Bus service cuts subsidy price to make it easier on city

by Landon Johnston

Mountain Home News

The City of Mountain Home is currently deciding if it wants to help fund, for the first time, the public bus system that is currently in place and operated by Treasure Valley Transit.

"The city has not, up to this point, ever put a single dime into the bus service," said Mayor Joe B. McNeal. "We are not 'cutting' the program, because we never funded it."

"You can't cut something that's never been funded with city money."

McNeal is entirely correct, according to Terri Lindenberg, Executive Director of Treasure Valley Transit (TVT).

Lindenberg said that TVT approached city council last year, asking them to help fund the bus service in Mountain Home. But the group apparently made their bid after the city had already set its budget for Fiscal Year 2006.

"We were too late last year," said Lindenberg. "So we had to find other sources of funding for the project."

The project, officially named a "demonstration" project, has lasted for more than a year and, according to Lindenberg, that makes it one of the longest-running projects in the state.

"What we were forced to do was appeal to the Idaho Department of Transportation (IDT) for funding," she said. "Through IDT, and the United States Federal Transit Administration, we were able to acquire a grant for the project."

"To our understanding, the project would run for one year and then, if it was decided that it was an asset to the community, the city would help fund it in Fiscal Year 2007."

Lindenberg also said that the city was in no way legally obligated to fund the buses this year, but that is what she is hoping they will do.

"They (city council) told us last year that they would explore the possibility of matching the grant for this year," she said. "Our hope was that if we got our request in on time, they would be pretty receptive to the idea."

According to Lindenberg, both the city and Mountain Home Air Force Base would share the cost of matching the $79,680 IDT grant.

"It was first proposed that the city and the air base would split funding fifty-fifty," she said.

That, however, is not what TVT is asking for anymore.

"We first asked the city to provide funding in the amount of $53,062," Lindenberg said.

But in a letter dated Aug. 2, Lindenberg notified council that the funding request had been cut by more than half of the original proposal.

The letter stated that Lindenberg, "...revised the transportation budget in order to decrease the funding request from $53,062 to $25,000 in hope that this will enable the service to continue."

Lindenberg went on to say that she eliminated the purchase of a new bus, reduced hours of operation and eliminated a local representative position in order to drop the request to $25,000.

"That's all we're asking from the city right now," said Lindenberg. "The base has already promised a lot more than that."

In that same letter, it states that MHAFB is scheduled to provide funding of $50,000 for the base bus route.

"They (base) have already approved it," Lindenberg said. "Now all that remains is the city."

If council decides to approve the $25,000 request, that money, along with the money from the base and just under $5,000 from advertising and small contracts, would equal the total for the entire match requirement.

However, according to Lindenberg, if council decides not to fund the city's buses, the base route would still continue to operate. But TVT has not made any provisions for that scenario as of yet.

"The two routes are designed to be linked," she said. "So I have no idea how one would run without the other.

"Right now we are hopeful that we won't have to worry about it."

And so is McNeal.

"The city has been working on this for awhile now," he said. "I even sent a letter to the council in February in which I urged them to consider funding of public transport a priority."

In that letter, McNeal said that funding the buses for one year would not guarantee continued funding in the future.

According to the letter, "It would simply be a 'test run' to fully assess public demand."

McNeal confirmed that TVT did indeed have their budget request in before the deadline this year.

"But that doesn't guarantee anything," he said. "Obviously money is very tight and council originally decided that this wasn't one of their priorities this year."

A finalized city budget must be submitted to the state no later than Sept. 7 and Lindenberg believes that the council will eventually decide in favor of the people.

"We have seen a tremendous amount of support from the community," she said. "We were encouraged by the turnout at the public hearing (Aug. 14) and are very optimistic about the future."

"We hope they will see just how viable this is for the people of Mountain Home."

The fiscal year officially ends Sept. 31, but TVT has promised to operate the city bus route until the final budget is set or the Sept. 7 deadline has passed.

Other factors the council will consider include:

* McNeal said that TVT's original budget request of $53,062 was being considered by the council but only if, under the proposal, all patrons were able to ride the bus without charge.

* Under the current proposal, TVT has proposed to increase the current city fares by $.25.

Adults would pay $1, senior citizens could ride for $.75 and youth/disabled riders would be charged $.50.

* TVT, based in Nampa, no longer operates city or metro routes in Nampa, Caldwell or Boise.

The company was, at one time, contracted out by Valley Regional Transit, but according to VRT Executive Director Kelli Fairless, that contract ended in 2005.

"I believe we had a two-year contract with them to provide service in Canyon and Ada Counties," Fairless said.

"But we opted for another contractor, First Transit, in April of 2005."

The only route TVT currently operates besides Mountain Home and MHAFB is McCall Transit in McCall, Idaho.