Public Hearing August 13 for 2013-2018 Transportation Improvement Program

The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on Monday, August 13, 2012, at 10:00 AM in the Commissioners Chambers at the County Courthouse in Port Townsend, in consideration of the proposed Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for 2013 through 2018.

Update: The Board adopted the 2013-2018 TIP unanimously on August 13 through Resolution 49-12.

Oak Bay Road culvert replacement, milepost 8.947, April 2011

The 2013-2018 TIP is a list of capital transportation projects that Jefferson County Public Works anticipates undertaking in the corresponding six-year period. The list includes secured and anticipated funding sources for each project.

For more information, visit the TIP webpage. 

Example project map. Click here for the TIP wall map.

The text of the August 1 media release follows after the jump...

Say "wow" to VOWS?

The Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) has launched a new program for soliciting public input. It's called Voice of Washington State (VOWS) and it takes advantage of new web-based techololgy. Read about it here:

• news release
• VOWS website
• Transportation Issues Daily blog post

The program includes:

1. seven regional Online Discussion Forums to publicly voice opinions, post ideas, and interact with other citizens
2. online Survey Panel to participate in occasional online surveys

Jefferson County is in the Western Washington Forum.

Anyone is welcome to participate in the discussion forums and survey panel. One must create an account using an email address and password in order to participate.

According to the WSTC news release dated June 28, 2012:

The ultimate goal is to gather public input on Washington state transportation policy and funding, and to inform the statewide discussion and decision-making process. Topics for discussion will focus on all things transportation: highways, mass transit, freight and high-speed rail, ferries, barges and aviation. The governor and Legislature will be briefed on the ideas and data generated through the online discussion forums and surveys.

The combination of the online survey and the regional online discussion forums is a new outreach strategy for the WSTC. While the Commission has conducted successful phone and email surveys through the Ferry Riders Opinion Group for a few years, the primary community input tool has been public meetings. The online tools remove the distance and travel barriers inherent to public meetings; this increases the opportunity for everyone – no matter where they live – to participate and share their views.