West Florida RPC Hosts 2017 Emerald Coast Transportation Symposium
The Emerald Coast Transportation Symposium provides a forum for leadership in transportation to explore cross-organization collaboration, develop lasting local and regional partnerships, share best practices, and give innovators a platform to inspire others. This event brings professionals and policy-makers together to openly discuss ways to adapt current transportation issues into innovative and improved economic and environmental realities.
On November 8-9, more than 150 attendees gathered at the Sheraton Bay Point Resort in Panama City Beach to attend the 2017 Emerald Coast Transportation Symposium hosted by WFRPC. A diverse and unique collection of panel discussions and special speakers filled the day-and-a-half event with valuable and cutting-edge information on topics including complete streets, public transportation, intelligent transportation systems, emerging transportation technologies, public involvement, tourism, freight, and more.
Special guest speakers included Jay Trumbull, Chairman, Florida Transportation Commission and Phillip Gainer, P.E., Secretary, Florida Department of Transportation, District 3. Keynote speakers were Dr. Monica Scamardo of Variate Consulting and Michael Willis of Color Nine Group, LLC.
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Apalachee RPC Partners with the Big Bend Continuum of Care
The Apalachee RPC recently became the federally designated collaborative applicant for the Big Bend Continuum of Care (CoC), a regional organization that promotes the coordination of community-wide goals of ending homelessness. This includes providing funding efforts to quickly re-house homeless individuals and families. Additionally, the CoC promotes access to mainstream program benefits to support self-sufficiency.
ARPC staff worked closely with the CoC Board for several months to ensure a smooth transition and the new partnership was completed in June of 2017. This arrangement allows the Apalachee RPC to serve as the umbrella agency for the CoC and to provide their employees work space and administrative services. The CoC region overlaps most of the Apalachee RPC region and through the use of shared resources, there is increased potential to collaborate on funding opportunities to address community needs. The ARPC is proud to partner with the CoC and is looking forward to working with our new friends.
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Tampa Bay RPC Hosts AFTER THE STORM:
A Forum to Develop a Legislative Action Plan for Recovery
On November 13th the Tampa Bay RPC hosted AFTER THE STORM: A Forum to Develop a Legislative Action Plan for Recovery to on November 13th at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. The Forum provided a venue for local elected officials and members of the Tampa Bay RPC to interact with local Emergency Management professionals, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Economic Development Administration to identify legislative action items to assist communities during recovery after a major storm event.
At the request of our member governments, the Forum was designed to offer a venue for local government elected officials to share experiences or challenges faced before, during and after Hurricane Irma with a goal of developing initiatives for a legislative action plan that will be submitted to the Governor and the Bay Area Legislative Delegation (BALD) for consideration.
The Council recognizes the challenges Hurricane Irma presented to the Tampa Bay region and is desirous of assisting member governments by identifying specific needs that can be conveyed to the State Legislature as the Fiscal year 2018 budget is being developed.
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