Story by Kevin Woodard
Last night the Normal Town Council approved spending $200,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for Connect Transit to use for its One Rate for All program. That amount will be spent annually from the 2022-23 budget through the 2025-27 budget for a total of $800,000. After that Connect Transit will likely ask the Town to continue the funding and the Town will have to determine the funding source. The One Rate for All program allows Connect Mobility riders to pay $1.25 per ride which is the same price fixed route service riders are charged.
City Manager Pam Reece pointed out that the Town spending $200,000 on Connect Transit allows them to leverage $900,000 of state funding. She said that staff had suggested that this might be a good use of ARPA funding for that reason. With council input staff committed the funding for Connect at a December meeting regarding the spending of ARPA funds.
Council member Kathleen Lorenz said that she had initially thought the money should be spent on capital projects but that after hearing funding Connect Transit would allow them to leverage more funding she agreed it was a good idea.
This is a logical argument. However the ARPA funding likely could have leveraged federal and state funding for capital projects as well.
Reece provided background on the story during the meeting stating that the Connect to the Future (CttF) working group had recommended the One Rate for All plan in March of 2020 and that Connect asked the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal to fund it. Bloomington agreed to pay $300,000 a year and Normal $200,000. Reece said that Bloomington has been making payments but Normal has not because Covid-19 interrupted the plan. Therefore this payment will represent Normal’s first payment for the project.
Council member Stan Nord argued that the funding would be better spent on capital projects. For example during the December ARPA meeting council discussed but did not decide to fund a project to do sewer monitoring along West Hovey Ave. or a sewer expansion and capacity study in north Normal. Nord pointed out that residents of Normal in some areas are still getting dirty water due to water mains that are 60 years old suggesting the money might be better spent on water main projects. He mentioned watermain work the Village of Heyworth is doing that is replacing old pipes from the 50’s and 60/’s and asked if Normal has similar plans in the works.
Reece defended Normal’s actions stating they have spent $21 million in the past six years and plan to spend $5 million this year and $4 million next year.
Reece’s numbers sound remarkable. But numbers can be deceiving when not placed in context.
According to Reece’s numbers Normal will have spent $30 million in eight years. That’s $3.75 million per year. Reece said Normal has 17,000 customers. That’s a rate of $221 per customer.
Heyworth is spending $2 million this year on its water main project alone. The population of Heyworth is 2800. That’s $714 per person.
Connect Transit is currently working on its budget for 2022/23. The budget will be presented to their board on May 25th. General Manager David Braun is asking for a $2.9 million budget increase that would increase the budget by 18%.
Braun is arguing the increase is needed due to increased costs, many related to Covid-19, and its impact on the economy. His argument is sound. But there are also other pieces to the puzzle. Braun is proposing three new projects for the next year.
First he is proposing a new West Normal and West Bloomington Route. The route would run from Uptown Station, west along College Avenue to Rivian, then south down Rivian Pkwy. to W. Market St. then east to Wal-Mart and downtown Bloomington then north along Main Street and back to Uptown Station. The route would replace the Lime Express. It is expected to cost $1 million a year to operate. At this time Braun does not have available the amount of savings that would result from discontinuing the Lime Express Rt. thus offsetting some of the cost of the new route.
Second Collect Transit is proposing starting Micro Transit service. This would allow point to point service within a small zone and connect to fixed routes for travel outside the local zone. Connect plans to run a van in one zone as a pilot project this year. The cost is expected to be $450,000.
Third the transit company is proposing Van Pool service provided by Enterprise. Enterprise would operate the service and Connect would pay for the vehicles at a cost of $600 per year. Connect expects to have 30 vehicles in service in two years resulting in an anticipated cost of $180,000 per year.
In total these projects add up to $1.6 million per year. Not pursuing these projects would leave Connect Transit short $1.3 million. The increase would be around 8%. While high, given inflation is currently around 8% it’s not unreasonable.
The Connect Transit Board is appointed by the Mayors of Bloomington Normal and the respective City Managers attend the board meetings as well. Therefore, those that wish to support Connect Transit and/or those who may have some questions about budget decisions may wish to contact Connect Transit and/or their respective Mayor’s or City Manager’s office.
