Those Present:

The meeting of the West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team was called to order at 8:37 am by Chairman John Izzo.

A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of July 11, 2000. The motion passed unanimously.

John Izzo discussed the "National Lights Out" promotion that took place in DeBary on August 1st between 6-9 pm. In addition, John passed around some photos that were taken at this event using a digital camera . Malcolm Smith stated that the turnout was moderate. Pens and key chains were given out at the event. John stated that DeBary might bring a bus load of people to a future West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team meeting.

John Izzo passed out a brochure on motorcycle safety that Ken Harley, Tony Nosse, Barry Wall, Lois Bollenback, Gay Anderson, Nannette Rosevear, and John & Carol Izzo worked on.

Discussion ensued regarding how much money should be given out/spent for Bike Week compared to Biketoberfest.

Tony Nosse of FDOT introduced Mike Matz. Mike is the new FDOT District 5 Law Enforcement Liaison. Mike's job is funded through a 4 year federal grant to increase the seatbelt compliance rate. Mike will be working with law enforcement agencies to increase safety seat belt usage. Mike stated that he will focus on education and enforcement.

Florida is in jeopardy of losing $1 million in federal funding since our seat belt compliance rate is below the national average. Florida's compliance rate is approximately 59%. The goal is to get Florida up to 62%. Problems in the past have been due to poor data collection efforts. Mike believes that Florida can turn this around.

Barry Wall of FDOT stated that the dates for the "Buckle-Up Florida Enforcement Wave" have been changed from (August 26th - September 5th) to (September 2nd - September 10th).

Ken Harley of FDOT stated that requests for safety studies include crash data for a one year period to screen out unwarranted studies. FDOT has been spending too much money on consultants to look into these requests that could have been screened out.

Barry Wall of FDOT briefly went over their Quarterly Report. Barry also stated that FDOT will no longer take minutes for CTST meetings.

Ken Harley of FDOT discussed the "Walk Your Children To School" event. Ken went to Sunrise Elementary School in Deltona and saw a church nearby, which would probably make a good staging area for this event. The date for this event is Wednesday October 4th, 2000.

Pat Goodgame asked why sidewalks were installed on Orange Camp Road and Blue Lake Road. John Izzo and Malcolm Smith replied that the County tries to put in sidewalks within a 2 mile radius of schools.

John Izzo asked if FDOT can put its reports on their website. Barry Wall stated that Tallahassee controls what goes on the website. Therefore, it can be done but it would have to go through Tallahassee first.

It was noticed that there were no representatives from law enforcement agencies at today's meeting. Malcolm stated that he has spoken with the Chief of Police for DeLand previously about attending our meetings. Malcolm said that he will contact the Chief again to see if he can send a representative to our next meeting. Malcolm also stated that he is trying to get the Chief to make a presentation to one of our up coming meetings.

John Izzo discussed information from a Buckle-Up Florida website. John discussed some of the statistics regarding seat belt usage.

Tony Nosse went over item 400-3 regarding a bus stop location. Jon Cheney of Volusia County Traffic Engineering stated that the bus stop will be relocated.

Tony also stated that he has additional Problems and Solutions forms available for anyone who needs them.

Jon Cheney stated that there was a lot of congestion around the new Freedom Elementary school, but this was typical of the first day of school.

Bea Leatherman of the Volusia County Sheriff's office asked about Woodward Elementary school. Both sides of the road leading to the school have trees and bushes which make it hard for students to see without having to walk in the road. Tony Nosse asked Bea to fill out a form so it could be passed along to the appropriate agency so it can be looked at.

John Izzo stated that there have been 50 fatalities to date since January 1st. The total for last year was 92.

Jon Cheney discussed the crash that occurred yesterday in Seminole County where 2 children were killed and one was in serious condition.

Ken Harley stated that we need to get items to give children for the "Walk Your Children To School" event. Rick Prine of Volusia County Traffic Engineering was commended for doing such a fine job last year of getting stuff to give the children. The "Walk Your Children To School" event will be held on Wednesday October 4th this year.

John Izzo and Jon Cheney discussed missing links in sidewalks near Sunrise Elementary School in Deltona and Indian River Elementary School in Edgewater.

The "Walk Your Children To School" subcommittee will meet in the Lobby of the FDOT building in DeLand on Wednesday, August 16th at 1:30pm to discuss and plan for this event. John Izzo stated that we need to get a map and banner put together. Barry Wall also stated that it is important to also get brochures and gift items for the kids.

Ken Harley discussed the up coming "Florida Seat Belt and Child Restraint Device Observation Survey." Ken added that FDOT needs volunteers to help collect data for this important survey.

There are 10 sites in West Volusia and 17 sites in East Volusia that need data to be collected. Each site will require 2 people to conduct the observational survey. In addition, the survey needs to be conducted between September 5th and September 22nd. Ken stated that the reason for these dates are to see if the "Buckle-Up Florida Enforcement Wave" which is between September 2nd and September 10th had any effect.

Malcolm mentioned that he will be presenting the "Operation Life Saver" training to the bus drivers of VOTRAN this coming Friday.

Bill Inman from FDOT maintenance stated that the maintenance employees will be moving into their new site on Kepler Road very soon.

Pat O=Dare mentioned that the City of Lake Helen no longer has a City Clerk. However, Don Findell will be helping out in the interim time.

Jon Cheney mentioned that the City of Deltona is pushing for a new road to be built called Mangoe-Mantanzas Road, which would begin at Cassadaga Road in Lake Helen. This new road would head south crossing Howland Blvd. to approximately half a mile, then turn west crossing the new Normandy Blvd. for a third of a mile. After crossing Normandy, this new road would head south finally ending at the proposed extension of Rhode Island Avenue.

Bea Leatherman discussed a TV show that was on the other night called ACourage@ about a school crossing guard that saved a child by pushing it out of the way of an on-coming vehicle. However, the crossing guard was hit by the vehicle as she was saving the child.

Pat O=Dare stated that he was traveling on US 17/92 in DeBary along the area that is under construction late one night and could not see the construction workers. Pat said that the workers were not under the flood lights and because of this it made it very difficult for him to see the workers and the traffic signs they were carrying.

Jon Cheney stated that the intersection of US 17/92 and Dirksen Drive in DeBary will be closed this coming weekend beginning after rush hour on Friday night through either Sunday or Monday.

The meeting of the West Volusia Community Traffic Safety Team was adjourned at 10:00 am by Chairman John Izzo.