Augusta Public Transit Director Heyward Johnson's prediction came true.
After dozens of irate bus riders blasted his plan to cut Saturday service at a public meeting last month, he said he didn't think Augusta commissioners would go ahead with it.
The commission's four-member Public Services Committee voted unanimously Monday to keep Saturday buses running. The motion by Commissioner Corey Johnson also softened proposed fare increases, with the price of boarding a bus rising from $1 to $1.25, rather than to $1.50 as the transit director suggested. It will be the first bus fare increase since 2001.
Transfers won't be eliminated but will increase from 35 to 50 cents. Mr. Johnson wanted to increase monthly passes from $50 to $55, but that issue wasn't addressed.
Although sure to please riders, the decision jeopardizes commissioners' plan to get through 2009 without a tax rate increase.
City Administrator Fred Russell had asked Mr. Johnson to cut $1.5 million from Public Transit to make up for a deficit. Cutting Saturday service accounted for $1.2 million, and the fare increase approved Monday will generate only about $108,000, he said.
The bus service loses about $4 million per year, which in the past has been compensated for through budget surpluses.
Mr. Russell recommended commissioners endorse state legislation that would allow them to collect another sales tax for public transit. If the tax were raised a quarter of a cent, it would raise $8 million per year. A 1-cent increase would raise $32 million.
But that won't help with this year's budget, and commissioners expressed frustration Monday.
Commissioner Calvin Holland said businesses that get lucrative contracts with the city should pony up by helping Public Transit sell ads on buses.
"We're continually giving things away, but we're not getting anything back," he said. "We're not a charity organization."
Mr. Johnson asked if the transit director and Mr. Russell could be tasked with finding a solution, to which Commissioner Jimmy Smith replied that Mr. Russell's bag of tricks has a hole in it.
"The magic bag isn't as magic as it used to be," Mr. Russell said.
Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Mason said the city is looking at public transit the wrong way. Instead of serving only the poor and disabled, it should be expanded into a citywide service that earns more revenue and doesn't have to be subsidized by taxpayers who don't use it, he said.
Commissioner Betty Beard questioned why the city isn't being more proactive about requesting aid from President-elect Obama's proposed stimulus package. The city has submitted a list of infrastructure needs to the state Department of Transportation, but has made no direct requests of Washington.
Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who's spearheading that effort, said U.S. Rep. John Barrow has told him stimulus funds will be dispersed in a competitive grant program, and early lists -- such as the U.S. Conference of Mayors' $96.6 billion request on behalf of 641 cities -- are meaningless.
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
In other business
- Commissioner Jimmy Smith gave the Engineering Services Committee a plan for reinvigorating the Regency Mall property if the city can acquire it. The city's working list of projects for the next special purpose sales tax package includes $8 million to buy and demolish the defunct mall. The plan includes a mixed-income development with public housing units.
- The Engineering Services Committee voted 3-0, with J. R. Hatney abstaining, to approve a contract split between two companies hired to do the same job in the construction of the new judicial center. Graves Engineering was hired to do ground testing and construction materials inspections in 2003, outbidding two other companies and being given a letter of authorization to do the work "for the duration of the design and construction of the new judicial center." Last year, company President Rick Swanson found out the city had awarded a $240,257 contract to ATC Associates Inc., and protested. City Administrator Fred Russell worked out a deal to avoid a lawsuit, with Graves focusing on ground testing and ATC on testing masonry, concrete, asphalt and pavement.
- The Public Safety Committee unanimously approved a false alarm ordinance, which accounted for $150,000 of Mr. Russell's proposal to make up a $3.4 million deficit in the 2009 law enforcement budget. Under the ordinance, businesses and homeowners will be fined after the third time a faulty alarm system summons a deputy. The fines are $25 for the fourth and fifth alarms, $50 for the sixth and seventh, and $100 thereafter.
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Agreed This is certainly Obama's kind of town.
Losing $4million a year on a bus service sure looks like an entitlement to me. Reducing the size of the buses and raising the rates should cut losses in half. Why isn't that considered? Entitlement? Come on Augusta commissioners, we can't stay a welfare city. This isn't France.
you can give transit 50 million a year, with the present so called leaders, you will have the same old transit, get rid of the director,planner and the real C.E.O. of transit the fleet manager and parts clerk, these two are the ones that run the transit system. clean house and have a professional transit team come and run this system. you can't plug a dam with chewing gum. as for fred russell his bag of tricks may have have a hole in it. but so does something else. enough said
Lets see, we need $4 mil, so fred comes up with a plan to raise $32 Mil. Man the non-profits must really be hounding him for support for their private clubs. But don't fear, we will have plenty of money for Masters week clean-up, although it isn't really budgeted.
Close all the bus stops that are in neighborhoods and put them at the main roads. Why are our taxes paying for buses to pick people up from their houses and take them to work? I thought the public transit system was supposed to pick you up from a convienant bus stop near home and drop you off at a convienant bus stop near work? Entitlement, I can't afford transportation so the city should bring a bus to my house to pick me up and take me exactly where I want to go....sounds more like a taxi service than a public bus service.
Lost, The only buses offering door to door service are those used by the paratransit system. The ADA program is for the disabled, some of who work for their living and pay taxes too. Unfortunately those buses are not easily distinguised from the regular "short" buses used as part of the Augusta Transit fleet.And before the next post about your tax dollars it might interest you to know the handicapped pay double the regular rate for any trip. It will now cost me $8.00 every day to get to my job. If anyone knows of a cab company in this town with a handicapped lift, I'd love to know about it. Back when Radio Cab ran their lift cabs the same one way trip cost me $35.00.
"After dozens of irate bus riders blasted his plan to cut Saturday service at a public meeting last month, he said he didn't think Augusta commissioners would go ahead with it." ------ Irate? How about steaming HOT angry???? There's not much saturday service anyway, so cutting what's left would cripple usage even more.
"It will now cost me $8.00 every day to get to my job. If anyone knows of a cab company in this town with a handicapped lift, I'd love to know about it. Back when Radio Cab ran their lift cabs the same one way trip cost me $35.00." ----- Yeppers! There's really no REAL transit system in the city. Can't afford taking cabs all the time to get anywhere, as traveling just 8 miles will cost you at least $20. How many folks riding the bus can afford $20 one way, every day?
"Mr. Russell recommended commissioners endorse state legislation that would allow them to collect another sales tax for public transit. If the tax were raised a quarter of a cent, it would raise $8 million per year. A 1-cent increase would raise $32 million." ----- Will that FINALLY get not only saturday service back to the county, EXPAND the bus routes that's so needed? As we need a REAL transit solution, not this taking 2hrs to get back and forth to only 1 destination. >:(
Fred (What, me worry?) Russell's solution to every city issue is to raise taxes. It's the millage rate one year, assessments the next, and sales tax the next.
Ole Betty, always with her hand out
SandyK2005, you and I both know that the folks who post here will tell you that if you don't have the money for a cab then you either shouldn't be handicapped and need the service they want to cut/eliminate, or that you should just stay home. They never see nor seem to want to see the good in anything. $20-35 one way would break most of these folks if they had to pay it everyday. On the high end, that is $350 a week. They had better have a really good job to be able to afford that. Good luck to you and to everyone that depends on APT for transportation.
Wow Im glad most of the posters above dont stay in RC. Keep the negativity out.
KingJames I am with you brother. Its funny that this town and it is a town even if the commissioners call it the "second largest" is so backwards. I have seen cities with less than half the population of Augusta, with 10 time the transportation assets. The problem isn't transportation or the cost. The problem is a lack of funding prioritys How can we continue to fund the non-profits at the expense of county wide needs? In other words what is more important to our commissioners , a Symphony for 2-300 people or a transit system so people can work get to and from work, the stores and medical treatment? I'll bet you can guess who the commission will fund? And we continue to elect them, term after term, because they are GOOD GUYS?
lostintranslation: Obviously you know nothing about public transportation; at no time does the bus "pick someone up at their door," nor does it come under the category of "Entitlement." Public transportation is available to anyone who desires to use it, that's why it is called 'PUBLIC" transportation. If you want door-to-door transporation without providing it yourself, then you call your local TAXI service--and pay a small fortune for the privilege of doing so. Do a little research into a topic before shooting off your mouth (or in the case of blogging, your fingers).