43
Niles will end transit service
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Niles has notified the Trumbull County commissioners that it will discontinue its operation of Niles Trumbull Transit — a countywide busing service — at the end of this year.
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said the news could result in reductions in the amount of ride services available in 2012 and beyond. Heltzel said it’s too soon to say whether the county will take over the service.
“I’ll be able to tell you better after the first half of the year. Funding is going to be difficult this year,” Heltzel said, referring to cuts in funding the state might make to the county and other local governments when it writes its two-year budget in the coming months.
Part of the service being provided by Niles Trumbull Transit is transportation for people age 60 and over, paid for with money from the senior-services levy.
“We’ve got eight months to make the decision, but it’s going to depend on funding and ability to run a system like this,” Heltzel said of whether the county would try to take it over.
One thing the commissioners can do is study what other counties do.
“There are other providers, but whether they would be good successors to Niles Trumbull Transit, I don’t know,” he said.
Either way, Heltzel said he believes the transportation services being provided by the Trumbull County Office of Elderly Affairs are likely to continue. They focus primarily on rides for wheelchair-bound senior citizens and people with medical conditions.
Heltzel said he thinks the rides Niles Trumbull Transit gives to senior citizens for $2 each way “will continue in some form; what form they take remains to be seen.”
Niles Mayor Ralph Infante told commissioners in a letter Friday that Niles Trumbull Transit provides about 75,000 rides per year at a cost of $1.7 million. The service is what is called “on-demand,” meaning it will pick up and take passengers from and to any location.
Niles started the service in 2003 after receiving its first federal grant of $248,200, Infante said. At the time, the total cost of the service was $620,000.
The service expanded in 2006, when senior-levy dollars became available. Promoters of the levy promised to provide $2 rides with the funds raised by the levy, which first was approved in November 2005 and renewed for five more years in May 2010.
Infante said part of the reason the city must discontinue the service is that Niles no longer is able to front the federal money it receives.
“The city is no longer in a position where we can continue to loan the system money while we wait for reimbursement.”
Infante said the city will participate in discussions regarding “any successful transition that will enable this very important service to continue.”