ThisWeek CW 07/23/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/20/groveport-obetz-will-partner-in-transport-program.html

The cities of Groveport and Obetz will partner in the Groveport Rickenbacker Employee Access Transit project to provide transportation from the closest area Central Ohio Transit Authority stop and Groveport businesses located in the Rickenbacker industrial area.

Groveport City Council voted unanimously July 13 to approve the partnership agreement with Obetz, along with the creation of a special Transportation Services Fund. The ordinance was approved as an emergency so shuttle buses can be ordered and delivered prior to the busy holiday season.

The agreement calls for Obetz to construct two new bus stop pads and to contribute about $38,000 for services in 2015.

In 2016, Obetz will pay all the costs for the bus for its route and one-third of the cost of a spare bus, operating fees and the cost of a transportation supervisor.

“We are requesting that each business contribute $5,000 toward the start-up of the program,” Groveport City Manager Marsha Hall wrote in a summary to council. “If all of the 23 businesses contribute, this will total $115,000.

“In order to be conservative, we are counting on at least 12 businesses contributing this in 2015, which totals $60,000.”

Hall said council’s decision to partner with Obetz would make the difference between three routes or two, and purchasing three or four shuttle buses.

“We can’t really order the shuttle buses until we know how many riders we’ll service and we won’t know that until we know about this contract,” she said.

“With the agreement signed with Obetz, we’ll run three routes with three buses and then have one spare standby bus.

“Bus Services Inc. provided us with the best offer for these shuttle buses and said that they can promise a 90-day delivery turnaround, which is really pushing it to get up and running by Oct. 1,” she said.

Groveport Finance Director Jeff Green said the original quote from Bus Services Inc. indicated company officials believed they could get the vehicles delivered in 60 days, but guaranteed delivery in 90 days. Once the buses are delivered, there will still be some detail work to be completed, such as adding GREAT decals to the vehicles, Green said.

The 28-passenger shuttle buses will cost about $60,000 each. That is expected to be offset by a lease agreement and cost-sharing between the municipalities and participating companies.

“It has always been assumed that the businesses will pay for their riders,” Hall said. “A per-ride cost is the fairest way to distribute the costs to the businesses. To determine a per-ride cost, we took COTA’s current ride numbers for line 81, which is 530 per day, and added an additional 50-percent increase for a total estimate of 800 rides per day.

“We then divided that into per-day total program costs,” she added. “We determined the per-ride ticket cost to be $1.25. This is how we arrived at $60,950 in ticket costs for the period of Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.”

Businesses will be required to pay $1,000 to participate in the program annually.

Hall said she hopes the service will continue to grow, both because of popularity with riders and employers and continued commercial development in the Rickenbacker area.