City of Lawrence

Public Transit Advisory Committee

January 12, 2016 minutes

 

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Alan Black, Heather Thies, Mark Hurt, Lyle Hettinger, Jane Huesemann

MEMBERS ABSENT:

James Pavision, Samantha Snyder

STAFF PRESENT:

Robert Nugent, Serena Pearson, Wendy Koerner, Mike Sweeten, Ashley Myers  

PUBLIC PRESENT:

None

 

1. Call to Order

Alan Black, Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:15. Quorum met.

 

2. Introductions

 Introductions went around the room.

 

3. Election of Officers (Action Item) – Alan Black nominated Lyle Hettinger to be chair.  Mark Hurt seconded. All approved, no opposed.

 

Lyle Hettinger nominated Alan Black to be Vice Chair. Heather Thies seconded.  All approved, no opposed.

 

Alan Black turned meeting over to Lyle Hettinger to lead rest of the meeting.

 

4. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

Minutes from November 10, 2015 PTAC meeting were presented to PTAC members. There was a motion from Alan Black to approve minutes. Mark Hurt seconded, all in favor, no opposed.

 

5. Service Change Proposals (Action Item) – Bob Nugent presented proposals to take to the public in February. He stated that there are three routes serving the Lawrence Community Shelter and southeast portion of the service area – 1, 5 and 15. There was discussion about running a fourth route to the LCS, but after looking at all of the routes, it was decided to take a look at all routes to avoid duplication of services. We may rename Route 15 to Route 2.  We are proposing that it would just operate from downtown to Peaslee Tech. Route 5 would just go from downtown to the Community Shelter and not East Hills. Route 1 would go from Downtown to East Hills. Also proposed is that Route 3 would become a fixed route instead of a flex route, serve the hospital and continue to serve the north Iowa area. Route 6 would go out to Rock Chalk Park and Route 9 will no longer go there.  Route 6 will no longer serve the hospital since Route 3 will serve it.

 

Bob stated that by conducting these meetings in February, it allows us to make changes and start to work on getting routes out to the public by August.

 

Mark Hurt made a motion to approve proposed service changes, Alan Black seconded, all approved, no opposed.

 

6. Subcommittees – (Action Item) – Bob Nugent wanted to discuss two subcommittees.  The first would be a subcommittee on the upcoming sales tax referendum. The PTAC committee can do some work on the front end that can help with the referendum.  Heather Thies volunteered to be on the referendum committee since Cottonwood has been such a strong transit supporter. Alan Black would also like to be on this subcommittee. He worked on the campaign in the 2008 referendum and still has information on that campaign. Mark Hurt would also like to be on this committee.

 

Motion by Mark Hurt to establish a referendum committee, Alan seconded the motion, all if favor, no opposed. The referendum subcommittee would be Alan Black, Heather Thies and Mark Hurt.

 

Bob mentioned that the second issue is that we need to get one position filled on the PTAC committee.  We could use a subcommittee for that issue as well. Jane Huesemann stated that she would like to work on the committee to find new PTAC members. The search committee needs to get together soon. Jane asked if we could change the number of people on PTAC. Bob Nugent explained that the by-laws state that PTAC needs five to nine people, so the amount of people on the committee could be reduced, or can operate with eight. The subcommittee can make a decision on whether to reduce the amount of people on the committee.

 

The subcommittee will also need to discuss whether a student representative from KU is needed on PTAC. What has happened in recent years is the student representative rarely shows up for PTAC meetings. The student is part of PTAC so when they don’t show up for meetings it makes it harder to meet the quorum. On the university side, they have a transit commission that consists of five students and four staff.  Perhaps we could have Danny Kaiser as an advisory person for PTAC and he could carry his voice forward to the KU transportation committee. Wendy Koerner stated that when PTAC started fifteen years ago, the KU students wanted a vote on PTAC. That is why we have the student representative on the committee.

 

Alan Black moved to create a subcommittee on recruitment, Jane seconded, all approved, no opposed. The recruitment subcommittee will be Jane Huesemann, Lyle Hettinger and Heather Thies.

 

 

7. Updates:

a.    Transit Center – Bob Nugent gave an update on the transit center.  After the last proposal for a transit center at 21st and Stewart did not get approval from City Commission, there was some discussion of possibly putting a transit center at Lot 90 on the KU campus (between 18th and Schwegler on Naismith Drive.)  Staff has had quite a few discussions with KU on this matter.  A couple of days ago we received a letter stating KU is agreeing to this idea. The concept would be a parking garage where the bottom floor would be a transit center. Our offices may be in the bottom floor and it would also include bathrooms for both customers and drivers. KU would go together with the city on applying for a TIGER grant, which would be an 80/20 grant. This means that instead of us having us spending 5 million on a transit center, we would spend 1 million. It is a strong location and it is not too close to a residential neighborhood since there is a recreation center between it and the closest housing. People in that neighborhood have already expressed concern that we are going to open up 18th Street again to traffic. We absolutely have no intention of doing that.

 

b.    30 Minute Service – Bob explained that we will start rolling out 30 minute service soon and will incrementally increase service on several routes. The first route to increase service will be the Route 7.

c.    Transit Amenities – Bob also explained that we are working on putting more amenities out in several locations. We will also be looking at the upcoming COA to assist us in determining where to put amenities in the future. 

d.    Comprehensive Operational Analysis (COA) – We are in the process of doing a request for proposals to determine who will be doing the COA. Once that is determined, they will look at many things including activity on the street, fare structure, etc. 

e.    15 Years of Service “Share Your Story” – Serena Pearson explained that we have chosen the winners for the Share your Story contest and they will be honored tonight at the City Commission meeting. The first place winner of the contest was Jacob Horton, a 10th grader from Lawrence High, who won free bus fare for a year. The second place winner was Johnny Lyons who “rides the five” and won six months of free fare, and the third place winner was Billy Baker, a T-Lift user who works at Cottonwood and won three months of fare on the T-Lift.  

The Mayor will also give a proclamation tonight claiming January as “Transit Month”.

 

8. Public Comment – No public comment

 

9. Next Meeting Proposed

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

 

10. Adjournment

Lyle Hettinger declared the meeting adjourned at 5:30

 

-Submitted by Serena Pearson