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Randy Blankenhorn
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CMAP and Policy Committee meetings. In a change of schedule, the Programming Coordinating Committee will not meet in January, but will meet in February and every even month thereafter. The Planning Coordinating Committee will meet at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 9 and continue to meet on the odd months. On January 9, the Board will meet at 9:30 and the Executive Committee will meet following the Board at around 11:00. The MPO Policy Committee will meet on Thursday, January 10 at 10:00 a.m. All of the meetings are at the CMAP offices and the agenda and materials can be found on the CMAP Committees pages.
Congestion Reduction Demonstration. CMAP, on behalf of the Illinois Tollway, IDOT, RTA and Pace, has submitted the region’s application to USDOT for consideration in its Congestion Reduction Demonstration. USDOT is continuing to pursue programs aimed at reducing congestion within metropolitan regions and while this is not a second year of the Urban Partnership Agreement, this Congestion Reduction Demonstration retains many of its elements. There are a number of elements to the proposal (7MB PDF), but its focus is on a demonstration in the Northwest Corridor on roadway pricing and supporting strategies to reduce congestion.
Transit update. No progress has been apparent recently, and January 20 is when drastic service cuts will happen to CTA, Metra, and Pace without a deal in Springfield. Despite the lack of encouraging news, we remain hopeful that leaders there will come to their senses and finally provide stable funding for mass transit.
DuPage Environmental Summit. On Wednesday, January 9, 2008, the Conservation Foundation and its partners will host the fifth DuPage Environmental Summit. Titled "Clean Water: We Can't Live Without It!", the event goes from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Krasa Center at Benedictine University in Lisle. I will be among the featured speakers, describing our Regional Water Supply Planning Group and how the availability of water from Lake Michigan and other sources could affect DuPage. Free pre-registration is required by January 7. Click here for details. On a related note, the Tribune this week ran a story about declining Lake Michigan water levels.
Photo contest winners. The winning photographers in our recent "Images of Northeastern Illinois" photo contest will be honored at next week's Board meeting. The overall winner was Tom Rand of Chicago, who photographed a winter scene at Calumet Beach. The selected photo submissions are featured in a commemorative booklet that will be given to the winners on Wednesday. I'd like to thank all of the contestants for their participation. They did a great job of capturing what makes this region special. As we move forward with development of the regional comprehensive plan, CMAP will provide many other such opportunities for the public to get involved by telling us what they value about metropolitan Chicago.
Posted by Randy Blankenhorn at 01/04/2008 11:36:14 AM |