WILLIAMS URGES PUBLIC INPUT ON TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

HARRISBURG, Sept. 10, 2003 – With a key state hearing on prospective area transportation projects slated for later this month in Philadelphia, State Senator Connie Williams is urging local civic organizations and citizens to offer their views on needed highway, bridge, rail, aviation and mass transit projects.

“It is imperative that local organizations and citizens play an active role in the state’s ongoing transportation planning process that will affect all of us for decades to come,” Williams said. “Local input is the most crucial component to quality planning.”

Williams is urging officials and organizations from Delaware and Montgomery counties to offer their views to the Delaware Regional Planning Commission, or provide written or oral testimony to the State Transportation Commission for its Sept 26 hearing at the Adams Mark Hotel in Philadelphia.

The hearing is designed to gather public input on projects that the commission may choose to include in the state’s next 12-Year Plan, which will be finalized in 2005.

Williams said that getting projects into the state’s 12-Year Plan, which prioritizes statewide projects, is a key first step to getting state and federally funded transportation projects funded and completed.

“Getting our best projects into the 12-Year Plan is akin to adding them to the state’s funding priority list,” Williams said. “Being on the 12-Year Plan does not guarantee that projects will be completed, but it is a necessary part of the process.”

Williams said that once approved as a project on the 12-Year Plan, legislators and interested parties could begin advocacy efforts to move the project forward. This helps enhance the chance that the project will ultimately get the final approval and funding from the state.

Written testimony must be submitted by October 17 to be considered for the 2005 Transportation Program. Williams urged those interested in offering oral testimony before the commission at its Sept 26 hearing to contact her local office for guidance/assistance at (610) 992-9790.