| Meetings and Events | 12/21- Transportation Policy Council meeting has been cancelled.
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| | A Strong Finish H-GAC is moving toward a strong finish for 2007. Our major programs and initiatives have accomplished their objectives for 2007, or better. Two of our outstanding service programs, The WorkSource and HGACBuy, have again been honored for their accomplishments. These recognitions, covered elsewhere in Regional Focus, are the latest in a significant number of honors and awards for H-GAC's programs and its people. While recognition is nice, the important thing is that both these programs are providing high quality, innovative service. While we're completing our 2007 work, we're also preparing for a fast start in 2008. H-GAC's Board will set the priorities for our work on Tuesday, December 18, when it acts on our proposed Service Plan and Budget. The proposal under consideration by the Board will continue our traditional services, and also address opportunities for greater service to our region. All of us are looking forward to a great year of service in 2008, and we appreciate the leadership provided by our region's local governments and elected officials. There is no limit to what we can accomplish together. Jack Steele
Executive Director |
| H-GAC 2008 General Assembly Annual Meeting |  The 2008 General Assembly will hold its Annual Meeting on Friday, January 25, at the Intercontinental Houston Hotel located at 2222 West Loop South in Houston. The Reception will begin at 6:00 p.m. and Dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. The featured speaker will be State Senator Steve Ogden. General Assembly delegates will receive their ballots for selection the 2008 officers of the Board of Directors approximately two weeks prior to the meeting; the newly elected officers will be installed at the Annual Meeting. Invitations will be mailed in early January, but you can reserve your place at the meeting now by calling Angela McKay at 713-993-4591. Cost is $50.00 and we accept cash, checks, Visa, and MasterCard. |
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| New Web Site Is Here! | H-GAC's new and improved web site is now ready. We have worked hard to make it more useful to you; please let us know if we succeeded! Send your comments to Mary Spain at mary.spain@h-gac.com Please be advised that if you listed a page from our old web site in your Favorites, it will no longer work with the new web site. The address for our new web site remains the same: www.h-gac.com. |
| Gulf Coast Workforce Board Receives Texas Workforce Commission Award | The WorkSource received the Industry Sector Outreach Award and a check for $50,000 from the Texas Workforce Commission at the 11th Annual TWC Workforce Conference, held in Houston November 14-16. The award recognizes a workforce board that has made a positive impact helping employers address workforce shortages in the targeted occupations of nursing, teaching and information technology. Thanks to the Gulf Coast Workforce Board's efforts and the Health Services Steering Committee that it directs, Houston-area registered nurse enrollments are up 43 percent and graduation rates have increased by 67 percent. 
Left to right - TWC Commissioner Ronald Congleton; Gulf Coast Workforce Board members Mark Guthrie, Barbara Haley, Kathy Shingleton, Richard Shaw; Workforce Board staff Cally Graves and Rodney Bradshaw; and TWC Commissioner Ron Lehman. |
| Cleaning Houston Air and Houston School Buses | H-GAC has a Clean School Bus program for the eight-county nonattainment area that provides grant money to retrofit and replace old diesel engine buses. Newer technologies include a closed crankcase filtration system, lower NOx software, and special filters that capture particles in the bus exhaust system. Filters are proven to reduce emissions by as much as 90 percent. Each retrofit costs about $6,700, depending on the make and age of the bus, and H-GAC has already distributed funds to retrofit 400 buses in the area. Conroe and Houston ISDs are upgrading hundreds of their buses, a small dent in the 8,000 buses creating pollution in the region.
TCEQ indicates that there are 36,000 school buses in Texas and that more than one-third of the fleet is over 10 years old. Buses built in 1990 or earlier emit up to 60 times more pollution than a new bus. The Texas legislature and TCEQ have set aside about $12 million over several years to help schools upgrade their fleets with lower emissions technology. Locally, El Paso Corp. has also pledged $50,000 as grant money for school districts and challenges other corporations to do the same. Area school districts must apply for grant money through H-GAC. For information please contact Hans Ingversen in H-GAC's Transportation Department at 713-993-2423. Using the "white glove" test, H-GAC Executive Director Jack Steele shows just how clean the retrofitted buses are, compared to buses without the filter. |
| HGACBuy Receives Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award |  HGACBuy is proud to announce that, for the second time in a row, it is one of the recipients of the 2007 Annual Achievement of Excellence in Procurement (AEP) Award given by the National Purchasing Institute. NPI established the program in 1995 to recognize organizational excellence in public procurement. This prestigious award is earned by government entities that demonstrate excellence in procurement by obtaining a high score based upon standardized criteria. These criteria are designed to measure professionalism, ethics, innovations, productivity, e-procurement and leadership attributes. The award is recognized within the United States, Canada, and first time recipients Japan and the United Kingdom. The award is sponsored by the National Purchasing Institute, National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, and the Institute of Supply and Management. This year's team members who did the research and provided the documentation required for the application consisted of Team Leader Latonya Venters, along with Tanya Campbell, LaWanda James, and Jackie Palmer. A job well done!. |
| Holiday Closings | H-GAC Offices will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, December 24 and 25 for Christmas Holidays, and again on Tuesday, January 1 for New Years Day. |
| H-GAC Board of Directors | | The agenda and attachments for the Board of Directors meetings are posted on our web site at www.h-gac.com. The documents are posted the week before each meeting. Board meetings are held at 10:00 a.m. on the third Tuesday of each month on the second floor at 3555 Timmons Lane, Houston, Texas 77027. |
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