coming up on oakdale update we'll discuss the gateway corridor options with wife in county commissioner lisa white will get a preview of the upcoming tanner's lake clean up event stay tuned oh they'll update is straight ahead hello and welcome to oakdale update i'm your host franker selo this is a city of oakdale news and information program about your community joining me now to talk about options for the gateway corridor is washington county commissioner lisa wake yourself well i've been in the lectern office for three and a half years now i do represent district five which is a portion of woodbury i do have about nineteen committee assignments right now gateway is taking the majority of my time i do enjoy it it's let's for those of our audience that don't know what exactly is a good record for the gateway corridor or is the first major transit way project that will extend six transit service into the east metro suburbs and it will need to increase mobility options for our residents more employment options and commuter options for employees and for business owners we want to improve safety minimal  ecology impact of course but also be able to grow economic development because we do see that commerce grows and communities really prosper if the essex transit lines along major c such as interstate ninety the reason for that is what slick because people know when and exactly they can come and go exactly business owners i can see a fixed transit stations planned for near their facility and then they know that they can depend on those infrastructure improvements to either expand operations or even as corporations around the country country are looking at the twin cities area to relocate they know that they can perhaps select locations near these fixed transit ways for you know better access for employees and even just to move their products and goods more efficiently now to the quarter of it's running through city st paul what are to provide the last needed connection for a regional transit system in the twin cities that we haven't seen since the one nine hundred fifty s with the streetcars union depot is going to open for passengers in november so that's just six months from now train streams amtrak is going to relocate their facilities actually the same policy there of course will be bus service through union depot but also then central corridor when that comes on line will be a hub and spokes system that will connect two of our fixed transit lines that are operating right now which is north star commuter rail that is the heavy locomotives that run on existing freight lines and then the hiawatha light rail line that's been operating for about ten years in the twin cities that is the other six transit corridor are but they don't even touch each other right now so the idea with central avenue of ours the central corridor is to actually connect those lines so you could have someone living in the east metro such as oakdale or with barry would be able to board fix transit and arrive at key desk a nation's in the west metro and we've not had that service previously the federal transportation and ministration in the study of exactly and then alternatives analysis and basically the high level description is that is is a process of elimination and we rely heavily on public and business input as we do  options so the first option is no build it's basically do nothing the f d a wants that as a baseline comparison that would involve just maybe increasing existing bus service which actually right now is operating at or near capacity and is not meeting the mobility needs of our citizens in these metro so we already know that and our parking rights also are at or over capacity a second option is just a transportation system management option it's called t s m and that would involve adding actually new bus commuter bus service all the way to auclair another option is bus rapid transit that is in a dedicated guided way this is either running adjacent to interstate ninety four or maybe kind of an off street into the neighborhoods option where you can maybe find more density than two other options are light rail again following the same routes either adjacent to i ninety four hugging the f on north sides in the road and then crossing i ninety four once you're east of the sixty four beltway and then again following hudson road self through woodbury out to manning avenue there is another option that would be commuter rail that was going to follow the existing freight lines from st paul and then kind of go no ice of i ninety four up to the lake elmo airport and our washington county fairgrounds and then cross the synchro river using an existing freight bridge the last option is bus rapid transit running in a manage lane that would go straight down the middle of interstate ninety four that actually is an untested route and mode as far as nationally there's really no clear federal funding program for that it would involve both the federal transportation our transit and ministration it would also involve the federal highway administration because you are beltway there is a lot of room in the middle of interstate ninety four right now from three western to st paul so i they would likely modify the shoulders it would run a lot like three ninety four west of minneapolis out to r minneapolis to auclair which was over ninety miles long so of course the cars were going to be higher just because of the length of the corridor but also it was not going to facilitate economic development close to interstate ninety four which was really the target corridor or so it was going to really go too far north now our commission now is recommending that the minnesota department of transportation and the wisconsin department of transportation continue to study commuter rail as a viable option a number of forensics you want to give us a quick read on why the lowest those were options that were taking bus rapid transit technology or light rail train technology kind of off of interstate ninety four and a local option some of the you know there's pros and cons that we look at it's a very scientific and impartial data driven study and process it does show that we would need a lot of property acquisitions this of course takes the cost up we've had local opposition to that residents and business owners don't want to lose their homes or their business locations which of course is understandable preferred molds is bus rapid transit which is option three and that would be either on the front of trolls adjacent to the highway or even down the center of i ninety four when east of radio driving in w looking at things like not only mobility and economic development but of course the cost to build operating costs we do want to look at the big picture and long term to make the best decision for the citizens who are going to use  think any time you start to get houses and businesses doesn't bode well does it you know get a lot of feedback and ok now at this point what is the most probable i would say the most probable is the bus rapid transit that would be running in a dedicated cag way what that means is is basically operating in its own lane so we would be adding lane miles but it would be for the rapid those are the two that are ranked high but i do think again because the federal funding would be somewhat in question and the probably the one that would be less risky would be to go with option three which is b r t in a dedicated lane and  mode where the total cost for that is around four hundred twenty million whereas light rail trains operating in the same route would be approximately one billion dollars rather should maybe a little higher but that investment might not really support that those numbers for relatively low riders you know it's got to ask you was on who's on the commission here i mean we have civilian exam people in the known professionals and city council members mayors we also do have ex officio members such as the st paul chamber of commerce the woodbury chamber of commerce of dale business association and three m is also an ex officio number so we do have transit stations that would be located with union depot again as the hub in a hub and spokes a sump i ninety four could just be the eastern extension or phase of central corridor a couple of the transit stations would be walk up only although three m of course would have parking lots for their employees who could benefit from this because at the end of a workday they could board the transit and possibly go into minneapolis for sports destinations between in and then have the transit a reliable transit that could return them out to the maple way campus in the evening and get back to their car ok now so you have all these commission members but what about the public are you taking their import i guess public comment is very important we're not operating in a vacuum we've had public open houses that have been very well attended there was just a recent open house in all clare on april fourth will be another open house in hudson and i'm april fifth we will have an open house in woodbury at city hall with grey also has an annual event called the wood great expo ambulant burke sports center and the gateway commission we will have a booth at the expo on saturday april fourteenth and we are taking public comment and it has changed some of the routes our transit stations in the study because obviously we want to serve the people who are funding these infrastructure improvements so that we give them the best possible service for their investment speaking of funding what is this all going to cost well hopefully a bus rapid transit again is ranking high in a dedicated lane the total cost of hundred twenty million then would be paid for with federal money county's sales tax the state ten percent match states actually getting a very good deal for every one dollar they invest nine dollars are coming from other sources the ten percent local match that is usually required by local governments to draw down federal dollars for any service actually would actually also be split with randy county so washing county and ramsey county taxpayers business owners homeowners would be getting a very good deal where it would be a five percent local match so i am excited about the funding options and that bus rapid transit is very cost effective where we could have consistent reliable all day transit service we could have station to station service with possible station stops during the weekday every fifteen minutes cedar avenue has attracted a business from boston that is going to provide seven to ten thousand new jobs because cedar avenue is going to have bus rapid transit open for passengers in six months we have an empty seat farm building in woodbury i know that my constituents ask me about that a lot and i would love to have tenants you know look at state farm building woodbury and our deal area maplewood because we are planning six transit which actually we could begin construction in five years we could be open for passengers in twenty twenty one so this is definitely on the horizon and i think it's very exciting the public is very excited about it the number one question is when would we start construction and when can i start using and sure fit in with the transit ways the central in southwest corner or other projects that are in the works somewhere exactly and when when you look at a map for these proposed courtyards that would actually be an east  west route and when you reach minneapolis and then you minneapolis interchange which be another hub in this hub and spoke system the southwest corner then would continue out to eden prairie and the southwest metro so again you could years has a city held the annual city wide grad sale is it seven twelve or seventeen years we'll have the answer later in the show we'll be right back with more of hopedale update in just a minute on this month's show or rearming a special edition of dorothy's journal called surprised by autism the show debuted three years ago in chronicles the journey my family has been on with my son josiah who was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old in the show you learn about what autism is and how it can be treated through educational and biomedical therapies so be sure to tune in to surprise by autism a special edition of northeastern all right  a gray what do you do when the boy says oh you not then you just threw in some bird watching yeah yeah you know this doesn't seem like such a great place for birdwatching all right i was just trying to get a look inside my city hall i don't know any other way to get information greg you're such a silly man you don't have to be a creepy spy why don't you just watch g t n t t n yeah g t n the government television network it's on cable channel sixteen they've got a ton of information of everything that's going on in the twelve different communities in the northeast suburbs of ramsey and washington county no kidding you mean i can get all this information by watching channel sixteen at my own home you almost thirty four years and worked in environmental field for most of that time you have so that your background to be any environmental management commission i guess it is as good when did you join then about six seven years ago that long been there that long y cleanup how many times it's been done this will be the third year third year of the cleanup ok now i want to make a differentiation here between the what was about four or five years ago the residents had a major there was a city in the residence had a major cl want to tell us about that that was where the cities and the residents of the city could come and bring their trash basically t v s tires things of that sort to a collection location for some items pay a small fee and was basically the time to clean out your garage and your health of those things that you did not need that's different from the old and the ten is like cleanup in the tennis lake clean up where we get volunteers and we go around tanner's lake and basically pick up the trash that's around and in the lake ok now do you remember and see this was done last year too and yes it was you remember off the top your head how many what was picked up last year they had about twenty tons of trash ninety tires and about a ton and a half of scrap metal that was collected in that unbelievable it  is the first year we discovered somewhat of a road dump you might say on the north end of the lake and so last year's effort was concert on cleaning that particular dump up i think with us most of the material came from what seems to be the attraction for all the debris and crap that's lee left there but i don't know for sure but it's close to ninety four it does not have high density residential around all of it there are some really secluded parts of it where you can get to without being observed and my guess would be that's why it's not good is it ok now ok so this coming up when one has a date for the saturday may nineteenth mean one thousand ok now what's the logistics how do you work your volunteers what exactly do you do we're appealing for volunteers they show up but the beach nine o'clock if you have a canoe and like to work out of the water we encourage you to bring your canoe obviously bring life preservers with your personal flotation devices west and we have crews that will walk around the lake on the shore and also people that will go out on canoes and able to access the shoreline where you can access it from the land and basically pick up the trash that we collected around the lake and in the lake  out shopping carts power devices for computers things of that sort just amazing what we have found how do you find the stuff on the water the lake is here to clear enough that you can see it obviously we just travel the shoreline and most of the stuff will be there right next to the shoreline and then you have to be a little careful in the canoe but pull it out but it's pretty easy to see and then obviously different trash that collects from over the winter may be left on the ice etc on the collection along the shoreline cups and plastic such now the people walking around the perimeter of the lake how did the how do you work on people's properties and some people maybe we don't go into private property obviously a fair amount of the lake is public property the old restaurants and such were there and that seems to be a collection point because they're no longer there and the property is easy accessible for people to dump their trash usually have a couple of city trucks with us that were able to go around and walk the shoreline collect the material and put them in the city trucks  for collection and then brought to a landfill or whatever that's what i was going to that was my next question where does a trash goal divided up i mean you know like things that can be recycled and that sort of we divide up to them recyclable materials work gloves with you have a canoe bring a canoe with you and put you to work and like that but enjoyable to write lifejackets for those that are going to be out in the canoes and but we certainly need plenty of people to walk the shoreline if you have waiters you might want to bring waiters with to go out to the answer our trivia question we asked you how many years has the city held the annual city wide garage sale the correct answer is seventeen years to grab sale process has changed this year oakdale patch the  newspaper is partnering with the city not only will they take registrations from participating sellers they will also produce a listing of the garage sales being healed you can register and or print out the list of the web address on the screen if you do not have access to the internet you can pick up forms at city hall or call six five one seven three zero two seven one nine to register your sale the scenes and maps will be in the lobby of city hall beginning tuesday may first if you have any questions on the new process please call six five one seven three zero two seven zero four that's all we have time for for everyone in the city of oakdale thanks for watching