TACT Municipalities Prepare for Yearly Rate Hike

Town and Country Transit Board of Directors - who represent eight local municipalities - will go back to their respective councils in the next few weeks and have to reveal a minimum-five percent rate increase in "local match" funding during the 2012-13 fiscal year.

by Jonathan Weaver

Armstrong County municipalities will be paying more to keep bus service in their towns this year.

As Town and Country Transit General Manager Patti Lynn Baker explained, under the current Act 44 transportation guidelines enacted by the state Legislature, municipalities that contribute funding – paid for through a “local match” – to the transit authority must contribute at least five percent more in funding as a whole to keep the buses rolling.

“The State has a mandatory five percent increase from the local match, which this year was $33,191 – our mandatory local match for this coming fiscal year of ‘12-13 is $34,830,” Baker explained.

Municipalities contributing toward TACT include Applewold, Ford City, Ford Cliff, Kittanning, Manorville and West Kittanning Boroughs as well as East Franklin and Manor Townships. Armstrong County commissioners also authorize a payment toward the authority for service.

For example, Kittanning Borough contributed $10, 308 in the 2011-12 fiscal year – 31 percent of the overall match due to greater population – and budgeted $10,926 for the 2012-13 fiscal year, a six-percent increase. Ford City Borough budgeted for $7,950 for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 fiscal years.

Municipality leaders can opt to pay in various installment options – Kittanning Borough pays half their match in July and half in January – as long as their payment is received, Baker said.

“The next few months go by really quickly and I’m just trying to plan ahead for the budget,” Baker said. “(Financial Manager) Lisa (Midla) and I can come up with what we need for the budget, but I need to know what the Board’s going to set the local match at and they need to have time to go back to their municipalities – we’re just trying to give everyone time to plan their budgets.”

Baker presented Board members– President Henry Mores of West Kittanning, David Stewart of East Franklin Township, Hyatt Hawk of Manorville Borough, Charles Nicely of Applewold Borough and Tom Close of Kittanning Borough – with financial figures at their monthly meeting last night, with estimate costs of the increase.

The Board can also authorize a costlier increase, but Baker said the current economical state could deter such.

“It has to go up – the five percent is the least it can go up,” Baker said. “That’s an important part of our budget process.”

The increased costs will be further discussed by the Board at the February 15^th meeting.

While municipalities may question the match increase, residents in their towns may actually be using the service more. According to second quarter – October to December 2011 – statistics revealed last night, overall fixed route ridership has increased 21 percent and senior citizen ridership (classified under the shared ride program) rose 27 percent.

Baker was optimistic based on those statics.

“It’s good to see those numbers climb the second quarter in a row,” Baker said.

After listening to funding programs in the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, Baker said the local service might have its advantages compared to other counties.

“Sometimes being smaller and being used to operating a little more frugally has its advantages, and for us to consider these kind of ridership numbers increase is great for our residents – hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to offer the services that they need,” Baker said.

Baker said there will be no shared-ride fare increase as previously discussed internally by directors.

TACT Receives $150,000 State Gift for Buses

TACT General Manager Patti Lynn Baker told municipality representatives Wednesday that the authority received $150,000 in funding from PennDOT for two new Shared Ride buses. The funding will not require a local or state match. Vehicles are to be delivered in April 2012.

by Jonathan Weaver

Even though Christmas is 39 days away, PennDOT is taking the form of ‘Santa Claus’ for one local transit authority.

Town and Country Transit (TACT) leaders received $150,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to go toward two new vehicles after a mandated ‘Operating and Capital’ presentation to the Department November 7.

General Manager Patti Lynn Baker made the announcement to local municipal representatives at their public meeting last night.

“Apparently, we made a pretty good presentation of why we need to go to smaller vehicles – and the fact that its costing over half of our maintenance budget to maintain these opus vehicles – because they made available to us left-over ARRA money, Baker said.

Baker made the announcement during her monthly report while Henry Mores, who represents West Kittanning Borough, listened in.

“The opuses come to the end of their useful life at the end of February, so on Tuesday morning, we were on the phone with PennDOT; they had us update our capital application and we actually ordered those vehicles last week,” Baker said. “We actually don’t need to have a state or local match for those, so its 100 percent money – which is the best kind of money to have – so they basically gave us a really nice gift in that ARRA money. ”

An up to 80 percent match would typically be required to receive the additional funding,

ARRA stands for the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. TACT requested the purchase of two new Shared Ride vehicles that can seat 16 passengers and two wheelchairs.

Baker said TACT was appreciative of PennDOT’s generosity.

“We really appreciate PennDOT being understanding and working with us and seeing the needs that we have in the direction we’re trying to go,” Baker said.

The new buses are to be delivered in mid-to-late April 2012.

Also, TACT bus drivers received updated Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and sensitivity training and the authority is receiving state assistance through technical support in preparing for their yearly audit. Baker said that the assistance has been helpful and expects it to continue to be.

“It was nice to be able to sit down with the people from PennDOT and have some dialogue about some things that are going on here,” Baker said. “Obviously, there are some issues we have, mainly with the Shared Ride program to make it run more effectively and efficiently. We continue to lose money every year, so there are things that need fixed and addressed.”

Baker also announced that TACT was approved by the State for their $42,500 Job Access Reverse Commute grant for the 2012 fiscal year, which runs from July 1-June 30.