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Trumbull Transit continues
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Users of the former Niles Trumbull Transit Service have not noticed any difference in the operation of the service since the Trumbull County Transit Board began to operate it Jan. 1, officials said Monday.
The transit board, composed of volunteer board members appointed by the Trumbull County commissioners, took over the service after the city of Niles decided last year it no longer could afford to front the money required to operate it.
“It hasn’t missed a beat,” said Atty. James Floyd, chairman of the transit board.
One reason is that the board has an agreement paying Niles $500 per month for Mark Hess, Niles grant and development coordinator, to show the transit board how to operate the system and how to meet the requirements of the Federal Transit Administration for receiving federal funds.
Hess has operated Niles-Trumbull Transit for Niles since 2003.
The transit board has not yet passed a budget, but it will approve one for the first quarter of the year next month, Floyd said.
Meanwhile, the board has designated Floyd CEO of the nonprofit corporation, Atty. Dan Keating as legal officer and Michael P. Craig as fiscal officer. None of these positions is paid.
The county commissioners have allotted about $900,000 from the countywide senior-citizens levy to the transit board to operate the service in 2012, but commissioners expect to allocate half that much in 2013, said Commissioner Frank Fuda.
Commissioners put a levy on the ballot in November that would have raised $1.6 million annually to provide the funding to operate the service after 2012, but voters rejected it 64 percent to 36 percent.
The meeting was the first for real-estate salesman Marlin Palich, who was appointed recently to the board.
Glenn Holmes, mayor of McDonald and also a transit-board member, said the work of Floyd, who has expertise in corporate law, has been crucial to getting the transit board started.
“Kudos to Atty. Floyd. There have been a lot of complications to getting it all started,” Holmes said of the new administrative structure of the transit board.
Niles-Trumbull Transit used buses from Community Bus Service of Warren and Youngstown to provide on-demand rides to county residents. Trumbull Transit continues to use Community Busing for the service.
In 2010, the Niles- Trumbull Transit provided 64,249 trips: 18,922 for senior citizens, 21,013 to the disabled, 16,131 to students, and 8,183 for other residents.
Most of the rides cost the rider $1.50 to $2.