Orange County NC Website
staffing. He said this is reflected in the budget for OPT for this fiscal year. He said there also <br /> has to be appropriate capital in order to implement the services. <br /> Bret Martin reviewed the demographics map slide and said the transit dependent <br /> populations are highly concentrated in the central part of the County between Efland, Mebane <br /> and Hillsborough, as well as in the far northern parts of the County. He said these are outside <br /> of the Chapel Hill transit service area. <br /> Bret Martin said the other consideration is the location of the County's major trip <br /> generators. He said the concentration, outside of the Chapel Hill Transit service area, is a in <br /> the central part of the County and in the corridor between Mebane and Hillsborough, as well as <br /> some up 86, north of Hillsborough. <br /> He said the survey data revealed that more frequent service and weekend service were <br /> the most important improvements requested, followed closely by more evening service. He <br /> said respondents requested more mid-day off peak service, and more Saturday service. He <br /> said the top picks for desired trip types that are not currently available were errands, personal <br /> business and shopping. <br /> Bret Martin referred to the fiscal constraint slide. He said the first allocation made <br /> available to OPT for the services was $88,350, and this money has been banked until the <br /> services start in 2015. He said the allocations increase significantly for the first 4 years before <br /> leveling off. <br /> He reviewed the financial notes and assumptions. He said that there is no assumption <br /> of state or federal grants; but that is something that Orange County is working on, so it is <br /> possible. He noted that there are funded and unfunded priorities, and he will spend the <br /> majority of his time focusing on the funded programs. He said that if grants are secured or if <br /> the money exceeds forecasts, then the unfunded services would be implemented in priority <br /> order. <br /> Commissioner Gordon asked about the actual versus the assumed cost per service <br /> hour. <br /> Bret Martin said the assumption is $44 per service hour, and the actual has been $35 <br /> per service hour. He said this does not take into account the administrative cost or overhead. <br /> He reviewed the map of the service expansion recommendations. He said Routes 1 B <br /> and 1A command response routes are scheduled to start on July 1St of this year. He said this is <br /> designed for serving those errand trips for the residents in the northern parts of the County and <br /> those who are transit dependent. <br /> Bret Martin said starting in August, there will be 3 hours of additional service time for <br /> transporting seniors from the senior centers to their homes. He said this is to accommodate the <br /> program offerings at these centers. <br /> He said during phase 1, when Triangle Transit is just starting to run between <br /> Hillsborough and Durham, the US 70 mid-day route will be starting peak service from Mebane <br /> to Efland to Hillsborough to feed into this. He said, when phase 2 of Triangle Transit's service <br /> comes online, OPT will go to the mid-day and run the route from Mebane to Efland to <br /> Hillsborough to Duke. He pointed out other routes shown on the map. <br /> Bret Martin said the unfunded concepts listed in red on the slide are the ones that have <br /> been added since the agenda packets were mailed out. <br /> He reviewed the next steps for the public outreach meetings, as listed on the slide, and <br /> said this will come back to the Board on June 3 for approval. <br /> Chair Jacobs suggested to the manager that something be added to the agenda to <br /> change the name of the Northern Human Services Center to the Cedar Grove Community <br /> Center, for continuity's sake. He said this is coming back in June, at which point there will be <br /> more community response to consider in deciding how to regard the plan. <br />