ITS Minutes for December 4^th, 2008

Board Members Present: Poonam Jain, Bryan Siegfried, John Fritsche, Nelson Grman, Russ Masinelli, William Vogt, Larry Leone, Jarid Ott

Board Members Excused: Paul Skeans, Sandra Lane

Others Present: Conrad Kee

The meeting was opened at 7:15 PM

Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes were reviewed. Corrections were noted. Jarid Ott moved to approved the corrected meeting minutes, seconded by John Fritsche, and approved by a voice vote.

Treasurer Report

Sandra Lane was excused today and there was no formal treasurer report.

Status of 501(c)(3) Application

The final form was completed. We needed to clarify that we did not intend to own land, but rather that Macoupin County would become the landholder of the trail. We also need to show projected values of revenues and expenses. Jarid provided details from the past year and current year already. Poonam estimated revenues for the future.

Bill Vogt will check into the intergovernmental agreement and obtain a copy which we will be able to include with the 501(c)(3) application.

IDNR Grant

We discussed many issues with the grant. While it had initially seemed straightforward, and we had been told this could be done by ourselves, it appears that other issues have arisen. We need the intergovernmental agreement to make specific statements, we may need to have further meetings with Andy Manar and the county in general.

Obtaining an outside consultant for writing this grant was discussed. Jay Jessen of Greene and Bradford has offered his services to write the IDNR grant. His fee would be modest, but we will need to request a firm proposal from him before we would have a direct estimation of the cost of his services. Nora Feuquay and Andy Manar both approve of obtaining a consultant to write this IDNR grant.

Route 66 Ride

We again plan to participate in the Route 66 ride. We missed the deadline for our participation to be noted in the Route 66 publications. However, we plan to participate in the same fashion as we did last year. Last year's ride was certainly a success. We had many riders and raised awareness of the ITS Trail.

Octoberfest Ride

Russ Masinelli will talk with Trailnet about the Octoberfest ride. They may be able to help with the logistics of the Octoberfest ride. Last year, the people in charge of the Octoberfest were supportive of the ride, but we did not have sufficient time or resources to proceed with the ride that year.

Norfolk and Southern Railroad

Russ Masinelli inquired about progress with the Norfolk and Southern Railroad. George Camille has reported that he will have the letter of no objection available in the first quarter of 2008. Incidentally, George Camille also plans to be in Staunton on 12/6/07, and plans to meet with Jarid Ott and Nelson Grman for a tour of the proposed trail.

Membership

Jarid Ott reports that we currently have 73 total members.

Meeting adjourned at 8:46 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Bryan Siegfried, Secretary