Agenda - 05-08-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 1 populations are being considered. He said there are more people over the age of 60 outside of 2 Chapel Hill and Carrboro than there are in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. 3 Commissioner Price said people want to age in place, and it is important to serve them. 4 She said she has a problem with buses only going through 5:00. She said people need 5 transportation to work, and to and from school, and the bus should provide this. 6 Craig Benedict said one last thing that will be funded with the Bus and Rail Investment 7 Plan monies is the continuation of the Hillsborough circulator route. He said there are currently 8 monies earmarked with the plan for when the congestion management air quality grants dry up. 9 He said there will be additional monies necessary to upgrade the service to include weekends. 10 He said there is a three party agreement between MPO, TTA and Orange County that talks 11 about funding that might not be completely explained in the plan or the implementation 12 agreement. He said the three parties will have to sign off on the new funding arrangement in 13 order to have sustainable funding for the circulator route. He said staff is trying to use money 14 from the tag tax to fund it, as money from the sales tax is not supposed to be used for existing 15 services. 16 Jenn Weaver asked for clarification on the circulator route. She asked if there were any 17 immediate plans to add a route going in the other direction. 18 Craig Benedict said the plan is to keep the one route, and change locations as 19 necessary. He said running a bus in the opposite direction doubles the cost. He said the 20 circulator costs $90,000 - $110,000 per year, so funding another route in the other direction 21 would mean finding another $100,000. He said OPT has not vied for urban monies from the 22 MPO in the past, as it was a rural area, and the MPO didn't cover all the way to Efland. He said 23 this is changing, and OPT is asking for their fair share based on population served in the 24 urbanized area. 25 Commissioner Pelissier said she would like to put the issue of various bus service needs 26 in perspective. She noted that she is on the Board of Health and is the liaison for the Master 27 Aging Plan. She said the Master Aging Plan talks a lot about the need for transportation for 28 seniors, and then last night the Board of Health passed a resolution stating the need to make 29 sure there is transportation for residents who need it for health reasons. She said there is a 30 tremendous expressed need for transit. She said the sales tax is not going to solve all of the 31 transit problems, and the reality is that projects are going have to be prioritized. 32 Commissioner Gordon said the abstract says this will come back to the Commissioners 33 in April or May for approval of financial assumptions. She said it sounds esoteric that that 34 would be important. She said there is an inter-local agreement that says if the conditions 35 materially change it has to come back to the Board. She said there are material changes. She 36 questioned what will be done if sales tax revenue goes up, but some of the other state or local 37 revenue sources go down. She said this will be an important conversation in May. She said 38 the bus hours are critically important, and the Board wants to rectify this when extra money 39 comes in. 40 Commissioner Gordon said it is important to remember that 75 percent of the money 41 goes to the light rail transit. She said the bus and rail plan passed by the voters is pretty 42 specific, but there are some changes, and the question is what will be done in April. She said 43 she is hearing the Board say that the bus service is the priority. 44 Commissioner McKee congratulated Eric Langfried on the approval to move to 45 development stage. He said this does not change his stand on the light rail, but it was evidently 46 a well put together plan. He referenced a proposal put forth this summer regarding the 47 possibility of an east/west route from Mebane to Durham down 1-85. He asked if this has been 48 put away or if it is still on the table. 49 Eric Langfried said he does not know the final recommendation on this.