger ferries and their clientele is a simple matter of providing docking space and covered, open-sided waiting areas. We’re have to act on this soon, as the ferry is due to start operations by the end of next year. In Minneapolis I met with the COO/President of Taxi 2000 Corporation, developers of a PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system called Skyweb Express. This is a remarkable technical organism that has potential to solve a lot of traffic problems in our parts. If you weren’t at the meeting you can still take a look at a short video at: http://gettherefast.org/bettercampus.html. Click on the flashing orange bar. I recommend that you give this close attention. It really is “Transportation for the 21st Century.”

A selection committee representing Foley, Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, SARPC, and the PTC will meet a week from tomorrow to select a contractor for a transit development study for South Baldwin County. Our Eastern Shore Transit Committee is close to finishing an RFP to solicit contractor interest in a similar study for that area. I am absolutely giddy over these developments, which represent palpable success of the PTC’s campaigning over nearly eight years. Everyone connected to that effort deserves a well done!

Our nominations committee has developed a list of nineteen candidates for election to the Board at our October annual meeting. This is a group well qualified to carry us forward. I will step down as your President, a position that I have been honored to fill for five of the past seven years. It’s been a wonderful ride, but it’s time for someone with better connections and new ideas to take the helm. We need to create rotation through the Executive Committee to energize our leadership and spread our influence. If you are not a member, become one now. If you are a member, attend the annual meeting on 11 October. Members will vote in the new Board, which will, in turn, elect the Executive Committee. Members who cannot attend will be given the opportunity to vote by email. Details on how to do this will be forthcoming. We are on the verge of making dramatic improvements to the economic viability and quality of life in our county. You need to get in on the action! Show up and have your say.

Progress continues. The Envision transit workshop for elected officials was a great success. In planning the event, we were afraid it would run too long. As it happened, at the end no one wanted to leave. Most of the 60+ officials who attended hung around to chat with each other for some time, and there was clear enthusiasm for the proposition that now is the time to focus on developing a mass transit infrastructure for our region. Mayor Russell of Foley announced that the WAVE of Mobile and BRATS are near an agreement on a transit connection between the Eastern Shore and Mobile. Details are not yet firm, but the new service is expected to start in October. Michael Townes, CEO, Hampton Roads Transit System, made it clear to all that “Transit is not a public service, but a public business—an economic development tool. If you only fund it as a public service, it will stay that way.” Most heads nodded up and down. We’re on a roll, folk. The next Envision workshop will target those responsible for economic development.

A service highlighted at the workshop was CommuteSmart Mobile. By sharing the ride in a carpool, you will save money, enjoy a more relaxing commute, plus help reduce congestion and pollution in the Mobile area. There is an online ridematching application to instantly find people with whom you can commute. If you don’t have an email address or are having trouble with the on-line ridematching service, please call 1- 800-826-RIDE. Ask to speak to a CommuteSmart representative and get all your commute questions answered.
Check out this very interesting web site : http://www.mobilempo.org/commutesmartcommuter.htm

The Board reviewed and made final comments on Donna Watts’ draft recruiting brochure. One of our new corporate members, Baldwin EMC, will underwrite the printing of thousands of these pamphlets for distribution throughout the county. Chambers will be asked to include them in their membership mailings, and we will make them available for counter displays and other distribution avenues. Bob Zeanah and Nathan Jurgens are collaborating on a grant application to support our public education program. We feel optimistic about our chances on this one.

Donna has also proposed a revision to our meeting procedures, which we will consider at the annual meeting and the following Board retreat. Her suggestion is that the executive committee meet monthly, along with the executive director (once hired) to carry out routine coalition business. The Board would then meet every other month for purposes of oversight and policy actions. This idea was well received as a means to make Board service less of a time drain on already overloaded schedules.

Meanwhile, back in South Baldwin, the request for proposals (RFP) is on the street and potential contractors have already started asking questions about bidding on our transit development study. What a great breakthrough this is! The Eastern Shore is not far behind, and our committee for that district is hard at work drafting its own RFP based on the South Baldwin model.

Hey, if you want to get in on the action, time is running out to get your nomination in for election to the Board at our annual meeting. As previously stated, Tom Polczynski, mtpolczynski@tangeroutlet.com, or Donna Watts, donna@southbaldwinchamber.com, are the people to contact about this. Qualifications? Be interested, be a member, and be ready to roll up your sleeves. The slate will be presented at the next Board meeting, 13 September. We will then consider a means by which members who cannot make the 11 October annual meeting can vote absentee, probably by email. Keep these important dates in mind. Both meetings will take place at 2:00pm in the Baldwin Central Annex in Robertsdale.

We met today in a flurry of good news. Membership is growing and so is the treasury. Our objectives are to hire an executive director at an early date and to launch a public education campaign to help the public and our decision makers to understand the needs for and benefits of transit development. These goals will appear in a fiscal year 2007 budget, to be discussed at the meeting next month. That budget will give our treasury a target to grow into. We’re getting a big boost in membership recruiting from Baldwin EMC, which has agreed to underwrite production of a PTC brochure to be widely distributed through a number of channels.

The South Baldwin Transit Committee reports that all three cities have approved the funding and the scope of service wording for a request for proposals for an area transit development study to be conducted in the very near future. Not to be outdone, the Eastern Shore Transit Committee will meet shortly to produce a similar result. We note that other organizations are becoming alarmed about public mobility issues, and we are encouraging them to join our efforts rather than to strike out on their own to deal with problems piecemeal. This level of interest is great to hear about, as it reveals some beneficial effects from our past seven years of campaigning.

We received with deep regret a resignation from the Board by Cheryl D. McClary, our environmental expert from Weeks Bay. Cheryl has reached a critical point in her dissertation research and has had to give up a number of conflicting activities. She will remain an enthusiastic and supportive member of the PTC. Once she gets that PhD on the wall, we’ll hope to get her back into our deliberations. Meanwhile, we are still gathering nominations to the Board for election at the annual meeting in October. If you or someone you know feels a need to get vocal about transit development, do not delay in notifying our nominations chairman, Tom Polczynski, (251) 943-9303, mtpolczynski@tangeroutlet.com. We need candidates from business, social service, government, and the general public in order to maintain a balanced approach toward our mission.

Several board members have been interviewed by the press in the past month, and several are appearing before meetings of different groups. Among other things, we are being invited to make a presentation to a November conference of the Alabama Association of Regional Commissions. We continue to play a central role in planning for regional and statewide transit workshops. These activities reflect an increasing intensity of interest in what we are about. If you want to get involved in leading a winning team, just show up at our next meeting. It will occur at 2:00pm, Wednesday, 9 August 2006, at the Baldwin County Central Annex, 22251 Palmer St., Robertsdale. I look forward to seeing you there.

We held a solid meeting today reflecting steady and considerable progress. The South Baldwin Transit Committee and the Eastern Shore Transit Committee are each getting closer to publication of RFPs to contract for transit development studies and implementation plans for their areas. There is considerable official support for both efforts. Donna Watts presented a well-organized plan for membership recruitment through widespread brochure mailings sponsored by a variety of business entities. This will happen in August. Positive discussions are being held about creation of a high-speed passenger ferry landing in Gulf Shores. Darrelyn Bender has completed the draft of a policies and procedures manual to be voted on next month. Nathan Jurgens reported on new developments for our web site.

Next month’s meeting will include full reports on preparations for our annual meeting in October. Nominations to the Board are being firmed up. If you, or someone you know, ought to be on the nominee list, get in touch with Tom Polczynski right away, mtpolczynski@tangeroutlet.com or (251) 943-9303. The annual meeting will be a celebration of success, designed to attract your participation.

A word about membership. We will work out a way for members to vote by proxy, but it will be better to attend the annual meeting in person. Only dues-paid members will be given vote to elect directors to the Board. Membership is vital to our survival and to our effectiveness. Dues provide the revenues we need to function. It is crucial to our future operations that they be sufficient to hire an executive director to manage our day-to-day affairs. Further, a healthy revenue stream from dues is attractive to those to whom we apply for grants. Grantors want to be able to discern significant numbers of members and substantial membership support. Members also give us channels of information, through which we are able to carry out our primary mission of educating the public concerning the needs for and advantages of public transportation. Lastly, membership numbers show our public decision-makers that their constituents and clientele are serious about their wishes for better public mobility. If you are not a member yet, you can download the application at our web site. You may even get one in the mail. Do not hesitate. Join now, and be a part of creating a better economy and quality of life in our community.

Our next meeting will be held at 2:00pm, Wednesday, 12 July, at the Baldwin County Central Annex in Robertsdale. I look forward to seeing you there.

Primary focus of this month’s PTC Board meeting was the forthcoming Envision Coastal Alabama Regional Public Transit Workshop, scheduled 7:30 am to noon on 23 March at the Baldwin County Central Annex in Robertsdale. By separate message from me, and probably others, you have received the brochure as an attachment. It is important to sign up early for this highly informative event, as seating is limited to the first 150 applicants.

The Baldwin County Commission has generously donated use of the impressive new Central Annex in Robertsdale for the workshop, which will feature Bill Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association (APTA). He is back by popular demand, having been rated the most exciting speaker at our original summit last February. He will help us to develop concrete steps toward coordinated administration of public transit capabilities throughout the First Congressional District and prepare us for a July summit of elected officials that will focus on making that objective into a reality. The County Commission is also underwriting the use of a county-owned BRATS bus to provide a countywide tour for Bill Millar and others on 22 March. With help from the cities of Foley, Orange Beach, and Gulf Shores, our PTC is sponsoring a reception for Bill at the new Meyer Real Estate facility in Gulf Shores.

Darrelyn Bender presented a draft position description for a PTC executive director. We have reached a point where hiring such staff has become essential to fulfillment of our mission. We hope to be able to advertise the position and fill it by this summer. The Board resolved to vote at our next meeting on a substantial increase in dues to support our increased level of activity and to cover the cost of hiring staff. If you haven’t purchased a membership by now, you’d better hurry to get in under the current low rates. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The web site will provide you with the information you need.

In other business, Bob Zeanah briefed on his current applications for grants to support current objectives, which include staff support, a transportation needs analysis for South Baldwin, and public education on matters related to transit. Darrelyn Bender distributed her final draft of the PTC Policies and Procedures, which we will vote on in March. Russ Wimberly of the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission (SARPC) advised that the experimental establishment of a Rural Planning Organization (RPO) in Western Alabama has been deemed a success, and that SARPC is drawing up plans for a RPO for this region. Such a body would give a consolidated voice to rural transit operators and advocates in our area, making it easier to convey our concerns and ambitions to ALDoT and governments at all levels. This development is a clear indication that transit needs are getting greatly increased attention.

In this regard, I invite your attention to page 21 of the current USNews & World Report, in which Alex Kingsbury interviews Peter Tertzakian, author and former Chevron geophysicist. In his very sensible commentary, Mr. Tertzakian makes it clear that oil is a very minor component of electrical power generation, and that transportation is what creates oil consumption in the United States. Furthermore, our current driving habits are making matters increasingly worse. Change is essential, meaning smart cars and more public transit. APTA has previously estimated that if Americans used public transit to the degree it is used in other developed countries we could eliminate our need for Mid-East oil.
If you haven’t got the magazine you can find the interview at: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060213/13qa.htm

Yesterday’s Board meeting saw some solid progress, including the election of a new Board Member, Ed Bender (no apparent relation to our Treasurer). Ed has recently retired and moved to Foley after a career in public relations followed by a career in transit administration. He is technically well qualified by his background to serve the needs of the PTC, and will assume the Chair of our South Baldwin Transit Committee from Carolyn Doughty, who will remain on the committee to represent the City of Gulf Shores.

The next Envision Coastal Alabama Public Transit Mini-summit is coming up on 23 March, from 7:30am to noon at the Baldwin County Central Annex in Robertsdale. We expect a capacity crowd of 150 to hear our keynoter, Bill Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). APTA gave the PTC a generous grant last year to help us sponsor the first summit, held in February. Bill proved to be an exciting presenter at that event, and is back by popular demand to help us dope out the road to setting up a transit coordinating body for this region. The PTC is sponsoring a reception for him at Meyer Realty in Gulf Shores on the evening of 22 March. Starting at 2:00 pm that afternoon, courtesy of the Baldwin County Commission, we expect to give Bill a BRATS bus tour of Baldwin County and its burgeoning developments, so that he will understand the lay of the land.

Bob Higgins briefed us on what needs to be done to create a Rural Planning Organization (RPO) for this area. An RPO is a formal arrangement that allows for structured cooperation on transportation planning between county, state, and federal agencies, and which helps to generate funding to support the process. Bob will form a small committee to delve more deeply into this possibility and to recommend a position for the PTC to take in respect to forming an RPO. This effort dovetails nicely with objectives of the forthcoming mini-summit. At present there is only one RPO established in the state, centered on the West Alabama Regional Commission.

Our web site is still evolving under the direction of Nathan Jurgens and our site manager, David Rice. If you have suggestions regarding its appearance and content, let us know. Our fundraiser, Bob Zeanah, has been scouting the territory for potential grants and has targeted several promising foundations. We are attempting to raise funds to establish an administrative staff, to conduct a county transit needs analysis, and to pursue a public transit education program. Donna Givens has made progress in creating a membership development committee. If you have not paid your dues for 2006, now would be a jolly good time to do so. Donna will soon recommend a new and higher dues schedule. Your membership is important, as it shows public support that is encouraging to those who make grant awards, it gives us a financial base for operations, it bolsters our prestige when we have something to say, and it helps us to spread public understanding of public needs in local transportation.

We meet again at 2:00pm on Wednesday, 8 February 2006, at the Baldwin County Central Annex in Robertsdale. Come one and all to join the fun.

Meeting Reviews