WRTA to ask for funding

Saturday bus service will be eliminated next week.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Western Reserve Transit Authority officials said they will talk to state and local officials to try to get more operating funds.

The WRTA board met Thursday to discuss cuts in routes and elimination of Saturday service starting next week.

The board also cut its staff and eliminated other routes earlier this year to eliminate $725,000 from its budget.

James Ferraro, the WRTA’s executive director, said the cuts should get the bus system close to balancing its budget.

“We’ve always talked about being poor. We were poor. Now we’re really poor,” Ferraro said.

The problem, according to the executive director, is that “most people are in favor of mass transit. Most people don’t want to pay for it.”

Ferraro added, “I apologize to those who will be inconvenienced.”

Transit officials said they would talk to state Sens. Capri Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd, and John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-33rd, to see if the state can provide more operating funds.

Cuts in government funds

Part of WRTA’s declining revenue comes from cuts in federal and state funding.

“Everyone wants the service, but the city is paying for it,” said the Rev. Edward Noga of St. Patrick Church and one of the authority’s trustees. The WRTA collects 5 mills of property taxes in the city, which brings in $2.5 million a year.

Cuts to the WRTA could hurt the Valley’s chances of attracting new businesses. The priest said one of the first questions businesses ask of communities is, “Do you have public transit?”

WRTA officials have also talked to the Mahoning County commissioners to see if a WRTA sales tax could be put before voters in 2008. A 0.25-percent sales tax for WRTA on the ballot next year, for example, would generate about $7.5 million a year.

But until more funding is found, riders and businesses will have to deal with the cuts. Many riders who use WRTA to get to work Monday through Friday also rode it on Saturdays to get groceries and run errands.

Riders and others were not allowed to speak at the meeting. WRTA requires people to ask, in writing, two weeks before a meeting to be allowed to speak. The WRTA announced the meeting Monday.

Mike Bosela, president of the authority, said people could ask to address the board in September.

After the meeting, Colleen Gibboney of Youngstown said, “I ride the bus all the time.”

She feared her son who is in high school could have trouble getting to a job if Saturday service isn’t restored.

Brother Tony Larene of Youngstown, who runs a street ministry, said people may lose their jobs if the routes aren’t restored.

wilkinson@vindy.com