City of Cannon Beach to fund year-round shuttle, overhaul routes - The Cannon Beach Gazette
Weekdays or weekends? Public or private provider? And on whose schedule?
These and other details remain up in the air, but the city of Cannon Beach says it is committed to keeping the Cannon Beach Shuttle on the road through the fall, winter and spring.
Ever since the financially struggling Sunset Empire Transportation District announced major bus route reductions last spring, the Cannon Beach City Council has been searching for ways to mitigate significant gaps in inter- and intra-city public transport routes.
A high-season shuttle service kept weekend riders en route throughout the summer, but as fall arrives, the council is on the hunt for a comprehensive longer-term solution. Among the four options it has been considering:
• Contract service through SETD at a rate of $55 per hour on a to-be-determined schedule
• Contract with private transportation provider Twilite Limousine at a rate of $46.50 per hour, seven days a week on a to-be determined schedule
• Contract with Twilite Limousine for weekend service only
• Contract with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to rent a van at a tentative cost of $2,000 per month; city would be responsible for developing schedule and hiring a driver.
By the end of a Sept. 26 special meeting called on the issue, the council had given itself a monthly transport budget of $3,000, narrowed the options to contracting with either SETD or Twilite Limousine, and set a trial timeline of nine months for the new configuration.
What remains less clear going forward is which public transportation framework will do the greatest good for the greatest number of tourists and residents.
The council agreed that the new service configuration should augment and not replicate the services already available through SETD, but struggled with the question of how to meet the needs of the population on its limited budget.
City councilor Melissa Cadwallader expressed concern that the infrequency of buses running between Seaside and the center of Cannon Beach is forcing residents on essential errands to spend long amounts of time there before they can get a ride back to the center of Cannon Beach.
"It's just unconscionable to expect older residents who don't drive to spend five to six hours in Seaside to come back with groceries or a prescription," she said.
Mayor Mike Morgan expressed concern about the ecological wisdom of running frequent bus services at times when only a few people would make use of it, while councilor Nancy Giasson wondered about the out-of-pocket cost of funding the service.
Money to fund the service would likely come from the city's contingency fund until the next fiscal year, which begins in July 2012.
Options discussed included offering weekend service to accommodate those who work in the service and hospitality sectors and offering split shift routes that would allow riders to get to and from work in the morning and evening.
The council also discussed whether it was safe to expect riders to stand on the side of the road and "flag down" the bus as needed, which they currently do at certain times of the day on other SETD routes.
If the city does decide to contract with SETD, district will be flexible when it comes to when and how often the dedicated Cannon Beach shuttle runs, said new SETD Transportation Director Jay Flint, but it may be unable to provide weekend service, and its $55-per-hour price is not negotiable.
SETD doesn't operate on a profit, according to Flint, and the $55 is very close to the actual costs the district incurs from operating the bus.
The district will likely be able expand its offerings once it gets on more solid financial footing, Flint added.
Twilite Limousine would be able to provide the service at a lower cost, said company operator Shawn Dionne, and would be open to any service configuration the city has in mind.
The audience was sparse at the city's Sept. 26 meeting, but resident Jan Siebert-Wahrmund expressed concern about handing the service over to a private company.
"I helped to start the Cannon Beach shuttle years and years ago and it grieves me to have a for-profit take it over," she said. "It seems like a shift in direction."
Also present was frequent rider Kevin Weidner, who requested that he and other riders be given the opportunity to weigh in on the routes as the city works toward a solution.
Cannon Beach is hoping to partner with the city of Seaside on some of the costs, and Morgan and Flint also visited the Seaside City Council meeting Sept. 26 to pitch the idea.
Morgan asked the Seaside councilors for assistance running the weekend shuttle.
"There is a large gap in transit on the weekends," Morgan said. "We have people that live in Cannon Beach and work in Seaside that will use the buses. There are people that live in Seaside and work in Cannon Beach that will use the system. And there are visitors that could use the bus to connect with both cities. So we'd like to explore the options of developing transit loops between the two cities."
Such a partnership would allow the individual cities to do more than either could alone, according to Flint, although getting public transport on the North Coast up to snuff could take some time.
"We are currently at the bottom as far as transit goes today," he said. "We want to partner with Cannon Beach and Seaside to enhance services. It will be a several-year process. I am working hard to find extra money in our budget to help bring back the transit services we lost in April. We would like to return Route 20 between Seaside and Cannon Beach."
The Seaside City Council has not yet taken action on the proposal.
Meanwhile, the city of Cannon Beach will send out an official request for proposals for two trips a day from Cannon Beach to Seaside on weekends in order to get enough information to make an "apples to apples" comparison of available services, said City Manager Rich Mays.
In the interim, the city will contract with SETD to continue weekend shuttle service at least through the month of October. There will be no weekday service aside from the service already offered through SETD's other routes.
As they narrow down options, Siebert-Wahrmund suggested that the councilors try riding the bus on a rainy day to see for themselves how the logistics work out.
"We need places where we can wait in a sheltered area," she said. "We can't stand on the side of Highway 101 and flag down a bus in the middle of December ... Go on a rainy, windy day and see what it really feels like to wait for a bus."
SETD is also in the process of modifying its other routes, and anyone wishing to view proposed route modifications for other SETD routes can go online to www.ridethebus.org. The district will also hold a public hearing at transit center in Astoria at 2 p.m. Oct. 5. For more info, call (503) 861-7433.
Transit district secures essential loan
For those who depend on the services of the Sunset Empire Transportation District, some good news: the buses will keep running through the fall.
A $310,000, six-month loan from Enterprise Cascadia, a Washington state financial institution, will keep the system financially stable, according to Jay Flint, the Sunset Empire Transportation systems executive director.
"This will mean, most importantly, the system will not be in danger of shutting down before the tax revenues start coming in in November," Flint said. "There was a real danger of that. This bridges that danger. This loan helps us establish the budget."
The loan has an 8.25 percent interest rate.
"We stepped up to help the district meet its services commitment and provide time for an effective and long-term solution," said Walt Postlewait, Enterprise Cascadia CEO. "The district is an essential piece of the community that provides services to many low-income people in our area."
Last April, the transit district board cut its employee base from 55 to 19 and significantly reduced transit services between Astoria and Cannon Beach.
Nancy Winters, the director of Clatsop County Behavioral Health, told the Gazette in April the reductions in services would cause hardship for hundreds of clients who had no other means of transportation.
"That is fabulous news," Winters said. "Because it has been so difficult for our clients to get from one end of the county to the other due to the budget cuts in the transit system. That has made it very stressful and complicated. We have had clients that could not come in."
The budget cutting came after the resignation of former general manager Cindy Howe, who has become the target of investigations by the State Ethics Commission and the Oregon Attorney General's office since leaving her post.
The transit district board also approved a full working contract for Flint at its Sept. 22 meeting. Flint was hired Aug. 15 pending successful completion of negotiations and a background check.
"I have 11 tasks that I must complete this year," said Flint. "This is the first priority and I am excited that we got over this first hurdle. My next priority includes developing a new organization structure for the transit system."
28 Sep, 2011--
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