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News
Propose cut in Oswego Park-n-Ride funding : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisPropose cut in Oswego Park-n-Ride funding
| Village officials note number of bus trips to Aurora Metra station may be reduced
| by John Etheredge
| 2/18/2010
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Metra riders who use Oswego's Park-n-Ride facility may see the service curtailed as village officials attempt to cut expenses for the next fiscal year's budget.
Pace, the suburban bus service that serves the Park-n-Ride, has asked the village to pay $169,078 to continue the facility's operation at its current level through Oct. 30.
Under Pace's previous contract with the village, the village paid $151,411.10 annually for the service. That contract expired Nov. 1, but Pace has continued to provide bus service to the Park-n-Ride pending the negotiation of a new contract.
However, Gary Adams, village administrator, told the board's finance committee Feb. 10 that he has concerns about the village's ability to continue to pay Pace.
"I am concerned with the budget for the corporate fund and our ability to continue to fund this service at the current level. The village is subsidizing a very expensive service for a relatively small amount of citizens," Adams said in a memo to the committee.
In the event the board decides to keep the Park-n-Ride open, Adams has recommended that the amount of money the village put towards the facility be lowered significantly.
Adams said an $85,000 line item for the service has been tentatively placed in a draft copy of the village's proposed 2010-11 fiscal year budget. The budget, however, is a work in progress and the line item for the Park-n-Ride funding could be removed as village officials look to cut expenses.
Adams noted the $85,000 line item is well below the $169,078 requested by Pace and would likely prompt the agency to reduce the number of round-trips between the Park-n-Ride and the Metra station at the downtown Aurora Transportation Center.
Currently, Pace buses make six departure trips from the Park-n-Ride each weekday morning and six return trips each evening from the Aurora Transportation Center. Metra riders pay $1.75 for a one-way ticket.
If the village cuts its funding for the service, Adams said Pace officials may choose to reduce the number of trips to and from the Park-n-Ride to, perhaps, three or four each way.
The service might also choose to use smaller buses that would be more economical to operate, he added.
"The free market is telling us what it wants and if the ridership isn't there, it's not cost effective," said Jeff Lawson, a board member.
Lawson added, "We are in a budget crisis and with the elimination of the positions we've had to make, we really have to dig down and see if this is a cost effective program for us."
As suggested by Adams, the committee agreed to have him notify Pace of the village's plans to reduce its funding of the service to $85,000 and see how the agency will respond.
"I don't want to cut the service out and I'm not proposing that," Adams emphasized. "I'll give Pace a budget number and communicate with them that that number is all we can afford. I'll ask them to look at their service levels and what they are charging. Hopefully, we can work out some compromise."
The village secured state and federal grants in the early years of the past decade to design and construct the Park-n-Ride, which opened in June 2004. Adams noted that grants the village had been receiving to help pay for the facilities operation have run out.
The facility, with 120 parking spaces, is designed to accommodate the construction of a full-fledged Metra station on the site, which adjoins the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway's main line tracks.
Village President Brian LeClercq questioned what impact either a reduction in bus trips or an outright closing of the facility would have on the village's ongoing attempts to have a Metra station built on the site.
"I don't know," Adams said. "The parking lot would be there, obviously, but you would not be providing the service so those individuals would have to make other arrangements (to reach Metra) trains."
Terry Michels, finance committee chairman, noted that if there is going to be a reduction in bus service to the Park-n-Ride that the remaining rides coincide with the arrival and departure of Metra trains in Aurora.
"We need to be assured that the times they are picking up and dropping off (riders) are suitable for them to catch the train in Aurora," Michels said. "If not, we may end up losing 50 percent of the riders and then the question would be: If we lose 50 percent of our ridership do will still want to fund it at $85,000."
Adams noted that he will also seek clarification from Pace officials concerning the number of Metra riders using the Park-n-Ride.
The Pace figures show that ridership on busses serving the Park-n-Ride hit a peak in February of last year but declined on a monthly basis through November.
Adams said village police counted a total of 45 vehicles parked in the Park-n-Ride lot on Feb. 1 and Feb. 3 and 36 cars on Feb. 5.
Of the total of 126 vehicles counted over the three-day period, the police determined 40 were from Oswego, 40 from Yorkville, 22 from Montgomery and 12 from Plano. The other vehicles were from other area communities.
Committee members speculated that use of the Park-n-Ride has likely dropped over the past year due to downturn in the economy and the loss of jobs. In addition, they noted that a parking lot expansion project was completed at the Aurora Transportation Center last year.
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