Deadline looms for fate of transit system

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Some residents of Charles City maybe be without transportation for a short time unless the city can come up with a quick solution regarding its transit system.

City Administrator Steve Diers has been in talks for about six months in an effort to create a new contract so the city’s transportation can continue. Bid documents were released with no one offering to contract the service.

The deadline for the current contract to end is June 30.

Diers, speaking at a City Council planning session Monday evening, did not express confidence that a new contract could get accomplished before that deadline is reached.

“Now we’re a week away from the service ending and most likely we’re going to have a little lapse in coverage here,” said Diers. “It’s been a tough go.”

NIACOG (North Iowa Area Council of Governments) currently partners with Charles City in running the transit system.

There are several reasons for the reluctance of possible entities to enter into a contract to run the service. One, ridership is down dramatically.

Ridership in Charles City stayed steady for a number of years with rides totaling around 60,000 a year. That figure dipped to 47,000 in 2016 and the last two years that number has fallen to roughly 27,000 per year.

Availability of buses, coupled with reduced punctuality of pickup and dropoff times has also hurt business.

Diers stated that the system operates at a shortfall of around $200,000 a year. The city is responsible for half that total. NIACOG funds the other half of its operating expense by the DOT (Department of Transportation)

Diers said NIACOG is not interested in continuing the current contract or starting a new one. NIACOG was also contacted about providing service for a couple of months after June 30 and it remained hesitant, according to Diers.

NIACOG is in the process of taking over Mitchell County Transit after that county’s contract provider ceased the relationship.

“We talked to NIACOG about the potential of them them running the service and they have not been very interested in that at all,” said Diers.

Diers has been in contact with a private party about providing service. He said there will be about $150,000 cash on hand in the Transit System Fund once July 1 rolls around. He also said there is roughly $45,000 budgeted for the transit system for 2019.

Trying to find drivers for the buses and building up a ridership base is also a big concern to be able to get the system back up and running. Council members seemed confident there could be a solution to the problem.

“Our alternative is not to have a bus,” said council member Jerry Joerger. “It’s been a good service.”

The council agreed that getting accurate ridership numbers to paint a more clear picture would benefit the entire process.

“One of the main things that’s it’s so difficult with this is we don’t have good information to go off of,” said Diers. “This is a lot of assumptions on imperfect information.”

Council member DeLaine Freeseman suggested the city operate the transit system for a year, find out what the ridership is and what the numbers actually are.

Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews also agreed with that assessment.

“Kind of what you’re looking for is if the council is agreeable to maybe spending a little bit more per year to find out how the operation works,” said Andrews.

Diers said the city could hire out drivers to a private entity. There would also be the question of who would control or hire dispatchers and maintenance of vehicles.

Diers thought ridership could bounce back up to 32,000 rides per year. That total included about 5,000 riders from Foster Grandparents, which would also join the service.

Also at the council meeting, the Wayfinding Project only received one bid in its effort to install signs around town. That bid was from ASI Signs, which was for almost $144,000 – almost double the city’s estimate. The proposed plan was to find out if KSI would build just a portion of the signs, which council members agreed would be the four gateway/welcome sings. The city could then bid everything else out again to another company in attempt to put up the remaining 20 or so signs at a better cost. City Engineer John Fallis said the cost of the posts were driving up the cost of the project.

“To take a base bid and an estimate and basically double it — something’s not quite adding up for me,” said Freeseman.

• A discussion of bullet-proof glass being installed in the reception area of the Housing Department was also on the agenda. Home Town Security offered the lowest proposal of $8,750.

• Pam Lessin was in attendance to discuss lots she owns on Park Lane Drive. Lessin would like to subdivide a small portion of that property and convey it to Brandon Parks.