River Valley Metro Mass Transit District December 18, 2012 Metro Centre 1137 E 5000 North Road Bourbonnais IL 60914 Special Board of Director Meeting Minutes Chairman Grimsley called the special River Valley Metro Board of Directors Committee meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Attending Board Members: Chairman Norman Grimsley, Vice Chairman Jerry Pearce, Treasurer Mark Regel, Secretary David Hinderliter and Board Members: Nick Allen, Carole Franke and Kelly St. Aubin. Staff Members Present: Managing Director; Robert Hoffmann Others Present: Mike Bossert, Kankakee County Board Chairman, Mayor Duane Dykstra (Village of Aroma Park), Mayor Tim Nugent (Village of Manteno), Mayor Paul Schore (Village of Bourbonnais), Mayor Nina Epstein (City of Kankakee), Mayor Bruce Adams (Village of Bradley), Greg St. Aubin (Manteno Township), John Donovan (Federal Highway Administration), T.L. Caldwell (IDOT), Jim Greenstreet (Kankakee County Planning Department), Mike Lammey (Kankakee County Planning Department), Joe Cainkar(River Valley Metro), Laura Dick (Show Bus Director), Mike Grimsley Public with Business to Come Before the Board: None. Chairman Schore called the MPO Policy Committee meeting to order at 4:05 pm. Public with Business to Come Before the Board: None Minutes and Agenda Approval: A motion was made by Mayor Bruce Adams to approve the MPO Policy Committee minutes of the October 24, 2012. Mayor Epstein seconded the motion.. A voice roll call was taken with all in favor. Motion carried. Minutes approved. A motion was made by Mayor Duane Dykstra to approve the agenda. Mayor Bruce Adams seconded the motion.. A voice roll call was taken with all in favor. Motion carried. Agenda approved. FY 2012 Tip Amendments: No amendments
MPO Presentation: Managing Director, Robert Hoffmann gave a presentation on River Valley Metro. The following items were addressed in the presentation: Funding and legislation affecting Metro Ridership for the history of the system History of the municipality membership and the process Surveys (past and current), including the survey that was sent to each of the member municipalities. Each municipality was emailed a survey with a follow up email. (4 of the 8 municipalities, plus Economic Alliance returned the survey.) Service expansions Survey information was used to recommend service expansion. o Planned service changes to existing routes (KCC & Meadowview) o Recommended a route to Momence (This was not approved by the Board of Directors) o FY2013 expansions (Midway airport shuttle, 2 nd route to University Park exit 308 area and take I57 and serve Peotone and Monee) o FY2014 expansions (2 nd bus on the Mall route and commuter service to Watseka, anchoring at KCC) o Long Range (no more than 5 years): expanding Metro Plus Service, 6000 Road, how we would serve a 3 rd airport, downtown circulator in downtown Kankakee, Bus Rapid Transit Service and Pembroke Township Questions for Mr. Hoffmann 2 nd University Park Route Mayor Nugent asked if this route would travel up Interstate 57 and how would the service in Peotone and Monee work. Hoffmann replied that Peotone and Monee would not become a member municipality. They would not pay a local share for the service. Commuter service is not charged to the local share since everyone benefits from it. There is no requirement for areas we serve to be a member. River Valley Metro would have to receive approval from PACE to provide service there, since they are in PACE s transportation district. PACE has asked us to serve the area. Service Outside the MPO area County Board Chairman Bossert asked about who pays for service outside the urbanized area. Mr. Hoffmann replied that funding comes from federal and state funding received by Metro. Bossert stated that it is a fixed amount that comes to the urbanized area, correct. Hoffmann replied it is a fixed amount each year that is set by a formula. Chairman Schore asked who would pay for the service to Watseka. Again, Mr. Hoffmann replied that the Watseka route would also be a commuter
route, so it is not applied to the local share either. Bossert asked if the urbanized area funding would be used to run that route. Hoffmann replied yes, yes it comes out of the overall budget. Mayor Schore stated he does not agree with that, once money starts leaving the area. He is confused on the mission and who we are serving. Bossert asked if there would be an increase in federal money to serve Watseka or would Watseka or Iroquois County pay a share? Hoffmann replied no, unless we asked them to join. Financial benefit is hard to measure in public transit and not our focus. Hoffmann stated if a new service does not work out, we pull it back and try something different. Routes do not always exist just because of ridership. There are many socio economic factors that affect how routes are planned. You want connectivity between communities. Chairman Schore understands the University Park route, because it benefits the urbanized area. Schore stated he was upset with the Watseka route, because he does not see how it benefits Kankakee County. Hoffmann referred to the Survey results. Bossert asked if Watseka was being served by the rural system. Hoffmann stated that Show Bus has a fixed route that served from 9:30 am 1:30 pm in the city limits of Watseka. Predominately a dial a ride survey Survey Mayor Epstein asked who was surveyed in the customer survey. Hoffmann replied that we do on board surveys and they were also available online thru Survey Monkey. It was advertised on the radio and in the newspaper and mass email requests. Bossert commented that 77% of the people on our buses want to go to Watseka. Hoffmann stated that 77% of those people that responded wanted to go to Watseka. Bossert found this hard to believe. Epstein could see why people from Watseka would want to come here, but not the other way. Epstein doesn t see the current customers having the need to go to Watseka. She could anticipate them wanting to go north, to Frankfort as an example. Hoffmann referred to the University Park service, we never imagined people using it to come to Kankakee County to work, but they do. Epstein asked if KCC could give us numbers on students from Iroquois County and the Watseka run would end at KCC. Hoffmann stated yes it would end at KCC and give them the opportunity to transfer into the rest of the system. New Service Hoffmann stated that with any new service you run it and then evaluate it. If it isn t successful you have a public hearing, shut it down and use your resources elsewhere. Epstein asked how you determine if it is successful. Hoffmann you have to give it at least a year to evaluate.
Midway Service Mayor Nugent asked if there was demand for the Midway service in the survey. Hoffmann replied that that was not in the 2010 survey. It was a staff recommendation to the Board. It was included in the recent survey. Those results will be used for the next planning session with the Board. Nugent asked what the fees for the Midway service would be. Hoffmann stated that this has not been discussed with the Board as of yet. Mayor Schore asked if we would pick people up along the way, like the new University Park route. Hoffmann stated that the sole pick up would be in Manteno. University Park exit 308 Mayor Adams asked why Peotone and Monee are not being served by PACE. Why isn t PACE serving them. Hoffmann stated PACE has an interest in it and we do not have a problem with it. We are in discussions with PACE involving a fee for this provision. Mayor Nugent stated that we are going thru there anyway, it would be additional revenue no matter how many we picked up. Mayor Schore asked if Will County residents were being taxed by RTA for transit service. Hoffmann stated yes. Mayor Epstein stated there may be reimbursement for us to serve that area. The residents should be the ones upset, because they pay into the RTA but receive no service. Mark Regel stated that PACE is looking into possibly providing Metro with buses to provide the service to Peotone and Monee, making the arrangement very attractive to Metro. Funding Epstein asked if the funding listed on the slides was operating and capital or just operating. Hoffmann stated it was only operating. State and federal provide capital funding as well, but has not been a dependable flow. Regel stated our capital income has been $0 for the past years. This is why we have been unable to purchase buses. The State determines who receives the capital when you are under 200,000 population. Metro is exploring any and all means of obtaining capital funding. Epstein stated that the lack of capital funding makes it critical to plan the use existing equipment so we do run the system out of business due to lack of equipment. Hoffmann replied we have done asset transfers for $1 receiving 9 buses at 50% of their life. You can also lease vehicles. Yes this could happen, but if it does it is time to get new staff. It is staff s responsibility to make sure this doesn t happen. Regel stated that any expansion is dependent upon vehicles being available.
David Hinderliter interjected that Metro has had good experience with University Park and trips are happening in both directions. We were only thinking one way. This is an unexpected benefit of this route. This is what we feel could happen with Watseka as well. There is no scientific method to measure where they go and why. We had an expectation and it was exceeded, because we provided opportunity. There is no downside. Bossert stated the downside was limited funding. Hoffmann stated it is fixed funding, but we are not proposing anything that doesn t fit into our revenue funding. Current Service Levels Bossert stated his concern about providing service outside the MPO area when all of the routes inside the MPO area are not at a 30 minute service level. Hoffmann stated that it is not our goal to have every route on 30 minute headways. Bossert asked why. Regel and Hoffmann both stated that there is not a need for this service. Regel stated that decisions are based on sustainable growth. Part of our funding $263,000, we get this because our routes qualify with a per passenger per hour figure. By providing 30 minutes on all routes we would dilute our ridership and reduce our funding. Mr. Regel stated that operating funding was available to provide more service and I feel providing job opportunities to the residents of Kankakee County is a good use of the funding. I was not initially on board with the Watseka route, but when jobs came into the picture it made sense as well as more students to KCC is good for Kankakee. I think we are doing our job to bring our tax dollars back for our residents to use. Rural System Bossert asked isn t it the role of the rural system to handle the resident s needs in the rural area? Ms. Dick stated we have 8 buses and 10 drivers in Iroquois County. No one has approached them to provide this service. Schore asked why Show Bus isn t feeding to us instead of vice versa. Dick stated they are with one trip a day and a second trip pending grant approval. Dick stated that the route starts at 6 am depending on how many demand response and goes home anywhere from mid afternoon to arrive at 6 pm. Regel stated we would prefer to integrate with Show Bus if possible. Job in Watseka Nick Allen asked how many jobs are in Watseka. Hoffmann stated it was unknown. The conversations have been going on for 5 years. The conversations have revolved around jobs, aging community and education. As we had funding we first approached Mike from County Transportation Services and he stated they do not go out of the county. So we contacted Show Bus and asked if they could expand the
route in Watseka to hook up with us and run the same service hours through a contract with us and they were not interested in doing that service. We are recommending service enhancement. Mayor Adams feels integration needs to be looked at before we decide on a route. David Hinderliter asked Laura Dick and Mike Lammey if integration was possible. Neither responded. Hinderliter stated this is our biggest problem because we can never get an answer. Organizational Issues Bossert asked if the Intergovernmental agreement only determines the local share. Hoffmann said yes and if a new person is added then the intergovernmental agreement is redrafted. To become a district member they have to be annexed in thru the State Statute. The Board wanting to be annexed in passes a resolution that the Metro Board then approves. Regel stated the reason for the original member governmental agencies to approve the local share agreement was the biggest concern. If someone was annexed in it would change those service hours and share if it is a new area served. Runs to Watseka Mayor Adams asked how many daily trips would be made to Watseka, because of wear and tear on the vehicles. Hoffmann stated he did not remember the exact hours. It was an hour each direction and it did not run until 10:30 like our service. Annexing Mayor Nugent asked has Kankakee or Bourbonnais township been asked to join the district. Regel stated we were thankful that Manteno Township wanted to join. Schore stated that no one has asked them. Bossert stated you brought in a township when the county is suppose to represent county incorporated areas. Why did you do that? Regel stated because Manteno Township asked to be part of the district and passed a resolution. Greg St. Aubin stated they asked to be brought in due to a large need to provide transportation to the employers. Felt it was our obligation. Bossert rebutted that we are not asking Watseka to join and pay. Board member Kelly St. Aubin stated Manteno township wanted representation on the Board. Epstein asked if Metro actively approaches townships or communities to join or do we they wait to be approached by them? I don t know the answers from the previous to me, but Manteno and Manteno Township both approached Metro. Hoffmann stated that Manteno joined before they had a fixed route. Adams stated that Bradley did not join when it started, but did ask to join in 2001. Nick Allen asked if it takes a 2/3 majority vote by the Metro Board to accept a new member. This was confirmed by Hoffmann.
Chairman Norman Grimsley asked the members of the Policy Committee should get with their appointees to the Metro Board if they have any questions or needs. Jerry Pearce made a motion to adjourn, Kelly St. Aubin seconded the motion, with all in favor. Metro Board meeting adjourned at 5:16 pm