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Transit board seeks levy in Trumbull County
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Members of the Trumbull County Transit Board have asked county commissioners to put another countywide transit levy on the ballot in the March 6 primary.
The transit board, cre- ated to run the county’s public-transportation service when the existing Niles Trumbull Transit service ends Jan. 1, is making its request less than a month after voters rejected a 0.5-mill, five-year countywide transit levy at the general election.
Voters rejected the levy 64 percent to 36 percent. It would have cost the owner of a $100,000 house $17.50 per year and raised about $1.6 million annually.
Members of the transit board, along with other levy supporters attending the board’s meeting Thursday, said they hope they can better explain to voters that existing services will have to be cut if additional money isn’t secured.
Niles Mayor Ralph Infante, chairman of the levy committee, said he thinks the levy might gain a greater level of support if the ballot language were “clearer.”
Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda, who attended the meeting, said he supports putting the levy back on the ballot, but he isn’t sure whether the paperwork can be prepared by Wednesday’s board of elections deadline.
“It’s really needed if people are going to receive the services they need in 2013,” Fuda said. “I don’t think people realize how important senior [citizen] transportation is.”
The transit board takes over from Niles Trumbull Transit, a service run since 2003 by the city of Niles. The city announced early this year it would end Niles Trumbull Transit, a countywide on-demand ride service, at the end of this year.
Fuda said the new transit service will receive about $900,000 from a county senior-citizens levy in 2012, which should allow the service to continue to operate all year at a similar level of service that it now provides.
That $900,000 is carryover funds from the senior levy that were not used in 2006, the first year after the seniors levy was approved by voters, because it took about a year to get most of the services started.
But once those funds are gone at the end of 2012, much less senior levy money will be available, Fuda said.
Niles Trumbull Transit has a budget of $1.5 million in 2011, with $601,000 of that coming from federal grants that Trumbull Transit is hoping it also will secure.
The transit board announced Thursday that the county has qualified for a $130,000 one-time urban transit grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation to use for transit operations in 2012.
The board also passed a resolution calling for the transit board to pay the city of Niles $500 per month for the assistance of Mark Hess, the city’s grant and development coordinator, so that the new transit board can comply with the requirements of state and federal transit grants. Hess serves in that capacity for the city now.
Another resolution names Trumbull County Auditor Adrian Biviano to serve as fiscal agent for the new transit board. Mayor Glenn Holmes of McDonald was appointed vice chairman. Atty. James Floyd is chairman.