NRDP-DOT Partnerships
Here are some of the successful partnerships that State Councils have had
with the Department of Transportation. For more information, please contact
Rick Wetherill in the Office of
Community Development.
The Alaska Rural Development Council has partnered with the Applied Science Laboratory of the University of Alaska-Anchorage and the Alaska Telemedicine Project to use telecommunications as a means of providing health care over vast distances. Because rural Alaska does not have landlines, rural communities must rely on satellite transmissions that require the use of narrow bandwidth telecommunications and information technology. ARDC's connections and credibility within the state's complex rural political arena were instrumental in the state moving forward with the Telemedicine Project. Funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the project has developed, deployed, and evaluated the use of telemedicine for otolaryngology (ENT), dermatology, and emergency medical services to 25 villages in remote western Alaska. Through the Council members' efforts, the Alaskan Congressional Delegation recognized the NLM project as a model for creative "public-private" partnership. Beginning in 1999, dedicated funding from the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and Indian Health Services is being leveraged to replicate this successful model to all of Alaska's 235 rural villages and communities.
The Connecticut Rural Development Council convened, in 1996, a public education forum bringing together officials from USDOT, FHWA, ConnDOT, rural local officials, historic preservationists, and environmentalists to discuss the need for incorporating compatible community design into transportation programs. As a result, in 1998 the Connecticut State Legislature passed a law that required the Connecticut Department of Transportation to develop alternative design guidelines for transportation projects and to consult with certain groups, including CRDC. CRDC coordinated an effort to provide input into the draft guidelines.
In 1999, the CRDC brought together stakeholders and potential partners from state agencies, chambers of commerce, community action agencies, and non-profit organizations in nine statewide and regional forums. The purpose of the forums was to develop a common understanding about the benefits of a coordinated approach to economic development and farmland/open space preservation. One outcome is a partnership between the CRDC and the Capitol Region COG, with grant funding from the Federal Highway Administration. As its part of the grant, CRDC is studying three communities, one rural, one suburban and one urban to produce a guidebook for implementing smart growth and anti-sprawl efforts geared to each type of community. They will also provide cross training so each type community understands the needs and concerns of the others.
Twenty-seven counties in the heart of the grain production region of Kansas are enduring serious rail problems--ranging from a lack of rail cars to abandoned track--while agricultural production has doubled since 1980. The Kansas Rural Development Council sponsored a Rail Forum to bring shippers, producers, county commissioners, state officials and rail management together. The more than 50 forum attendees heard from a range of rail experts from the federal government down to local business leaders. As a result of the forum, rail service providers and the shippers improved their relationship and discussed the development of a port authority to purchase tracks from the existing short railroad. KRDC developed a monograph that communicated the long-term issues and contained useful information presented at the forum. In addition, the piece discussed four issues that have statewide policy implications. KRDC will create a task force of stakeholders and policy makers to decide what the state should do to address the fact that Kansas could lose over 1,000 miles of track in the next few years, much of it in the highly productive breadbasket of the U.S. The Council plans to have the task force make policy recommendations for the legislature and educate citizens on how to save rail service.
The Hancock County Growth Symposium, held in January 2001, was the first countywide forum designed to engage a broad spectrum of town officials, business people, developers, planners, and state agencies to collectively consider how one region of Maine's coast is growing and assess the choices it has in planning its future. The Maine Rural Development Council, joined by partners from the public and private sectors, led participants in debating three major growth issues at the symposium: transportation, business development and retention, and land use and the environment. With the support of the Council and its partners, participants identified and prioritized strategic action steps for implementation by local groups. MeRDC partners, including USDA-RD and the Federal Highway Administration, provided decisive technical assistance roles in mobilizing the communities; clarified and strategically framed local issues; facilitated the needed discussion and debate among community interest groups and with external service and resource providers; and negotiated and facilitated the development of a viable region-wide coalition. Symposium participants, which included over 100 Hancock County residents in leadership positions, clearly articulated a regional vision and successfully identified strategic action steps for all three issue areas. These are now being used by the local entities to help chart "planning for prosperity" initiatives for the region.
In an effort to improve a complex and inefficient road rehabilitation specification process that is often inappropriately applied to Cape Cod towns, the Massachusetts Rural Development Council is developing roadway guidelines to better promote safety, aesthetics, width standards and preservation in rural areas. The Council, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Barnstable County Highway Superintendent Association, the Cape Cod Commission, and the Martha's Vineyard Commission, will produce reasonable road and highway specifications that will allow local highway officials to use sensitivity and common sense when making decisions about low traffic/low volume rural roadways.
The Utah Rural Development Council facilitated the public information gathering process for the National Park Service as they developed their draft management plan for Zion National Park and Zion National Canyon. URDC held several forums directly related to aircraft overflights of the park. Scenic overflights are tourism-oriented but can disturb the solitude of the National Park. Comments were collected from both the general public and from aircraft tour operators. Using U.S. DOT funds, the National Park Service worked with the local community and a local entrepreneur to establish a public shuttle bus transportation system to move visitors through the park. This system will collect people at a parking area near the entrance to Zion National Park and take them to various stops within the Park. Over 2500 vehicles a day compete for 250 parking spaces in Zion National Park. This has the tendency to create a virtual moving parking lot for the more than 3 million yearly visitors to the Park. This transportation system will relieve air pollution, traffic congestion and preserve the true nature of the Park.
The Executive Director of the Utah Rural Development Council serves as Vice Chair of the Southwestern Utah Planning Authorities Council (SUPAC), which is chaired by Governor Leavitt. SUPAC, made up of federal, state and local government agency representatives, has been working with the National Park Service to develop a transportation hub and Visitors Center, which will open in May 2000. SUPAC provided the forum to enhance discussion on transportation needs for the Park.
For 20 years, Vermont has tried to improve the portion of state highway Route 2 that passes through the rural village of Danville, a community of about 2000 in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom in Caledonia County. To address this need, the Vermont Council on Rural Development, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Vermont Department of Transportation have partnered to work with Danville's citizens to develop an approach to this highway project. Additional partners include the Office of Governor Dean; the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development; the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources; the Vermont Community Development Association, a non-profit; USDA-Rural Development; and the U.S. Department of Transportation. All steps of this two-year project will be documented in writing and on video so that the project can serve as a case study for other Vermont towns and rural communities nationally. VCRD will supervise the documentation and assist with community development activities. For its effort, the Council will have a budget of over $100,000, which will also serve as the VCRD local match.
