Officials work to secure funds to keep WRTA services

WRTA now pays about $22,000 to fill up the gas tanks of its 60 buses.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Western Reserve Transit Authority, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and Ohio Department of Transportation officials are working to secure federal transportation dollars that could prevent WRTA from having to reduce services.
Faced with rising fuel costs and the loss of most of a federal job access grant, WRTA officials have been considering possible cuts in services, either reducing routes or eliminating some night runs, said Jim Ferraro, executive director.
Ferraro told the WRTA board Thursday, however, that some federal transportation grants could be available through ODOT. The board voted to apply for the grants.
In the past three years, WRTA had to split a $750,000 federal Job Access Reverse Commute grant with Shenango Valley Shuttle in Mercer County and Niles Trumbull Transit in Trumbull County, Ferraro said. Agencies used to apply for the grants, but now lawmakers make those awards, he explained.
For 2005, U.S. Rep Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, worked to earmark $750,000 for WRTA, Niles and Mercer services to split, Ferraro said. This year, however, WRTA officials are faced with a three-way split of just $260,000, he said.
Working together
How the grant will be split among the three transportation services is still to be determined, but Ferraro said WRTA officials are working with Mercer and Niles officials. He said Mercer officials are in agreement with the allocation, but WRTA officials have not yet had much discussion with Niles officials.
Ferraro said the Job Access Reverse Commute grants are available to transportation services that provide transportation to people who, without transportation, could not be employed.
He said the grant is also based on population density, and believes the significant loss of funding to the Mahoning and Shenango valleys is the result of officials in larger population areas arguing that smaller communities should not get large portions of the grant.
Ferraro said the significant increases in fuel costs have also had an impact on WRTA's budget.
Since fuel prices have been on the rise with unrest in the Middle East and the hurricane devastation of the U.S. Gulf Coast, WRTA's fuel costs have risen about 60 percent, he said.
An average cost to fuel the fleet used to be about $12,000, but prices spiked to about $22,000, Ferraro said. In recent weeks, when fuel prices dropped temporarily, it cost $18,000 to $19,000 to fill the tanks, but now the cost is back up to $22,000, he said.