Governing Board Action: January 13, 2006

At their January meeting, the NOACA Governing Board unanimously elected Medina County Commissioner Stephen D. Hambley president of the NOACA Governing Board for calendar year 2006. Hambley served as second vice-president of the Board in 2005, and president in 2001.

Hambley congratulated outgoing president Robert C. Klaiber, Jr., P.E., P.S., Cuyahoga County Engineer, noting that Klaiber provided outstanding leadership over the past year. “It will be a pleasure to follow in your footsteps,” he said.

Hambley reviewed the challenges for 2006 and encouraged board members to “be optimists and seize our opportunities to live up to the mission of the agency.” He noted that many challenges this year deal with environmental issues, including continuing funding for water quality, keeping Lake Erie and its tributaries clean, and developing plans for meeting clean air standards. In the transportation realm, Hambley stated, “We need to work with various stakeholders to pursue the strategies of Connections 2030, the region’s long-range Transportation Plan. We look forward to implementing the Regional Pavement Management System and the second year of the Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative, NOACA’s successful grant and technical assistance program.”

The complete slate of 2006 officers elected today includes:

President:                          Stephen D. Hambley, Medina County Commissioner*
First Vice-President:       Robert N. Brown, Planning Director, City of Cleveland*
Second Vice-President:   Mary E. Samide, Geauga County Commissioner*
Secretary:                          William M. Grace, Mayor, City of Elyria*
Assistant Secretary:        Peter Lawson Jones, Cuyahoga County Commissioner*
Assistant Secretary:        Betty C. Blair, Lorain County Commissioner*
Treasurer:                         James R. Gills, P.E., P.S., Lake County Engineer*
Assistant Treasurer:      Erwin J. Odeal, Director NEORSD (Cuyahoga County)
Assistant Treasurer:      Robert E. Aufuldish, Lake County Commissioner*
Immediate Past Pres.:    Robert C. Klaiber, Jr., P.E., P.S, Cuyahoga County Engineer*

(left to right front row): Commissioners Samide and Blair
(left to right back row): Director Brown, Mayor Grace, Commissioner Hambley,
Engineer Gills and Commissioner Aufuldish.







In addition to the above officers indicated by asterisks, Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson will serve as a NOACA Executive Committee member during the next calendar year. The Executive Committee acts as a liaison to the Governing Board, and provides advice to the Executive Director and staff between board meetings.

In other business, the Board approved eight applications for Ohio Coastal Management Assistance Grants. The applications cover a wide variety of environmental projects, including the acquisition of land adjacent to Mentor Marsh (Lake County) and a Watershed Action Plan for Tinkers Creek in Cuyahoga County.

NOACA staff made two major presentations at the meeting:

• Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 - a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) Earmark Projects
  Over the past few months, NOACA and Ohio Department of Transportation staff have been meeting with sponsors of projects earmarked in SAFETEA-LU. Staff updated the Board on the status of these 89 projects, totaling more than $256 million.
• Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) and Ozone Conformity Issues
  The transportation conformity process ensures that projects planned or programmed for the region will meet clean air standards established by the federal government. Last summer, the NOACA Board adopted an interim conformity finding for ozone, indicating that the region would attain the ozone standard with implementation of projects included in the long-range transportation plan. A SAFETEA-LU earmark project in the Akron area that will add capacity to the transportation system will necessitate an update in ozone transportation conformity because capacity additions result in changes in emissions from mobile sources of air pollution, such as cars, trucks and motorcycles. Because the Akron-area project is within the Northeast Ohio air quality area that currently does not meet the federal health standards (Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina in NOACA's region plus Portage, Summit and Ashtabula counties) another conformity finding must be conducted to ensure that the emissions changes resulting from the new project do not adversely affect the plans for attaining acceptable air quality.
  
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also requires the region to demonstrate conformity to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by April 2006. Preliminary conformity analysis suggests that the region will have no difficulty meeting attainment standards for PM2.5. The NOACA Board will consider approval of the conformity findings for both ozone and PM2.5 at its February meeting.