All right.

Today is May 5th, 2026, and I call the Lake County Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting to order at 8 30 a.m.

In addition to being able to attend in person, remote attendance has been made available to the public via Zoom at the link on the agenda.

This meeting is being recorded through Zoom.

Par County Board Rules and the Open Meetings Act, attendance via remote means is permitted for qualifying reasons as long as the majority of the committee members are physically present.

We've been notified in advance by member Hunter that he is requested to participate electronically due to employment.

A physical quorum is present, so he may be marked as present and is eligible to vote on matters before the committee today.

As a reminder to members attending remotely, please ensure your camera is on at all times.

All right, can you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Can I get a roll call, please?

Yes, sure.

Member Kasman.

Here.

Chair Clark.

Here.

Member Hewitt.

Oh, I didn't get uh member Hunter, I do not see on as of yet.

Member May, uh Vice Chair Maine.

Present.

Member Roberts.

Here.

Member Wasick.

And I that is my fault.

I forgot, yes, that member Hewitt is also attending remotely due to personal illness.

So she will also be marked as president.

Thank you.

And can vote.

Yes, of course.

All right.

All right.

Is there any public comment today?

Others not.

All right.

I don't have any chairs, remarks, or unfinished business.

Our new business is our consent agenda.

Items 8.1 to 8.2.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Kasbin, second by Roberts.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

On to our regular agenda, which is item 8.3, which is our PACE update.

Welcome.

If you'd like to come up and introduce yourselves.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Melinda Metzger.

I'm executive director of PACE.

With me is Eric Llewellyn, who is our chief planning officer.

And also on the screen is Linda Soto, who is appointed to the PACE Board from Lake County.

And so I'm going to turn it over to Linda first to start our presentation.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Wonderful.

Okay, again, my name is Linda Soto, and I'm very honored to represent Lake County on the PACE Board of Directors.

And on behalf of the entire PACE Board, I want to thank you for the opportunity to engage in this important conversation about transit in Lake County.

At PACE, our mission is simple but critical.

We safely and efficiently connect people to jobs, schools, health care, and opportunities throughout our region.

Here in Lake County, that mission is especially important and complicated.

We serve a geographically large and diverse area with very different needs, travel patterns, and expectations for service.

Today's presentation is about how PACE is working to make those needs or meet the needs both now and in the future.

You're going to hear about recent and planned service enhancements in Lake County, including changes to fixed routes, bus service, on demand, paratransit options, as well as continued investments in facilities and passenger amenities.

You'll also hear about something bigger.

Revision.

PACE's long-term approach to reimagining transit service in a time of change.

As many of you know, the region is entering a new exciting era under the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act.

The NITA law officially takes effect June 1st, and the new NITA board and transit boards will take effect September 1.

That new funding and governance structure challenges all of us to think differently about how transit service is planned, measured, and delivered.

Revision is PACE's way of preparing by using data, community input, and clear goals to make thoughtful decisions about where service can be most effective while still providing access across our communities and through the entire region.

To walk us through this work, PACE's executive director, Melinda Metzger, and our chief planning officer, Eric Llewellyn, are there with you today and bring both the leadership and vision and the technical expertise behind the plans you'll see this morning.

Please join me in giving the floor back to executive director Melinda Masker.

Thank you very much, Director Soto.

And I have to tell you, we have some really exciting things happening in this area.

Lake County is so well represented by Linda Soto and has given Pace the ability to do some things in Lake County that we aren't doing in other places.

And I'm just going to give you some examples of that, and then I'll go into my presentation.

Lake County is going to be the first location where a garage is going to be a hundred percent electric.

And we're well on our way.

We've completed phase one, which is to build an outdoor uh shelter where we can charge our buses.

And I'll talk a little bit more about it later, but that is complete.

We had a fantastic grant opening at the end of December.

We're now beginning to get ready for phase two, which is to complete the entire garage.

It's going to take about another year to get that all complete, and then we have to get all the buses in.

So we'll talk about that more.

So that's unique to Lake County.

Another thing unique to Lake County is we provide all the school service for the Waukegan High Schools.

We have an agreement with them.

The kids get a pass, and why that's so important to me is it's not just to go to and from school, but it's also to ride the bus anytime the bus is out there.

And as we start talking about revision, we want to get more service out there.

Our goal is to get people excited about riding transit and start them your early young, and the Joaquin partnership is fantastic in that regard.

The third thing that's unique that started in Lake County is we started a new program called Van Gogh.

And what what that came out when we came out of COVID, people aren't going to work every day.

We have a van pool program that you know you group together and you can go to work every day as a group.

Well, what we found is a lot of people weren't going to work every day anymore.

Some not at all.

They're staying at home and working.

So we started a program called Van Gogh, which started in Lake County at the Lake Forest Station and Lake Cook Road Station, actually starting Lake Hook and then Lake Forest Station, where we park vehicles there.

And if you're taking the train to those locations, there is a van waiting for you.

You subscribe to it, you call the day before, we give you the code to get in the vehicle, you take the vehicle to work, you return it after work, and you get back on the train.

You do that for $5, $250 each way.

We take care of the vehicle.

We we gas it, we clean it, we have it all ready for you.

You subscribe in advance, you get trained to use the vehicle, and it we started it up here, and it is now spread to about nine other locations.

We can put that anywhere.

So these are some of the really exciting things that we're doing in Lake County, and we want to talk about more of the exciting things that we're going to do through revision.

So now I'll get to my real presentation.

Thank you, Chair Clark and uh members of the board appreciate that you gave us the opportunity, and you put us early on our agenda on your agenda.

So we really appreciate that.

Sometimes we're all the way at the end.

You know, agenda, so yeah.

Thank you.

So, as you can see, our priority is always safety.

That's number one.

The rest fall underneath it, equity, efficiency, and environmental stewardship.

We're doing the environmental stewardship right at this location.

So we're pretty excited about that.

Next slide, please.

We operate through a family of services.

We have the fixed route buses that are taking the kids to the schools here and everybody else around the community.

We have on-demand services that we have operating up in Lake County, which is you call the bus to your location in some of the more areas that have fixed route bus just doesn't work.

Uh, we have our van pool service, which I talked about a regular and our van go, ADA services.

We are required by federal law, any place we have a fixed route, we must have ADA services within three-quarters of a mile of the fixed route, same days, um, same hours of service.

What that does is it leaves a lot of areas open in Lake County and all our color counties.

It's not, you're not unique to that.

Um, and so we partner with you through the Ride Lake program, where we provide about 50% of the cost.

We provide the equipment and the technology.

And then some of the innovative services that I discussed up here in Lake County, as well as we have down in Will County and up 94, where we can drive the shoulder of the expressways to get around traffic, and that has been tremendous.

If we are faster than the car, people will take us.

Next slide, please.

Just just to give you an idea of um our service area.

We we've covered 3,677 miles.

It's a gigantic service area.

We're about the it's about 15 times the size of the city of Chicago, just to give you some vision of our service area.

We cover 274 communities, and monthly ridership is a route in 2 million.

Our ridership is up to about 71% of pre-pandemic level.

In Waukegan, it's a little bit higher, it's about 74% of pre-pandemic level.

So we're pleased we're getting back to where we were before the pandemic hit us, and and it's a challenge because people are not commuting the same way and they're not going to work every day the same way they were.

So it used to be we take people to the train, they go downtown, or we're taking to the L and they go downtown, they come back, it's a nine to five situation.

Now it's all over the place, and what we have found is people are using our service more on weekends, more late at night.

And so we're starting to adapt to that and make changes to that.

So we've made a lot of service changes in the Waukeegan area, and these are just some of them again, expanded weekend service, longer hours, more weekday service, and more Saturday trips.

That's where we see the ridership is going, so we're starting to add to those areas.

It's still in transition.

Um, some people are coming back to work, many are not coming back to work, and we're going to continue to transition and do more in this area.

And that's what revision is going to talk about in a few minutes.

So for 2026, what do we have in store?

We want to grow the round lake area on demand service.

We've already grown it the size.

We're continue to get ridership.

We get very good support from the community, and they're pleased to have the service there.

Our van pool service, we're right now doing a big push on that.

I talked a little bit about it where people group together.

You can be a group of four people, up to 15 people who can group together.

With the fuel prices going up, it's really now's the time for us to really push Van Pool again.

And we provide the fuel, we provide the maintenance, the driver drives rides free, and the passengers pay a normal, we equate the distance to the fair so that it's close to a transit fare.

Uh Van Gogh, I talked about, we have two locations in Lake County.

We're expanding it.

We can put it anywhere.

That's the neat part about Van Gogh.

We can, if there's a need for it, we can put it there and we can do that relatively quickly.

We also have a van pool program that is called Advantage.

That is for agencies who have people who are certified to ride ADA service.

They can get the van pull program at a reduced rate, and then they can take their clientele to their workshops, their shelters with it.

So we it's called the ADA Advantage Program.

And then you all are aware of Ride Lake where we partner with you.

Capital investments, the thing I'm most excited about in Lake County.

Um being the first, sometimes is difficult, but we're going to work through all those issues, and we're starting to do that.

So we have one electric bus that is up in Lake County now.

Um, and we're we will expand that to 12, probably by the end of summer, as soon as the buses come in early early fall, um, then we're gonna be putting more buses in.

We also are responsible for passenger amenities.

Chair Clark and I were talking about we do a fun thing where we can um give a bus bench to a school or someone who's very artistic, they can um paint it and then return it to us.

There's an agreement, and then we will place it out for people to um to sit in in comfort waiting for the bus.

So we do a lot, we have about 90 shelters in Lake County.

These are some of the newer ones that we're working on or have been done.

Next slide, please.

And now I'll talk a little bit more about electrification.

So, as I said, end of December, we had a big event to announce that we're complete with our structure.

The structure is on the right side.

You can see it behind all the uh dignitaries who are at our event, including your chair.

Um, but in any case, that can house 12 vehicles.

We charge the buses.

Why is it outside?

Because we don't have the ability to keep the vehicles inside because of the fire risks, etc.

So it's outside until we complete the inside of the garage.

The inside will be done.

Uh we're starting it probably in July of this year if our schedule holds, but it's gonna be sometime late summer if it doesn't hold exactly to July.

And then we will um start redoing the whole garage, 60 buses electrified in Lake County.

Why Lake County?

Two reasons.

One, environmentally, we felt this was a very good place to start.

We have clean air, clean buses.

Two, we had to, before we started this endeavor, Project Zero, we had to model every bus route we have in our system to see if it can go all the way through its route during the day and return at night and get charged.

Well, Keegan was ideal because your routes are short enough, the area is short enough that we could do it in one fell swoop.

Other locations you'll either have to charge in route, which is expensive, you'll have to put some infrastructure out there, or we'll have to bring the bus in midday and charge.

So the goal is to keep the bus out and not have that midday charging.

And right now, our environment, some cases we have buses out 18 hours a day.

That has to change with electrification.

So there's a lot that has to go on behind the scenes in order to make it um effective.

But we're we're pretty excited that we're gonna start it right here.

Our goal is to have all of our um fleet done by 2040.

Um, but one thing I will tell you electrification is not an easy endeavor.

We have our first order of buses that we ordered in 2021.

We still don't have them.

Um that bus company actually went bankrupt, was bought out, it's now in the process of being bought out again.

So there are very few bus companies in the United States that um make electric buses, and and the problem is gonna be if you can't get the buses, you can't do it.

So we're working through those issues, but everyone in the United States is in the same boat.

You just can't get buses.

So with that, um, Senate Bill 2111 delivers us a significant new operating funding for the region.

And the RTA has estimated that about 564 million will be available for service in 2026, although it will take time for that to flow.

And one of the things that will happen is the RTA has to vote on a sales tax increase.

It's a quarter of a percent sales tax increase for increase for the collar counties.

They are set to do that in June.

Um, if that happens, then the money starts flowing to us.

Um that money will support all of our services, will support um our taxi access program that we have and our rideshare access program, which I didn't discuss.

That's another new innovation that Pace brought together.

We are using Uber and a company called USERV to provide additional pair of transit service for ADA certified people so they can call Uber You Serve and get a ride, which is a little bit different than using the Lake County ride program or our ADA service.

So with that, um I'm gonna turn it over to Eric.

He's gonna discuss revision, and then we are available to answer any questions that you have.

Well, well, good morning, everyone.

My name is Eric Louan.

I'm PACE's chief planning officer, and as Melinda mentioned, I'm here today to talk about our revision plan.

Just a little bit of background.

Revision is a project where we're looking to restructure our fixed route and on-demand network throughout the entire system, so not just in Lake County, but in all the counties that we serve.

And uh, I want to start off by saying that with the passage of the new NETA legislation, there will be some changes to how transit is is governed and financed within this region.

And so um there will be future policies established by Nita after June 1st, once that board gets established.

But we believe that our revision plan, uh, which was designed as a living service plan, can be adaptable and change based on the policies and measures that the new Nita board will be tasked with developing.

So with that, I will uh start off by kind of giving you a big picture of some of the the challenges that trade uh that PACE has traditionally faced and we're trying to tackle as part of revision.

So, as Melinda mentioned, we serve an extremely large service area.

It's well over 3,500 square miles.

There's 5.7 million people that live in the suburbs.

Um, this is comparable more to transit agencies that operate service for entire states.

So on the East Coast, um, smaller states like Connecticut and New Jersey, they they have transit service that's run by a single operator across the entire state.

So that's how large our service area is.

And unfortunately, uh PACE has historically not been funded at the level of our peers.

And so um, as an example, I mentioned Connecticut and New Jersey uh as places that uh operate a statewide service, they're able to provide 50% more bus service in Connecticut and twice as much service in New Jersey.

And if you look internationally, um, Toronto, for instance, is a comparable example to the Chicago area, their suburban service providers can provide three to five times as much service.

This isn't a matter of us not wanting to provide more service for the residents of Northeastern Illinois.

It is always comes back to funding.

We we've never had the level of funding needed to supply service to an area of this large and diverse.

So what we end up with is we end up with a bus network that has lots of low uh low frequencies, so routes that don't operate uh very often.

There's lots of waiting, so when the bus does show up, it may only run every 60 minutes, so once an hour, and so you have to wait a long time for the next bus to come.

And so you have to wait a long time for the next bus to come.

We also end up with big gaps in service.

So this map here is an example of some of those big gap issues.

This is our weekday service map, and you'll notice there's a lot of white space on this uh on this map.

So that these are locations where we don't have any fixed route service or on-demand service within the region.

So we end up with a bus network that's useful to relatively just a few number of people, and then we have lots of urgent and competing demands.

So all the time we're asked to provide service to various areas throughout the region that we don't service or where we where we do service, they want more service.

And with the lack of resources that we've traditionally had, we have been unable to fulfill many of those requests.

And when we are able to do so, we can only do so on a limited basis, and it doesn't really end up as being useful for the writers or our uh stakeholders.

As Melinda mentioned, the the NETA Act uh was passed last fall, and um will begin uh effective June 1st.

And so that really reshapes regional transit funding.

Um right now, uh as of today, um, funding is typically provided to the three service boards.

PACE is one of the service boards, CTA and Metro are the two other service boards through a predefined formula under the Nita Act, that's gonna change.

Um it'll be more of a performance and need-based funding process with service standards guiding how those resources should be uh allocated to the various service boards.

So uh beginning in 2027 through 2029, each service board will be funded at their 2025 funding levels, and then any amount that the region receives to fund transit beyond that will be distributed based on uh each service board's share of four key measures: unlinked passenger trips, passenger miles traveled, vehicle revenue hours, and vehicle revenue miles.

These are uh state uh measures that we as transit agencies have to report to the national transit database, which is a federal registry of various service statistics, and so these are going to be used to divvy up any remaining funds to the service boards beginning in 2020 thirty through 2032.

Each service board will continue to be funded at their 2025 levels, but instead of using those four measures that I previously mentioned, the new NITA board will have to establish service standards that uh are to look at a number of different uh thresholds and measures um to determine how uh funding should be allocated to the service boards beyond their 2025 funding levels.

So uh the legislation specifically calls out population density, employment density, and um a number of other key demographic characteristics, as well as some infrastructure um assessments such as intersection density and presence of sidewalks when determining where um uh funding should be provided.

And then beginning in 2033, funding will be solely distributed to the service boards based on these service standards that are as yet to be uh determined by by NITA.

So going forward, there is likely to be a greater focus on areas with higher population and employment densities as well as the presence of these other characteristics, which lends one to believe that funding will likely more likely be prioritized in areas that have more of these characteristics, although that still has to be defined by NITA.

So this slide is extremely important.

Yeah, okay.

I was gonna say, can we have the sure interrupt questions about this?

This slide, yes, vice chair.

Yeah, so those metrics sound good, they sound super vague as to what it means like passenger miles traveled, like you don't have many.

So we want you to have more.

We have a lot, we want you to have more.

Um, that second um set, the 192030 through 32.

That you touched on that population density, but a lot of those things can be you know mutually exclusive, right?

So you could have a low population density and low income and no car, and like and this is just you probably say, yeah, good question.

We don't know either.

Like, how are those things going to be weighted?

Like, what is their what is the overriding goal, right?

To get more people in to be more economically sustainable to force the different groups to like I don't see a metric there of saying something, and maybe I'm just not understanding it to say, hey, work more closely with one another to integrate the system.

You're smiling.

I I think you you asked all the right questions.

Um also our next slide actually touches on a little bit of what you're just inquiring about.

Um before you you skip the next slide.

I I just want to you're thinking the right questions.

This is what is in the legislation, and it's all going to have to be weighted now by the new NITA board.

The new NITA board is not even you know up and running as of yet.

And so it's gonna be very important that your voices get heard on the new NITA board.

Um because if they go on passenger trips, for example, PACE can't win.

Lake County can't win that battle.

So there has to be waiting so that you get enough of the service level, enough of the money to get more service out here, and what gets weighted more importantly is also another part of this.

So these are important questions, and um that's gonna be the nature of what goes on for the next few years as as the NITA board decides how they're gonna weight these items.

Yeah, so in the future it would be the board because I know looking at this, obviously, I mean, because there's areas that might be not as dense, but have do have like a low income population, but when you actually really need the service, but wouldn't qualify, it looks like under this.

So I guess I mean, because if you look at us versus the city of Chicago, we're never gonna have as many intersections, we're never gonna have as much population density, we're never we just won't.

And the presence of sidewalks too works against the collar counties.

It does.

Um so all of that has to be really you have to keep a good eye on that, and um as as this moves forward.

So this is written already into the new that is in the legislation.

That is in the legislation.

All right.

Yeah.

Well, I guess we will have to definitely say keep an eye on it and wait and see.

All right, thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry, uh Linda Soto would like to speak if that's all right.

All right, Linda.

Yeah, I just want to briefly add um that when the new Nita Service Board uh meets for the first time, as you can imagine uh a new committee at the county level, uh, they're gonna have uh a lot of decisions yet to make um on what their standards and procedures will be.

And so all of our jobs are gonna be to help uh shepherd them through that process, if you will, giving them uh good and thoughtful information and data um that helps them fine-tune how they're gonna measure the needs for service and where funds should be distributed.

The other thing that uh is not fully addressed in the legislation, but the NITA board will have to address, is uh more than ever, uh as we just covered in the early part of our presentation, we have all these new hybrid services of you if you will, and new ideas that uh such as on demand, um Van Gogh, and you know, these uh save money and yet provide very good service, and there's no measurement for for those types of needs yet, and and how those would be considered to get funding.

Um but given the changes that have occurred with uh work schedules, not everybody going to work every day, the change in hours, um certainly the way of the future, I think is gonna be to uh have to provide more of these hybrid services, if you will.

So um keep that in mind as we move forward through the presentation.

Yeah, and it seems like with this NITA board, I believe our pace representative won't be on the NITA board.

It'll be our but then but it sounds like the NITA board will be making decisions for PACE, but there will still be a PACE board, right?

Correct.

So there will still be the three service boards.

Our focus will be more on operating the system and um you know, scheduling will have to present to them, you know, what we're gonna schedule for the year, and we're gonna have to work through all these processes.

There's gonna be a lot to work, you know.

When there's something new, you have to work through.

Yeah, we're we are hopeful that what you'll get is a more coordinated system between the three service boards, and I will tell you, we all work well together.

You might not have read that in the news, but we do.

Um where we fight is over money.

Yeah, um, and so you know, when when one agency wants to do something and we don't get enough money, we're fighting to get every penny we can for all of our our services.

So now we're gonna have to continue that with more money, and but the goal is for Nita to have more of the coordination on the top, for example, um, you know, destination signs, things like that where the information is coming out, and you know, we have real-time information that on a lot of our shelters and a lot of our locations that should be all integrated between us, CTA and Metro.

So I think that's a good part about all of this.

The service level, what happens in all of the different areas that we serve and PACE is the most unique out of the service boards because we serve dense areas, intersuburban, we serve um, we go into Cooktown, we go into downtown with our express buses, et cetera.

We serve, um, we go into Cook County, we go into downtown with our express buses, et cetera.

We serve CTA to the L stations, um, but we also serve very rural areas.

And um, so we have to do it differently.

And the rural areas are not going to have the passenger trips, but they still need the service.

And then maybe that's where you were talking about these new ideas.

I'm just hoping the new ideas, because that works well, maybe in our area, but they might not work well with the metrics.

Yeah.

So that's what what we're gonna have to continue to pursue.

I and so for the PACE board, the Lake County representative is just on the PACE board, but your second um board member is on Metro and the Nita board, right?

So I guess we'll just have to make sure that that person doesn't I mean we have to make sure they understand all of the requirements.

The Lake County people have to talk well together.

Yeah, we'll have to talk well.

Okay.

Yeah, this is I know it's a new day.

We have to, I guess, embrace change.

That's why we wanted to come out here.

It was very important for us to come out here and explain the new day.

And you know, we consider ourselves pace considers ourselves an extension of you.

We are a suburban agency, but our board is also going to change.

So we need your voices in there.

Yeah, that is a good for us to keep in mind.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I just want to add too that the service standards I listed here beginning in 2030 that are shown.

Um, those are specifically called out in the legislation, but it is possible that Nita may and can add additional measures beyond what's listed here.

These were just the ones that were specifically listed in the legislation that they had to include.

So going back to a question that was asked about you know investing in services that are in dense areas versus um services that are in less dense areas, that's that's the essential question that all transit agencies have to ask themselves in terms of how you allocate your resources.

So, do you want to invest more in generating more ridership for your services, or do you want to focus more on providing access to service, even though you may not get as many riders?

And so answering this question kind of helps determine how you might wish to allocate your resources for the services that you provide.

So on this slide, there's two images.

The image on the upper left is showing um what you would what your system would look like if you wanted to focus solely on ridership.

So it's an extreme example, but in this fictional town, all the little dots that you see on the map are people.

And so, since most of the people live along those two corridors, you would concentrate your service in those two corridors so that it runs frequently, often on many days of the week to capture as many of those people as possible.

The downside to that approach is you see that there are still some dots that are outside those corridors that wouldn't have access to service.

So the trade-off is you might have more riders, but you're not necessarily serving everyone or not everybody has access to service.

Conversely, you could invest more in coverage service.

So in the image you see in the bottom left, you could put routes all over the place.

The the challenge with with that though is when you do that, you're spreading your resources thin, and so your services can't be as frequent, maybe can't run as late or as often.

And so you're not getting as many riders, but you are you are allowing people to have some access to service.

So there are trade-offs in both approaches, but these are the essentially the essential questions that you have to ask as as a transit agency, how do you want to deploy those resources?

And this is what we were trying to address and figure out ourselves as we were developing our draft network plan for revision.

So, based on the uh changes that um were outlined in the Nita Act, as well as um you know, discussions that we've had both with external stakeholders, our board, and the public, we are gonna be focusing more on some higher density, higher walkability, and higher need populations in in alignment with where NITA is ultimately going.

However, we also acknowledge that we also need to think about coverage.

So, based on on that feedback that we've received, our board um uh told us that they'd like to see about 70% of any additional um resources that we have focus on ridership and 30% on coverage services.

I might add we have a planning committee, and director Soto is part of the planning committee that spent hours on looking at all of our service and making some decisions, and that's how we ended up with um the split.

So to help us figure out uh, you know, where services should be provided and what that should look like.

There's a number of uh key data pieces that we've looked at.

So we looked at where people live, where they work, where people travel, we had access to anonymized cell phone data to see how uh people can travel over the course of a given day.

We looked at um our existing services and ridership levels, uh, and other key demographic uh characteristics, such as people living in poverty, people without cars, the walkability of a given area.

Fortunately for us, many of the the measures and and pieces of data that we were looking at are in alignment with what Nita has already outlined that they will be looking at as well.

So that's why we think revision will be a very good fit to the regional service planning process.

So this slide here is essentially showing um two maps on the left.

This is uh an image of our existing weekday service at noon, and on the right is uh the service that we operate on Sundays as of today.

Um, just to help orient you to the colors on the map, a dark red line means uh the bus is most frequent, so it runs every 15 minutes or better over the course of a day.

Um purple line means it runs every 20 minutes, a dark blue line every 30 minutes, a light blue line every 40 to 60 minutes.

If you see a tan line that has more limited service, so maybe the route only operates during the weekday peak hours, a dashed line is an express bus service, and then the the blue, I'll call them blobs are our on-demand zones that we have throughout the region.

Um, one thing I like to point out here is when you look at our Sunday map, you can clearly see that there is a tremendous amount of white space.

Um fortunately in Lake County, you are the only Collor County that has any Sunday service right now.

Um, so there are four routes that currently operate in the greater Waukegan area on Sundays, but for the most of the region outside of um the areas right outside of uh Chicago, there is no access to Sunday service.

So as Melinda mentioned previously, there's a tremendous opportunity here to look at um expanding service on the weekends in particular uh throughout this region.

So this is uh the same weekday and Sunday map that you saw previously, but with the changes associated with our draft network plan.

Again, this is a proposal.

This is what we've come up with at this point.

Our goal is to uh eventually go out to public outreach, get feedback from other external stakeholders as well as the public on this.

But we wanted to show you a preview of what this looks like right now to um you know sort of set the table for this future outreach effort.

So, what you'll notice is on on weekdays, this is the same weekday map, but at noon, there's a tremendous amount of uh darker lines on this map, meaning we really ramped up frequency levels um throughout um the region.

And on Sundays, um it don't that map almost essentially mirrors the the map that you see on weekdays.

So now uh under the draft network plan, service would be available seven days a week, almost at the same levels on all seven days.

So a tremendous increase in service um throughout the region.

And I wanted to call out a couple of things specifically for Lake County to note as part of this draft network plan.

Except for a few uh commuter or school oriented services, all fixed routes would operate seven days per week, whereas only today you just have the four routes that operate uh seven days per week.

There'd be more frequent service and approved hours of service on most of the routes that are in the county.

So, for instance, um there are 11 routes or corridors that would have service every 30 minutes or better most of the day.

Today, there's only five routes that operate at that level in in Lake County.

If you're if there's a route that operates every 60 minutes, service would run until at least 7 p.m.

seven days per week.

And if you have a route that operates every 30 minutes, that service would run until 9 p.m.

seven days per week.

So again, the access and level of service be substantially improved.

Oh, question, go ahead.

Okay.

Um and then I wanted to point out a couple of specific key changes too that we were looking at.

So um there is a new route that uh would uh operate under this plan, Route 575 that would travel between Waukeegan and the Hawthorne Mall in Vernon Hills.

So we would link downtown Waukegan and the Waukegan area to the Milwaukee Avenue corridor in Central Lake County.

Um so those are just some key highlights I wanted to touch on, and I'll turn it over to you to ask your question.

Thanks.

I was just wondering what type of data you used to make the decision that a Sunday service should be the same as a weekday service because for many people their lives are varied, not everybody, you know, depending on your work, but for many people, their lives are very different on Sunday.

And so therefore there would be service that they don't need.

Uh uh I I really liked your 70-30 because when I saw those earlier maps that I love those little diagrams, I'm like, yeah, but if you try to be all things to all people, then you're nothing, right?

And you're not, you don't have the money and the resources, even with additional funding to be able to take care of those things.

So, you know, sometimes there should be blank spaces, and that's okay, right?

I mean, so what back to my original question, giving my framework.

What data did you use to say, yeah, Sunday should look almost the same as every other day of the week?

So it I I I hate to say this as because it's most people try to erase this from their memory, but the the pen pandemic was a blessing in that regard because one of the things we learned from it is there's a tremendous amount of opportunity for people wanting to travel beyond just the traditional weekday commute period.

So that was where we've traditionally focused most of our resources is meeting people's needs during the nine to five work hours.

The pandemic changed that.

Um that that market is much smaller now than what it used to be.

And there are a lot more people traveling during the weekday off peak periods and on weekends.

We're seeing it on our existing ridership patterns, and so that's what led us to believe that there is a greater need and demand for more seven-day uh a week service.

What I will just add to what Eric said is we have been putting out weekend service and late-night service, and the growth rate has been like 20%.

We we we have seen it, we we're doing it.

We threw out pilots to do things quickly after the pandemic.

Let's try this, let's try that.

And what we found is the weekend is where we're getting a lot more ridership, and that's why we're focusing on that.

And I will also say that because PACE was so starved for money, we just didn't put out weekend service.

And the problem with that was that if you can't depend on transit on the weekend, you don't want to depend on it during the week.

It it they correlate, they fit together.

And so um we're very excited about putting more weekend service out.

Director Soto, I think, wants to say something.

Yeah, I also wanted to add that, you know, the Great Lakes Naval Base uh contacted Chair Hart and uh uh Melinda Metzger and I went and met uh actually with them because there was a great need uh for weekend service, Sunday service um that would serve the Great Lakes Naval Base.

And you know, we all felt that that was highly important.

And again, again, changes with employment and employment needs that already existed but are are growing, is you know, we have a lot of manufacturing jobs and service jobs that actually have Sunday shifts or schedules.

Uh so uh there is a demand for the Sunday service.

Thank you.

And we'll add is as we add fixed route services.

Remember, we have to add corresponding ADA services under our expense and not the county's expense.

So that's also another important element of this.

And I'm glad to see I'm glad to see this map.

Just I know um I I I lived in Europe for a year, and I know like when you once, like you said, once you use either you can use transit to get places or you can't.

And if you don't offer service on the weekends, then you have to get a car.

Like there's no like you have no choice.

And I know, and I'm I was really glad my question was actually gonna be about that corridor.

I happen to live on the Milwaukee Avenue corridor, and I've talked I have known a lot of people who work in the Burning Hills area, and people have said they really would like to be able to take a bus from you know different areas to get there to work, but with no weekend service, with very infrequent service, they just couldn't.

So it really cuts down on the availability of people who can work and um and then the people who do work, then they have extra expenses.

Sometimes they have to take Ubers home.

I mean, it can be because of that.

So I was really glad because you know, the grocery stores and the all the big stores are all open all week on weekends.

And so if people can incorporate it in their life and depend on it, I feel like that'll hopefully help grow um the writers up.

Exactly.

The one other thing I'd just like to add, and your points are so valid.

I really appreciate what you're bringing forth.

Um we have all this information on our website, so you don't have to strain your eyes trying to see it.

Um, but you know, go in there and also the county staff has been part of us as we developed.

Um, and I want to thank the county staff for all of your support and being part of we've had meetings and meetings and brought out all the maps and and went through all the data.

And um we've we've gotten to a point now.

Our next step is once Nita's formed to bring it to Nita and say we want to continue along the road.

Um, and it will be to bring all of this information back to our our committee that worked on this, which includes Lake County, and then bring it out to public comment.

Um, once we get public comment, we'll re-evaluate this plan.

So this is not done.

Oh, that's good to know.

And I want I really wanted you to know that.

But this is where we are in the process right now, and this is what we're visioning at this point.

But there's time for more input, and there's time to to really um get this completed.

The the question for us is we can't even because we need to know how much money there is.

That's gonna depend on what this map will look like.

What is it?

Is there a time frame on that?

Do you think?

Um, well, there's a little bit of money being put out hopefully very soon by the RTA board.

They they plan to release some money.

Um that money is going towards a few things, not all of it is you know, for PACE.

What we're getting is we're gonna have the ability to open up other garages on the weekends, which is a very good thing for us.

Uh when you have the gun the garage completely closed and no service, you guys are kind of lucky, but it will let us put more service out.

Um security, most of that security money is gonna go towards CTA.

Um, we just don't have as many issues, but we do have issues, and we want to get some of that security money.

What we've been told is that that will be part of what this working group is doing with um the Cook County Sheriff's Office, and he's the Cook County Sheriff has brought in the Lake County Sheriff.

So we're gonna have to work through those issues.

We can we have some visions as to what we'd like to see to enhance our security.

That being said, we do have a lot of security that we put in place.

All of our buses have cameras on them.

Um, and if our drivers have an incident, they can alert our dispatch offices who can open the cameras, we can see what's going on.

We we can locate our buses with the real-time information to help the police uh locate where the problem is.

So we do have some of our own security features, but we use local police to to help us when we have incidents on our buses, and we have terminals that it would be nice to have an ability to have those being monitored as opposed to you know just the bus drivers monitoring when they go through.

So we do have security needs, and I'm I'm gonna keep pushing that.

All right, good.

And director Soto, I think what's the yes, would you like to speak again?

Yeah.

Yeah, I I just wanted to add uh you know, a reminder that I am on the planning committee, and so I'm very close to the revision plan.

And when revision was first started, of course, we didn't know that we were gonna have the change with the Nita board and the transit boards.

Um so that has caused a few delays.

We had expected to be out for public input um actually this spring.

Um, and of course, with all the changes and the new service boards, um, it made sense to delay that.

And you know, even with talking with the governor's office, um, you know, wanted to work more directly with Nita and get their input.

Now the good news is I think that it it's it's worth waiting for that because I I think it's gonna make it more exciting, more dynamic.

I expect that the new uh NITA board will be made up of some uh very great candidates that are gonna welcome this information, look at it and analyze it.

And again, I just uh want to reinforce that message if we all need to help them shepherd through this.

Um, make sure they understand what Lake County needs and where our priorities are.

And you know, I think they will all make good sound decisions.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear you're on the planning committee for this.

That is really important.

And yeah, you're right.

I think we just definitely have to keep making sure that we are on top of this and we're making our needs known to our representatives.

And I just want to point out too what you see here on this map for the draft network plan.

This uh is essentially showing in our request is that we can grow our service by 50 percent, which translates into roughly about 150 million more dollars than what PACE receives now.

All right.

So one of the other things we did is we also did an access uh analysis to determine how uh access to our service could change, both how it how would it change from where we're at today versus how it would change under the the draft plan.

So we wanted to see how many residents and jobs would be near any frequent service, or uh how many residents and jobs would be near any service at all.

So on weekdays, you can kind of see the percentages as they exist under the current network as well as on Sundays, and then when you look at the draft plan, you can see that there is uh uh an improvement, and especially on weekends, almost a three to four times uh three to four time increase in the amount of uh access to frequent service or any service at all.

So again, the draft network plan does provide more access to the service as well as more access to frequent service.

And then the other uh slide, the last slide here, I just wanted to touch on how the money would be allocated throughout the region for these various changes.

So roughly about 40% of uh any additional new funds would be uh invested in Cook County, uh primarily in more frequent service on um some existing routes, whereas in the collar counties, about 60% of those resources be devoted to increasing services to every 30 minutes or adding new coverage or on-demand services uh where needed within within those counties.

And as Melinda had mentioned, the next step would be to wait for the need of board to come online and hopefully do public outreach um here, not in the not too distant future to get more uh external feedback as well as public feedback on this draft network plan.

Yeah, we will definitely want to be involved in publicizing that and making sure we have our input.

So we'll have to keep us posted on that.

That's what that's going to happen.

Terrific, thank you.

All right, Member Wasick.

Thank you.

And thank you again for coming out, and we're always delighted to have you here, especially when you bring good news for Lake County.

And uh we always appreciate that.

But a few specific questions.

Uh Melina, you mentioned Route 565 CLC.

Um, how is that being expanded?

Um I don't expect to have all the details in front of you, but uh so that was a change that we we made uh previously.

We added some additional trips uh to fill in some, I think it was some later evening trips, if I remember correctly.

So there'll be more runs, in other words.

Right.

Okay, there's some trips that we we are operating later into the evening.

Um there were some employees that needed some access to get back to downtown Walkegan, though so we added some additional trips.

Okay, and you also mentioned the Round Lake on Demand program as how is that being expanded?

We uh expand we doubled the size to cover more area.

Um and uh it is res we've gotten good results from doing that more access.

So we're we're really pleased that we're able to do that.

And we're looking at weekend services um on in the future.

We're right now looking at that actually in in Joliet.

Okay.

Um also uh some time ago we discussed the idea of transit hubs.

So I know you're you're working on this.

I think it was Harvey, but I was wondering if you were still considering transit hub concept or planning for Lake County with Metro and other services.

Yeah, so that's something that is still something we're we're taking a look at as part of the draft network plan.

There are already some natural hubs that exist.

So for instance, downtown Waukegan, a lot of the buses converge in downtown Waukeegan, um, not only to connect with other buses, but also to provide access to the UP North line at the station that you have in downtown Waukeegan.

We also have some hubs um in Vernon Hills at the Hawthorne Mall.

So there's several routes that converge there as well as at the College of Lake County.

So the Round Lake on Demand as well as several other bus routes connect there as well.

Um so wherever we have multiple routes, there's the potential for some transit hubs.

I know that was something that Lake County looked at as part of uh its recent transit planning process that it went through with identifying some locations where transit hubs could potentially exist through throughout Lake County.

But we're we're definitely open to that concept and we do it in other locations.

Unfortunately, some of the hubs that that Eric brought up, they're just on street hubs, which we'd rather have a dedicated transit facility.

And we've done that, and we're doing that in some other areas, and it's working very well.

If I can make one suggestion, uh Grace Lake has four metro stations, so it might be a uh a candidate for your future planning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see Director Soto would like to, I think, comment on that too.

Yeah, I'm gonna add a comment from a planning perspective.

Um, discussions we've had at the planning committee low level, and this goes back to working with the Nita board and them expanding measurements, ideas, and hybrid services, if you will.

So again, there's gonna be a lot of work.

Um because in the past, you know, we've talked about some of our uh legacy routes that we have.

Um, you know, we're actually adding service, which is great.

Um there will be more ridership because now, oh, I can take that bus because I used to could just get to work, but I couldn't get back home on that bus.

Now it's running later or it's running more frequent.

But there's also these legacy routes that we've had discussions about should these routes of uh continue to be as long or as big as they are, should they be shortened and should on demand take over in certain areas?

Um should some of these legacy routes perhaps be converted to an express bus, then an on-demand bus could go to a transit hub, if you will, or a location and transfer to an express bus.

So these are all ideas that are still very strong at the planning level.

Um there's no measurement or consideration in the current legislation for the NITA board.

Uh that certainly doesn't mean as Eric had stated earlier that the NITA board is going to have the power to add and build and uh uh expand what their parameters will be for planning transit and how they will provide.

So again uh it's it's continuing to do this work and bringing them the proper information and data.

Thank you.

Actually, that was the question I was gonna I was gonna ask that question, so thank you for answering it.

Member Casber.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Uh thanks, Chair.

Um I had a question about um if you don't have service yet to an area or there's less frequent service.

What are the indicators that you would like to expand service there or add service there to that location?

Yeah, so typically if it's an existing service, um we look at uh existing ridership patterns.

So um, what is the productivity of the service?

How many passengers per hour do we have?

And we compare that to other routes that we operate in the region to see where does it fall within the spectrum of uh activity.

So if it has uh low levels of of service today, but we see that there's a high level of usage, even though there's low levels of service, it's a good candidate for increased levels of service for for new routes or new services.

We're we're looking to try to target uh areas, you know, many of those measures that I showed that Nita is going to be looking at.

We look at those same measures ourselves.

And so we're we're we're also trying to find locations where there's the greatest potential for for usage of the service.

At the end of the day, as a public transit provider, most of our resources to run our services come through some form of um public subsidy.

It's not through the fare box, it's through public subsidy.

And so we're trying to maximize the resources that we have so we can provide as much service as possible.

And so the more riders we can get, the more resources we potentially have access to to expand that service.

So that's really where our focus is.

But we also are mindful of the fact that we uh in in the suburbs in particular, we also have to provide coverage that may not generate as much ridership.

So it's it's a balancing act.

But I I will add Pace has taken the approach that we can start services with municipalities, townships, um, where we can provide vehicles, they can show um there's growth here and they need a fixed route bus.

So we can start with something smaller, a van pull program, and then build into the service.

So we have other options.

And and our goal is quite frankly, when we do the on-demand, if we can find a pattern, we want to get rid of the on-demand and put a regular fixed route out there.

And you might say, well, why would you want to do that?

Well, fixed route is actually more efficient than on-demand because you group people together, you take them to where they're going efficiently.

On demand, you're picking people up here all along the route.

But if you can see a pattern there, you can pull that pattern and do a fixed route.

Right.

So some of the times when we start services, that's how they start.

We started it with something different than it was, and hey, people are all going to the same place.

Let's get a fixed route in there.

And and we do that a lot in in some of the other counties.

We're actually in DePage County, we're working, they had an area that they they couldn't, they needed service, but there was no pattern.

And so we worked with them and provided um a service for them that's very scattered.

And they're like, wait a minute, now this is too much service because it's very expensive for us.

They're paying for the service, and they're like, let's pull the patterns out of it and make it into fixed route.

So that's that's how things develop.

That's so interesting.

Thank you.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

So I had a question about the um two questions.

One is about the you and you mentioned the program with the Waukegan School District and about how people uh take the buses to school and also then have access to like a bus pass.

Correct.

And you know I grew up in Ohio in a city in Cincinnati, and we had the same thing.

Like we took the city bus to school, and then I mean, starting in seventh grade, and then um we always look to city bus all around the city, right?

It just became part of like a normal thing.

So when you're looking at your draft, the straft plan, are you looking at maybe other school districts along these new routes to see about partnering, especially with the ones on the routes?

Um yes and no.

And I'm gonna answer it that way because it's a very difficult trend uh question for transit.

So we as a transit agency that is funded by the federal government cannot compete with private industry.

In Walkegan, what happened that was very unique?

Um, you had rider school bus up here.

They went out of business or they moved, they moved.

They said they don't want to do this anymore.

They moved, and we had to appeal to the federal government to allow us to do the service, and we had to ask the the private companies to say no one is here who wants the service.

And so that's how we get in with the Waukeegan School District.

Can we do that elsewhere?

Maybe, but there's got to be the right circumstances.

But one of the things that we can do more of is school passes.

Um, so that um there's an integrated school pass that they can ride the services that we have.

So we're working with the the new NITA board when they're on board to see how we're gonna do that.

What's and again, you know, I I hate to say this, it it comes down to okay, we have a school pass, what's our share of the revenue?

Because you can't just have the school pass and have more riders and we don't get the revenue for it because in the end, then we can't put more service out, right?

And so there's a lot behind the scenes that have to happen to make this work the right way.

All right.

That is that explains it.

All right, thank you.

And another question is is is could you just briefly go over the vango how it works?

Is Van Gogh you you drive a van?

I've that's what I was trying to figure out.

Yeah, and I I can actually leave you with some I can leave you with some material which I which I have here.

But uh briefly what it is is we have a van that is parked at the Lake Forest train station and Lake Hook Road Station.

Um it we have a electronic mechanism to release it to a driver.

You as the passenger, um, if you want to use the service, we have signs there and we advertise through companies.

You call us the day before.

You have already passed our background check, which is you know, your your driver's license abstract is good.

Um, that you have taken, we have a a video uh driving test, and so you have to go through that.

Once you're cleared, you're subscriber.

You can call any day and say, Hey, I need the van tomorrow, and you can take the van from the train station to your work location, you can take it out to lunch, you have to return it that night.

Um you can go as an individual or you can group together.

If there's more people going to your work site, you can group together.

Then when you group together, you don't pay the fare, the individuals pay the fare.

So um, but it it's individuals driving a van that we have sitting at the station.

Okay.

And it and it's people are using it.

People are using it.

Yeah, it's that last mile pro problem, right?

They can they can get there for those reverse commuters.

That sounds like a good option.

All right, thank you.

Are there any I know we've any other questions?

This has been really helpful.

I really appreciate you coming out here and Director Soto, because obviously this is a big time of transition.

And some of and for us to understand all these things, I think is really important for going into this time so that we can best advocate for Lake County um and make sure that our residents are really hopefully better served into the future.

So thank you both so much.

Uh you know, this was really, really helpful.

Oh, in fact, Director Soto, I think was to say something.

Yes.

Well, and and I thank you, because uh this is very helpful for us, and I would really like to uh continue these discussions and participation with the committee uh through the summer as you know this all gets worked through.

Um and I just want to add um the thought going back to uh one of the measures is access to walkability sidewalks and paths.

And uh when I got on the pace board ten years ago, uh as a former mayor, I started marching around to all my fellow mayors in our municipality saying you have to go back and look at your comprehensive plans, and you know, we're not thinking about transit the way we should.

Uh and and a key example was in the village of Hainesville, Route 120 and Hainesville Road.

Uh we fought forever to get another bus shelter on the uh uh south side of uh 120.

Uh and and actually a more adequate one on the on the other side as well.

And uh it was a walkability issue, it was IDOT right-of-way issue.

Uh thankfully uh Lake County Department of Transportation came to our aid, and it took several years, but we finally got that turn lane put in.

Um and it has made such a difference because you know, you're not gonna use a bus if there's not a safe place for you to stand and wait for it, and or protect you from the elements, cars driving by splashing you, whatever.

So one of the concerns I do have, and uh Director Main mentioned or touched on this, you know, we have uh lower income air areas, they may be more rural, and so the question is is there sidewalks that they're passed?

They have a great need for service.

Um how do we address that?

Uh it's it's not gonna be pace putting in a sidewalk, but whose job is that?

Or does that should that count against them for not getting service?

So I'm just throwing out there that there these are are things that the county and municipalities are gonna have to think about and address better.

Yeah, and I think and we've we've looked because we've talked many times about the the lack of bus shelters.

I know I was just driving by in my town and looking at people just sitting in the grass waiting for buses to come.

And I at least it seems like a lot of these routes are along state routes, and a lot of these state routes don't have the sidewalks, and so people don't have sidewalk, and that's the state issue again.

And I know that is really frustrating, Amber Remember.

And I'm glad you mentioned that because that's the same in my district that I see people we don't even have side of Z I I represent Zion and Beach Park and we have one shelter and that's on the front of town in Beach Park.

It's not any in Zion on down Sheridan Road.

People are sitting in the rain on the grass.

Yep.

Yeah.

These are all really first of all.

I have to thank you know this commissioner, this board for your your questions are excellent and very intuitive of what needs to happen.

Um the suburban areas all don't have sidewalks.

And that of course concerns us when that's one of the criteria.

Great, but who's going to pay for the sidewalks?

We don't have funding to pay for sidewalks.

If we paid for sidewalks, we wouldn't have funding to put service on the road.

Yeah.

Um it's a chicken or the egg kind of thing.

And there's a lot of places where our um riders are standing in grassy areas with no shelters or anything else.

And so we would like to get more out there.

That is part of the legislation.

There is a committee or there's a section that talks about having funding for um sidewalks.

Question is how much funding.

The the whole bill is 1.25 billion dollars annually.

Um of that there is about um a hundred and eighty million, 160, 180 million that is needed for um for just to keep the service the way it is today.

So there's about 400,000 four sixty-five left for what we all need to expand.

And the question's gonna be who's gonna get that and and how are we gonna do this?

Yeah, member Austin.

Just a real quick question regarding sidewalks again, Melinda.

Could you give us a thumbnail on how we know there's some interaction needed with municipalities on this, but what is the process for actually getting a sidewalk up to a pad with a shelter?

Because we have like a lot of people standing along Route 45 in the middle of winter.

There's there's no pad, there's no shelters, there's no sidewalk.

Um we would be happy to help us.

We will do the shelter and the pad, but we won't do the sidewalk leading up to it.

Okay.

Um, so we do need your assistance, whether it's county right of way or or municipality right-of-way, or sometimes state right-of-way.

I will tell you that it takes us a long time to get um our permitting through just for the the shelter pad itself.

You have to have engineers look at it.

We have to um have engineers that draw up all of the specifics, and it's a very expensive and lengthy process.

One of our suggestions is if, for example, if it's an IDOT right of way, why don't the IDOT engineers say, okay, we'll look at it and we'll draw it up and then you can get the permit to do it.

Um we want to speed it up, but you also have county areas where we have to do that.

We have um municipal areas, and if you have a location, we're happy to work with you on that and try and work with the municipality.

Problem is lots of times the municipalities don't have the funding either to do that.

So just one follow-up real quickly.

Um, who initiates that process?

Does it have to come from the village if it's in a municipality?

You mentioned an IDOT corridor, the one I'm talking about is definitely IDOT.

I dot.

Um, if you give give us the corner and location, and we can start to look at it and work with um, you know, it always helps us if if the county's also pushing it besides just us.

Okay.

Um that that's helpful just to get the process going.

Okay.

Yeah.

And and we'll be happy to do that.

Thanks.

Member Casway.

Um, John, um, I'll talk to you in a little bit.

Um, you might be thinking of the same location I'm thinking of.

There's there are sometimes people with disabilities like in the street waiting for the bus.

So it's um kind of untenable for them.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

And I think it is a little confusing in that I know like in my town, it's a state route, it's a state road, but it's in a municipality, and so it's always there's like that push and pull, and maybe the municipality doesn't want to, and it's like who gets it started because IDOT is probably not gonna get it started.

And if the municipality says, well, it's a state road, it seems difficult.

It it is difficult.

I will not lie about that, but we're we're happy to get it started if if you give us the location, and but then we do need the the push besides us.

Yeah, well, we are happy to push.

We are good at that.

And then Linda, I'll give you the last word.

Okay, yeah.

I just want to add in more thoughts on that because I'll go back to my Hainesville example.

Uh, you know, Haynesville is a municipality took a strong stance uh not only to try to get that turn lane put in uh off of 120 turning north on the Hainesville Road, uh, but we took a strong stance on getting the bus shelter uh uh working with IDOT.

And so uh we then uh sought the aid and was offered the aid from Lake County DOT.

We even had to get uh who at the time was uh Senator Melinda Bush involved.

She went to the IDOT office with us.

So um it's a mixed bag of who needs to start this.

And the question is I would like to see Nita to try to come up with a more streamlined system to address this.

And I don't know offhand what exactly that answer would be, but there's got to be a much better way to do this because on the flip side, you can have municipalities that don't want a sidewalk somewhere, yet they want bus service.

They don't want bus shelters for many different reasons.

Yeah, so there's a lot of different things that come to into play.

It's very frustrating.

But but um I would like to at least see also uh as far as a shelter, a much more streamlined process.

There isn't that much difference between bus shelters, yet every time we put one in, you would think we were building a new building from scratch as far as the engineering approvals we have to go through and the money we pay and the amount of time it takes.

Um people want that bus shelter today, and we could put it in quickly if we weren't going through this very lengthy process, and that just seems really unnecessary.

So that's another area that we really need to push to get streamlined.

Definitely, definitely.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Again, this has been so helpful and we uh we enjoyed it too.

Okay, thank you.

I know we're good in this one.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Item eight.

Item 8.4 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with Triggy Construction Inc.

West Chicago, Illinois, in the amount of 245,520 for concrete patching on various county highways and appropriating 295,000 of motor fuel tax funds.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Kasmin, second by Roberts.

Good morning, Director Schneider.

All right, good morning, committee members, and thanks to Pace for getting us warmed up.

Yeah.

Um concrete patching.

Uh, these are areas on the county highway system that are uh made of concrete and are in need of repair.

These could be sidewalks, they could be the curb and gutter, or they could be the roadway service themselves.

We try to batch them together when these things are adjacent to each other.

If we're doing some patching, we do it all at once.

You can see on the map there's four different distinct locations, and then the quantity of patches in each of those areas is listed in the box.

Uh, this was a low bid award that we do on an annual basis.

Yeah, it's important maintenance for the roads.

Any questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 8.5 is a joint resolution authorizing an agreement with Alfred Bench and Company, Chicago, Illinois, to provide phase one professional engineering services for improvements along Bonner Road from Darrell Road to Fairfield Road, a mat at a maximum cost of 3,267,871 and appropriating $3,922,000 of the county option motor fuel tax funds.

Can I get a motion in a second, please?

Motion by Kasmin, second by Maine.

So this is phase one engineering.

So preliminary engineering and environmental review.

Um this is a 3.6 mile corridor.

Uh Darrell Road is on the far west, the left side of the map, and then Fairfield Road is on the east side.

So we'll be breaking this project into kind of two primary components.

Um the west section will be from Darrell Road to US 12.

What we're looking to do there is resurface the road to improve pavement condition, and then we're gonna look for an opportunity to convert the on-road bike path to be an off-road bike path.

Um this is you know identified as part of the Grand Illinois Trail.

There's an on-road path, but the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.

Um it so we could improve safety quite a bit if we look to move that off-road.

So that'll be a key component of the analysis for the west portion on the east portion of the project from uh US 12 on the west to Fairfield on the east.

Um, we'll be looking to improve safety along that corridor.

Uh this area was identified in our safety action plan as having higher than average risk factors.

So we'll be looking for the opportunity to convert um that roadway section from two lanes to three.

That'll allow for left-turn movements to get out of the travel lanes and improve safety quite a bit.

Uh, we're also gonna look at the intersections through that corridor to see if improvements can be made.

Uh, we'll look at both roundabout and turning lane enhancements for for those uh locations.

And then the third key component will be looking at non-motorized facilities.

Uh we have recently reduced the speed limit on a portion of that to 35 miles per hour, so that may be appropriate for an on-road path, but we're also going to look for opportunities to go with an off-road path.

There is tight right-of-way constraints out there.

There's a lot of commercial businesses, particularly around the west side, and then we have the forest preserve on the east side.

So we'll take all that into consideration.

And then of course we'll coordinate closely with the Forest Preserve to see if we can get some good connections into the Lakewood Forest Preserve District.

So that's that's the project in a nutshell.

We are going to pursue federal funding on the east side, so we'll keep this project federally eligible.

Terrific.

Yes.

And I'm happy to go to the forest preserve with some of this.

That and I sure member Wasick knows because we both cycle a lot.

When you take the Millennium Trail and you cross Bonner Road and you head north there, it's horrible.

It's horrible.

It's a quick turn.

The concrete is in bad shape.

There's a driveway there, and then it's gravel down and rudded, and it is really dangerous.

So I'm happy, you can too, to talk to the forest preserve if there's the ability to expand.

And you know, you know what I'm talking about, John?

I know exactly where it is.

It's terrible.

I I think it's very dangerous.

Yeah, people are gonna.

I'm I'm sure people, I know people have fallen and scraped their knees.

Um, but that would just be such a logical work together for a little money, one you know, and and just get that really safe, especially if you're looking to connect that with the um Illinois Trail.

Thank you.

Thank you for that feedback.

Member Was it?

Yes, thank you, Chair.

And I just want to echo what Vice Chair Maine said.

If there's any way, there's actually two trails coming out of Lakewood uh in that general area.

Um, I think they're all to the west of Fairfield.

But if there's a better connection we can make to those trails and you know, make them safer.

That Bonner Road intersection is is just very perilous.

So thanks.

And I think I mean you know, I know as you said it might be very difficult, and you're gonna look at it, but making it an like a separated bike trail instead of the one over the shoulder ones, even if it does cost a little more.

I mean, it seems like that would be a really important connector all the way over.

I mean, it would, you know, to connect with the other part too.

So I think um, I'm glad you're looking at it, and you know, I think that's something that we would really want would prefer to see.

Yep, that'll be our goal will be to go off-road.

It's just a matter of can we can we acquire the right-of-way necessary to make the improvement?

Yeah.

Well, you forked magic, so we'll hope the magic continues.

Yeah, and I do want to point out you know, this is this really I mean, this sounds like a really important project for safety for non-motorized and for motorized safety too.

And it is being paid by our county option motor fuel tax.

So just showing how that really lets us move ahead on a lot of projects.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

All right.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The motion carries.

Item 8.6 is a joint resolution authorizing an agreement with Bravo Company Engineering Lyle, Illinois to provide phase two professional engineering services for culvert replacements under Deerfield Parkway and Robert McClurry bike path at a maximum cost of 914,874 and 75 cents, and appropriating 1 million ninety-eight thousand dollars of the county bridge tax funds.

Can I get a motion?

Motion by Kasbin, second by Roberts.

So this is a design contract for two end of service life culverts, um, the northeast or the top right uh section of the map.

Um, that is the culvert in Waukegan that goes under the Robert McClory path.

It conveys the uh Waukegan River out to Lake Michigan.

So that um just to give you an idea of how large these culverts are, that's an arch pipe that is 10 feet wide at the bottom.

So these are large culverts about 100 feet long that are uh at the end of their life.

So that'll be designed to be completely replaced, and we'll also be doing a fair amount of shoreline rehabilitation and stabilization.

There's a lot of erosion happening there, so we'll be shoring up the embankment uh to um prevent further erosion, and then the other location is a culvert under Deerfield Road, um, and that's conveying Aptachisic Creek under the highway.

That is uh an 11-foot wide culvert at its widest widest spot, 133 feet long.

So in both of these locations, a key part of the analysis will be looking at how we'll construct it and what type of closures and detours will be needed.

Yeah, and do we is there a time is this there a time frame on this or so?

It'll probably it'll be plus or minus, you know, 12 to 18 months.

Um we will have to do environmental reviews for both of these because they're in stream work.

Um, so that will be a permitting process that'll probably be critical path.

All right, I'm good to hear about this getting done.

All right, any questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

All right, item 8.7 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with Peter Baker and Sun Company, Lake Bluff, Illinois, and the amount of $2,046,974.56 cents for the resurfacing of Fairfield Road from Nippersink Road to Illinois Route 60, which will be improved under the Illinois Highway Code for a total of 2.05 miles and appropriating $2,457,000 of motor fuel tax uh motor fuel tax funds.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Wasick, second by Maine.

So this is just a standard maintenance reservicing.

We'll be grinding off two to four inches depending on the location, then putting back two to four inches.

We also use these opportunities to widen out the paved shoulder, and in this location, we're looking to get five to six foot wide paved shoulders.

We'll be adding the rumble strip down the center line and along both white edge lines.

That is good.

Member Wasick.

Uh Shane, I remember that we were doing a Pell study on Fairfield, right?

Correct.

Is this not part of it, but it's something we're doing routinely or some adjunct to it?

Yeah, so we have to continue to maintain you know the highway to keep it in a good, safe, smooth condition.

So that's what we're doing here.

Um, you know, continue to work on the Pell, and we'll be advancing sections of that project into next stages of engineering.

But this is just to keep the road in good operation.

So do we have like a final assessment on what we're going to do based on the Pell yet, or do you have a timeline for that?

Um I can get back to you on that.

I don't have everything off the top of my head.

Because I know we've had a bunch of public hearings, we've had public comment, and just wondering what the next phase is.

Sure.

We can we can get back to you with that.

I think some of that is on our website.

We'll take a peek at that and see if it's current, and then we'll share some further details.

Great, thank you.

All right, thank you.

This will be good.

There's rumble strips and the reflectors and all the and making it wider will definitely make it safer for now.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 8.8 is a joint resolution appropriating $2,100,000 of the quarter percent sales tax for transportation funds for the acquisition of necessary right of way by agreement or condemnation and other right-of-way costs associated with intersection improvements at Hun Club Road and Stern School Road.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Kasmin, second by Roberts.

So recap on this project.

This location is northwest corner of Gurney Mills in Gurney.

So we're uh converting this to the county's first multi-lane roundabout.

Uh we did look at intersection improvements versus the roundabout, and because this is a right-of-appropriation, just want to mention that the right-of-way needs were less with uh proposed roundabout.

Um, so there's 30,000 cars moving through this intersection on a daily basis.

Um we are in uh pretty well into phase two engineering.

We're about 60 to 70 percent done.

Um, so we've got right-of-way needs identified uh after this appropriation, then we'll complete the the formal uh appraisers or appraisals that are are done by licensed land appraisers, then we'll send those out to the residents uh and business owners along the corridor to acquire the necessary right-of-way and easements to complete the project.

Umce we have that done, that's usually the the critical path, and then we can uh have the project ready to go out to bed.

Terrific.

Yeah, good to hear it's less land, and boy, um way more safer.

I mean, if you look at the safety statistics behind this.

As someone who drives a lot in Wisconsin, the four way not roundabouts.

I'm like, there should be a roundabout here.

Make it a lot safer.

All right, any questions?

All right, all in favor?

All right.

Aye, any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 8.9 is a joint resolution appropriating a supplemental amount of the twenty of $29,500 of county bridge tax funds and approving change order number three and the amount of 40,500 for additions to the phase three construction engineering services contract for the Buffalo Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank project.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Wasick, second by Kasbin.

So there's a little bit of history there.

Here I'll just give you a brief recap.

So this project was started in 2017.

Uh we constructed 25 acres of wetland mitigation bank.

So that is a wetland bank that we can use to offset any uh impacts we have to wetlands when we're constructing uh a DOT project.

Um there is existing private wetland banks out there, but they're becoming fewer and fewer, and it's difficult to get your your credits if you impact a wetland.

So it's this is a valuable project.

Um you construct a wetland bank, it has Army Corps of Engineers oversight, and typically there's five years of monitoring and maintenance that's required.

Um and then the Army Corps will come out and they'll do an annual inspection, they'll tell you how you're doing, if the the vegetation that's been planted is maturing, and then they'll release the wetland credits kind of in a in a phased way.

So far, uh 16 acres of bank have been released.

There's nine remaining.

Um we did change order one to extend the monitoring to year six, and we did change order two to extend the monitoring to year seven because we had several years of drought and the the native plants weren't maturing to a level that the Army Corps found acceptable.

Um that happened again last year with the Army Corps inspection.

So now we're bringing forward this change order, which will be for maintenance and monitoring for years eight and nine.

So that'll be 2026.

You know, cautiously optimistic it'll be done this year, but we did put in uh a ninth year for 2027 as well.

So that's the reason for the change orders.

Um, you know, the wetland um vegetation just isn't maturing as fast as the Army Corps would like.

So they want us to monitor it for another year or two.

We did get a lot of rain this spring.

Hopefully, that's gonna push us over the edge, and then this is the last year.

Yeah, I mean, we have had drought for so many years unexpectedly.

I know a lot of people who put in rain gardens and their gardens are not doing well.

So does it is there like a date that eventually like what if it doesn't rain for two more years?

Do you think we'll like or is it just it's gotta rain one of these days for us to prove that this is working?

Yeah, I mean, in past years we've even gone to the length where we trucked in water in water sharks.

Wow.

So to try to, you know, kind of what starts happening is you get invasive species that start growing, and then they we have to remove those.

Yeah, so it's um we'll be happy when this is is wrapped up.

Yeah, well it is a really good project, and I know every time I drive by I see the signs, and like this is such a good project, bringing the right lands, and it's good for the area, but yeah, maybe maybe it'll rain this year.

We can just hope member Wasick.

Yeah, just for curiosity, Shane, what are the credits worth, say in today's market rate, roughly?

Just I don't expect you to know the exact number, but it's just curiosity.

Yeah, ballpark, you know, the last time we checked, it was about 120,000 per acre.

So the total cost to build this bank was about 1.8 million.

So about 80,000 per acre.

So we are still getting, you know, a better than market rate to do it ourselves, but we are obviously dealing with all these challenges.

And that's money we can put into other projects, right?

That's right.

Okay.

That's money we can put into other projects, and it also allows us to do those other projects because if we don't have this bank of wetlands, you simply might not be able to do a project if you can't offset um impact as index.

Yeah.

So we can use these wetland credits for our own projects.

That's exactly what we are doing.

We're only and we're only using them.

We're keeping them for DOT use only.

Um they are limited to the watershed that they're within.

Yeah.

So um, somewhat geographically constrained.

Yeah.

Although sometimes I think they're not, but they should be.

All right.

Well, this is great for us.

All right, any questions?

All in favor?

All right.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Hopefully, it rains for many reasons.

Many, many reasons.

Not too much though.

All right, item 8.10 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with Mead Inc.

Willowbrook Brook, Illinois, in the amount of 157,981 dollars for the Delaney Road traffic signal detection modernization project and appropriating 190,000 of quarter percent sales tax for transportation funds.

Can I get a motion?

A second motion by Kasmin, second by Roberts.

So we've got five intersections here along Delaney Road.

We're simply taking down the old end-of-life detection cameras.

So that's the camera that can sense when vehicles are in the various lanes, and then it tells the computer and the traffic control box to allow a certain amount of green time.

So those are about 15 years old, they're out of warranty, parts are no longer available.

So we're gonna be taking these down, putting up five new ones, and then we're gonna keep these because we've got about 50 other cameras like this on the system, and we'll harvest them for parts to keep those other ones going until we um replace them.

Another thing I wish they had more of in Wisconsin when I'm driving, because I like to have the monitoring.

My question though is is there are these cameras, these new ones, do they have AI in them?

So we are getting some manufacturers that are starting to um provide AI services.

They're not necessarily within the camera, but there's a separate controller slash computer that uses AI technology to monitor the traffic flows and make changes.

So something we're keeping an eye on and to see how that technology evolves.

Because I feel like sometimes these things come so like even our phones come so quickly just with AI on it, and you might not even realize what's going on with the AI.

And then it could be like hacked in some way just because we don't know maybe it's there.

So the cameras themselves then don't have it like just like as a feature in case if our future, but the software could use them.

Is that right?

Yeah, it's usually software and hardware that's in those silver cabinets at the intersection, you'll see.

So there's a there's a piece of hardware that can be installed that we are seeing some of these manufacturers come out with.

And if and if you were gonna move forward using the AI, you would have to uh do it yourself.

It wouldn't be like an automatic thing that was turned on.

That's correct.

And before we, you know, we would test these.

We're in discussions with some of these vendors to pilot and and learn about them.

Um these are just regular detection cameras here.

Okay, and yeah, following our AI policy.

Okay, just want to make sure because we hear a lot about surveillance and cameras that are accessed, maybe in ways that we might not really realize.

Member Hewitt.

Oh, you know, we can't hear you.

There, yeah, if you can unmute.

I've got it.

Okay.

Good morning.

I just have a quick question on a timeline for this to be done.

Any arguments?

Yes, member Hewitt.

So um the project will be completed uh this summer, wrapped up by by the fall.

So should move pretty quick.

All right, thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Yeah, I I appreciate your your concerns, Chair, about surveillance.

But I I just want to put in that AI is a very broad term, and AI has a lot of good uses.

It's used to churn a lot of data.

They do a lot of conservation um and science work with taking big data sets and and analyzing it.

So it seems to me that our concern is the use of surveillance getting in there, not necessarily AI, because it's such a broad term for things that can be used for things that we all might agree with, and it like many things, it can be used for things that we probably most of us would disagree with.

So just wanted to make that point.

Yeah, for me, it's a cybersecurity aspect.

You hear about these autonomous AI agents, and that's something that is a new development just in the last few months, really, that are commercially available.

And I just want to make sure that if there were autonomous AI agents, which there doesn't sound like there are, but that we, you know, we I know we have a county AI policy, and that it would be just very thoughtful if they were if it was going to be those autonomous AI agents were gonna be used or other artificial intelligence software.

And I'm sure if it was, it would go through the technology committee anyway.

We were gonna add like new software for that.

And everything we've seen thus far is controlled within that cabinet, and it's isolated to that location.

It's interesting.

Oh, that's good to know.

So that way, yeah, so it's not like it's network to everything.

Not not what we that not that we've seen yet.

Okay.

Yeah.

Keep us posted on that.

All right, thank you.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

I am 8.11 is our director's report or your director's report.

So director's report, just want to invite Mike Clemens up.

He's gonna share a brief update on Envision 2050.

So good tie-in with PACE's re-envision.

We have our N-vision 2050.

So and so you know, we have our two teams have been working together on um transit initiatives.

But Mike wants to speak about um kind of our recent public meeting that was at the Round Lake Civic Center a couple weeks ago and kind of let us know where we're at.

Yeah, thank you.

Mike Clemens manager of transportation planning.

So I'll be pretty brief this morning.

I don't have a presentation or uh any uh slides or anything, but um so just um for a context, we're in phase two of the plan, which is the develop phase where we're identifying the vision, goals, strategies of the plan as we start to prepare for the those future projects.

So last time I was here, you approved the the vision and goals of the plan, and we started looking at the strategies, and really since then we've honed in on those strategies and really done a lot of robust outreach for those.

So we've engaged with our stakeholder advisory group, our non-motorized task force, um, our local government task force, which we invited all the municipalities and townships to.

Uh, and then we also had a um a student advisory group where we uh identified a number of high school students from throughout the county uh and had them come in and provide opinions on transportation priorities.

Um we also did a really nice uh tabletop activity where our consultant uh designed some some boards and they could design their own dream street.

Um so we had students from Mundaline, Grays Lake Central, Stevenson, and Grant High Schools uh involved.

That was uh a really interesting activity.

They worked together to design their own dream streets and um we gave them different scenarios of what types of streets they were designing, and um they they could use different cards to um to to do those activities.

They were really highly uh engaged, came with lists of project ideas and suggestions for us.

So we got a lot of really good ideas from them.

And then as Shana mentioned a couple weeks ago on April 14th, we had an in-person open house at the Round Lake Beach Civic Center that was very well attended throughout the entire uh window of the open house.

Um, we weren't sure what to expect when you're um you know projecting out to 2050, um, but you know, we had uh uh over 60 people that signed in.

We had people throughout, like I said, um, you know, it was uh pretty steady throughout the entire window.

Um and then for those people that uh couldn't make it in person, we have a virtual public forum on the project website at Lake County 2050 that is still open um on the website.

Um that'll be open through May 15th.

So we've we've sent out uh last week we sent out another push through county communications, and so um with that push, we've seen the numbers go up.

Another couple hundred people have visited the site and engaged with that virtual open house as well.

So a lot of the same uh well, basically the exact same materials that were at the uh in-person open house, and you can see those strategies and those those boards.

Um, and then kind of looking ahead next steps.

Um, we're in the process right now of uh our consulting team is finalizing the uh travel demand model for us to look at um where future projects will be needed, and so that model will incorporate CMAPs travel um or traffic projections.

Um we know that they're finalizing their plan this fall, so we'll be able to incorporate their um updated projections in the fall, but um, we are finalizing a version of the travel demand model.

Our upcoming five-year tip will uh be incorporated into the travel demand model so we have sort of our built and planned projects will be incorporated in there as we um project out projects, and then we'll be able to look at different scenarios, things like a high growth or a low growth scenario or status quo scenario, and really kind of try to project where and how people are going to move through the system out to 2050.

Um then once we have those scenarios and and future projects that line up with the vision and goals that we talked about before, um, we'll be doing a robust engagement, come back to you, come back to the public and and seek feedback on those future projects.

Um we're also beginning the work of diving into the update of our non-motorized policy as we discussed previously, or um maybe as we should call it a complete streets policy.

Um so that work is is ongoing and really uh starting in earnest, and then uh still to come is a um financial plan to be developed for the plan to project out our future revenue out to 2050 so uh to match up with the projects to know uh how much funding we have available or projected to have available.

Um, and then we'll we'll go through our prioritization exercise to to uh match up the funding to the projects.

So that's quite a lot.

I know.

Imagine I'm trying to think about funding for the next 23 years and trying to figure out exactly how much that is, that alone.

Thank you.

That's the question.

Yeah, Member Kasman.

Um thank you.

I was able to stop by the envision 2050 event at the Round Lake uh Civic Center.

I thought it was wonderful.

Um, that tabletopic uh activity that you're you're talking about was there.

It was um just I mean, very uh I I thought it was a creative way to engage with the public um and meet them where they are.

Um and I just um appreciate the efforts involved um to outreach to the community and to in an active way seek input.

Thank you.

Member Wasick.

Just a quick question, Mike.

All right, and this is beyond your purview.

You mentioned the complete streets uh sort of subsection of that.

To what extent are you studying walkability in in your planning?

Yeah, um, so we're looking at a lot of um we so we have um we're look we our consultant has analyzed the components of our existing uh non-motorized policy against some national standards for the uh the policy.

We also CMAP did a sidewalk inventory of the entire region, so we have that um uh to sort of bring into the fold.

Um so we have a lot of good data as inputs into uh into it, and then um part of the the plan includes identifying gaps in the system um to um make those walkability connections, so um that is an important component, I think, of the of the plan uh and the policy will help direct um that non-motorized or complete streets uh investment plan.

I I vaguely remember when you brought up the this the missions and the goals, and I don't remember if walkability was part of you know one of those key objectives is how would you rank that in terms of what you're looking at?

Uh I I think what we heard from the public and what we've continued to um hear from our stakeholders and um you know is safety has been the the top priority for people, but uh a quick second um probably tied for second has been um sort of travel time reliability and non-motorized improvements.

So that is um I think top of mind for um as we're putting the plan together.

Okay, thank you.

I'll also add related to that.

We um we did look at the handful of priority bike path projects that were identified as part of the 2040 plan plan that haven't yet been completed.

Part of this effort is doing a feasibility study on those few remaining ones uh to see if they are feasible to to advance.

So that's good to hear, yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, I know I do want to thank you you for I mean and everyone about your staff for the whole outreach for this.

I mean, this is such an important project, and I know this is the public, I know you've gotten out of your way.

I really worked very hard to make sure we're getting for all these stakeholders.

How you including young people, everyone, and I mean I would like to build my favorite like my complete street, like I'd let my dream street.

That would be that would be really cool.

So I'm glad we're taking all that input.

And so I'm so there's still the virtual open house, right?

To the 15th.

So I've tried to help people like explain the open house to them and like you know, please put your input in.

It's so hard.

I it was so hard for me to find it like on the website.

Like I would search Envision, and then I'd go there, and then you had to go to like put like find some public comment or like how can I help?

And then you have to do the drop-down menu, and then you had to go into that, and then you had to be like it was so difficult.

And maybe there is a better way.

Is there a way just for the next few weeks we could just put it on the main page of the website?

Maybe maybe this is a question for our communications, but just until the mid-15th that people get on there, they can like go right to it because it's it was really hard.

Now, if you had a link, it's probably a lot better, right?

And since I didn't have the link to try to navigate it, like people kept being really angry with me with me saying it wasn't there, and then I'm like, well, if you drop this menu down in this menu and go into this, it's it's very difficult.

So if we could do that, and then is it is the virtual open house now where you put the pin and then you can describe like a project you want or you have a comment on something?

Is that basically what the open house is right now?

So the yeah, the the virtual open house.

So it is um to your point on on navigating to it, um, from the DOT website, it takes you to the project website, which is Lake County2050.com, which is where the virtual open house is hosted.

And then when you enter it, you see um on the left side of the virtual open house uh screen, you can basically see all of the boards that were at the in-person open house, and you can um click through all of those boards.

We do have that um that map, that interactive map where you can drop a comment and leave a comment at a specific location on a map.

We also have the ability to submit an email comment.

Um we also have an activity where uh we have the the transportation priorities and we have pictures of what those uh example priorities are, and they're categorized into six different categories.

Uh and then there's an interactive um activity to prioritize those different categories of um strategies.

And that's all in the virtual open house like virtual open house link.

But do you have to click on that little menu drop down to get to those different things?

Or do you know what we're doing?

Yeah, when you so when you go to Lake County 2050, right at the top of the homepage, it it's there's a um a button that says virtual open house.

Okay.

And when you click on that, then it it'll pop up and open that virtual open house, and then all of that stuff is just right there.

Okay, because that's the yeah, the interactive parts.

Okay, because I do I'm gonna talk to people about like you, this is your last chance to have input onto our you really the plan for 2050.

So I want to make sure that uh they can get to it.

So there is ways they can still give input and for in different things.

Yes, and we are planning to have uh a series of in-person and virtual um meetings once we have uh projects identified as well.

So um we will have uh additional opportunities for them to react to you know potential projects further down the road.

But before we get to projects, if they want to um you know provide feedback, you know, to help us shape the strategies.

Um, you know, we still have uh some time to for people to an important part.

And uh that that interactive comment map will stay open on the project website throughout the life of the project and we'll accept comments throughout.

Okay, good.

So that's it.

So that but so if they use it right now, that will go toward the your next step.

Yes.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

I yeah, it's very engaging.

So thank you.

Um I know you've gotten a lot of comments from a lot of people, so a lot of input, so it's a good community project.

All right, thanks for the update.

Is that all?

That's all for us.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Now we're on to public works.

All right, item 8.12 is a joint resolution authorizing a contract with a voqua water technologies LLC of Sarasota, Florida for calcium nitrate and related accessory services in the amount of 139,320.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Kasmin, second by Roberts.

Good morning, Director McFarland.

Good to see you.

Good morning, Chair, committee members, Austin McFarland, uh, public works director.

Uh the department owns and operates uh a number of lift stations and pump stations that transfer sewer um through several pipes.

As the senators sewer transfer true these pipes, and there are oftentimes some low line errors in the system.

Uh these areas of flow or low line flows sometimes allow the sewer to the grade.

And during that process, there is some off-gas, uh, some off gassing that occurs.

These off gassing that occurs in the sanitary sewer does produce some gases, primarily um hydrant sulfide, and that's what generally cause the older issue.

So calcium nitrate is introduced into the system to interrupt that degrading process.

And so it limits the off-gass and reduce the order.

So this is a critical chemical for us, and so I recommend approval.

It sounds important.

Um is this something that was already like you just it's a common thing every you know each year, or I saw this is like up to four-year contract, I believe.

Yes, we we use it um throughout our system primarily in the south and in the north area.

So we do have a contract in place for purchase of this.

Okay, and then it's can be re I think it's renewable potentially for a couple of years.

Okay.

Vice Jeremy.

Thank you.

And I was trying to check, I had looked at it before.

I I wasn't sure in the bid document because um calcium nitrate, the other major use of calcium nitrate is as a fertilizer.

I think that it's not the the nitrogen-based fertilizer that like is going through the Strait of Hormuz that's more the urea base.

But do we see I was just struck by the the large differential between those two bids?

Um I just didn't know if you had seen um a pressure on the price of calcium nitrate as um other fertilizers, night nitrogen-based fertilizers are going up in price.

I'm glad you asked that because we've seen a number of price increases in chemicals coming through.

We have not seen any in this one as yet.

Okay.

But um I would hope uh that we don't, but it's it's not usually shipped through that.

This chemical isn't, but it could there could be pressure on this one because otherwise, we we may see that double recording.

Okay, thank you.

Good question.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 8.13 is a joint resolution authorizing execution of a contract with Boulder Contractors Inc.

of Carey, Illinois, in the amount of 7,936,226 for the Saunders Road lift station and gravity sewer replacement project.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Wasick, second by Kasbin.

So this is phase two of this um Saunders Road project.

Um in phase one, we had constructed the force mains.

Um that I believe though that project is completed.

This phase will extend a sanitary line, a 16-inch sanitary line from Duffy Lane all the way down to this particular list station that you're looking at.

And we'll also create a new list station just slightly north of this existence facility.

Umfortunately, the bid amount for this project came in up above the engineering expectation uh bid amount um that we settled on here was about 7.9 million dollars in 7.9 million dollars.

The engineering um cost estimate was five point one.

The engineering um cost estimate was 5.1 and so we will be moving funds from our contingency 2.9 to address this um item.

Boulder was the low bidder, and so I recommend approval for this.

Yeah, I noticed that the I mean it went up to 11.4 million.

I mean, these were very high bids for this project.

Did do you think it's things just changed with the world changing or the engineering was more than they thought.

I've seen some of our bids come in a little higher this year on um, you know, it could be uh a function of just the material and supplies but we sum of cut come in right on target, but some of the bigger projects we're seeing that they're coming in a little higher than the engineering expectation.

So this includes I just for my in maybe well someday we my education thing, not today, but just like that overview of what the lift station gravity sewer thing, you know, how it works, like with its lifting and things like that.

But so this is gonna be replacing some actual sewer lines, correct?

So we're expanding the source system out there because it's severely undersize the additional force main that was done on the first phase, raised expanded the the source size, the pipe size.

This will put an additional sanitary source from Duffelane all the way down to this lift station, and also we'll expand the SLIF station to ensure that it can manage the extra flow.

Okay.

And is this going to be um like a is this in a residential area?

So is this gonna are we gonna be talking to neighbors?

Is this gonna have to let you know?

Yes, we'll do all of that um before um residential.

Right.

We do all of that notification um before we start and during the process so that neighbors are fully aware.

Yes, someone who lived through just a water main replacement that I will never forget that it was good to have, but it was quite a production, and I would envision that this looks about the same.

Right.

And so making sure we're letting everyone know.

And what is the like the time frame for this project?

Well, this one um we're looking hopefully to start um in a few weeks pendant approval.

All right, so hopefully it'll be done this summer, couple weeks.

Okay, it'll be done this year.

Awfully this year.

It seems like forever when you're the per the people living there, but maybe their part will not be as long as we'll hopefully.

Yeah, we're we're subject to a lot of stuff, so we we're hoping that we can get this one done quickly.

The good news is it's gonna be a huge improvement for decades to come for this area.

Good investment in infrastructure.

All right, any other questions?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed motion carries.

All right, thank you.

And then do you have a direct no rejector support?

Okay, yeah, it's not even on there.

Do we have a county ministry or report?

I do not.

We do have executive session.

It'll be very, very quick.

Um, I promise.

I'm gonna go on.

Okay, let's go.

Can I get a motion in a second to enter into executive session for the purpose of the review of the executive session minutes from October 8th, 2025 and and November 5th, 2025?

And the periodic review of closed session minutes pursuant to five ILCS 120 slash two C21.

Motion by Kasbin, second by Robert.

Can I have a roll call, please?

Member Kasmin.

Hi.

Member Hewitt.

I saw her.

Member Hunter.

Vice Chair Maine.

Hi.

Member Roberts.

And Member Wasser.

All right.

So we're in going into executive session.

Give us one moment.

I will.

Yeah.

All right.

We're now outside of closed session.

So item 11.1 is committee action approving a public works and transportation committee executive session minutes from October 8th, 2025.

Can I get a motion in a second?

Motion by Wasick, second by Kasmin.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item 11.2 is committee action approving the public works and transportation committee executive session minutes from November 5th, 2025.

Can I get a motion and second?

Motion by Maine, second by Wasick.

All in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

All right.

Item 11.3 is committee action regarding periodic review of closed session minutes.

The state's attorney's office has reviewed the execution executive session minutes for the public works and transportation committee, as well as the inactive public works planning and transportation committee, which this committee has assumed the functions of.

The state's attorney's office has provided recommendations for which executive session minutes to release and which executive session minutes will remain confidential at this time.

Those recommendations are as follows.

For the public works and transportation committee, there are 37 items, and the state's attorney's office recommends based on their legal opinion that two of the items should be released open to the public, and 35 of the items should remain closed at this time.

For the public works planning and transportation committee, there are two items, and the state's attorney's office recommends based on their legal opinion that none of the items should be released or open to the public, and all of the items should remain closed at this time.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Well, I declare this meeting adjourned, and our next meeting is May 27th.

That's my anniversary, 2026.

All right.

See you all then.