Transit service to end if county doesn't pay its share, mayor says

An advisory council member said he believes the transit system money will eventually be paid.
By TIM YOVICH
and ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Mayor Ralph A. Infante is threatening to shut down the Niles-Trumbull Transit System if the county doesn't come up with its share of operating expenses.
"We have to operate," Infante said Tuesday of Trumbull County's reimbursing Niles $151,000 to help operate the transit system this year.
The system comprises member communities Niles, Liberty, Cortland, Howland, Vienna and McDonald. Ridership is between 18,000 and 20,000 annually with seniors and the handicapped making up nearly all of the riders, according to Niles figures.
Riders in these communities pay $2 for a one-way ride, while those in nonmember communities pay $4 each way. The service is door to door.
The Trumbull County Senior Services Advisory Council recommends to the county commissioners how the money from a seniors levy that generates $2.6 million annually will be spent. It has turned down a proposal to donate the $151,000 in levy money to the transit system. Voters approved the levy last fall.
"If we don't get it, we'll shut down" at the end of the year, Infante said.
Niles pays the money to operate the transit system and is then reimbursed. The system gets money to operate through federal sources, fares, the county and member communities based on $1 per resident.
Says money was promised
Infante said that he doesn't care if the $151,000 comes from the county general fund or from the levy, but that the commissioners promised it to the system during meetings earlier this year.
"We haven't gotten it yet," the mayor said.
"If we have to fight for money, I'm not going to do it," he said of continued operation.
Thomas Klingeman, an advisory council member, said that he thinks the money for the transit system will be paid eventually, but that it remains to be seen whether the advisory council will play a role in that decision.
Klingeman said advisory council members have understood from the beginning that county commissioners made all final decisions about funding.
Klingeman said he finds it ironic that the advisory council had to refrain from recommending an important project like the transit system because of procedural matters, but the commissioners have not had to follow the same procedures.
Klingeman said the advisory council is having to wait to begin recommending expenditures for items such as the transit system because it doesn't have its formal bid procedures. He said the council got a "late start" because it was appointed only this past spring and hasn't had time to get organized enough to be fully operational.
In recent weeks, the commissioners used seniors levy money to provide $65,400 for the SCOPE Inc. Prescription Drug Assistance Program for senior citizens and $160,000 to provide funding for the county's Office of Elderly Affairs.
In both cases, the money was for services the commissioners funded with general fund money in the past but which they had said the levy money would fund if it was approved by voters. In both cases, the commissioners didn't follow the formal bid procedures the advisory council will eventually use.
"The commissioners have a right to do that," said advisory council member Jennie Dennison-Budak, adding that she thinks it is "debatable" how much input the commissioners really want from the advisory council.