Citylink changes approved
COEUR d'ALENE — Next stop for the Citylink bus system's future in the urban area: new fares and changes to routes and hours of operation.
Kootenai County commissioners on Monday approved a new fare of $1.50 for rides in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Dalton Gardens and Huetter and $3 for paratransit service, effective next spring. Rides have been free since Citylink started in 2005.
The fares, which would be part of a cashless system, do not apply to rides to the Coeur d'Alene Casino, which will remain free.
The board also approved new hours of operation to include Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. A Saturday service from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. is contingent upon the cities of Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls increasing their annual contributions to Citylink. A Sunday urban service will likely be discontinued unless additional funding can be secured.
The current service hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.
The changes are based on an analysis the county had performed from August 2015 to April 2017 to create a more efficient and sustainable public bus system for the future. The county recently held a series of public meetings on the changes.
"Key components of the analysis were to create a baseline for building an effective public transportation service and to develop a five-year service plan," said Jody Bieze, the county's Grants Management Office director. "We anticipate the service changes being in place by early August and the fare changes to be implemented in spring 2018."
Bieze said the additional cost of adding the Saturday service would be $60,000 and the entire weekend $150,000.
Commissioner Marc Eberlein said it's unfortunate the Sunday service will likely be discontinued, so he suggested exploring a pilot Uber program on Sundays. However, that idea didn't catch momentum with fellow Commissioners Bob Bingham and Chris Fillios and Bieze.
There were 152,215 rides on Citylink's urban routes in fiscal year 2016 and 41,716 one-way trips for the paratransit service.
Funding for Citylink is provided by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Kootenai Health, federal grants and cities in the urban area. The county contributes staff time toward the system.
Coeur d'Alene has been asked to increase its annual voluntary contribution from $43,939 to $58,939 and Post Falls from $21,950 to $36,950. The county is awaiting a response from those cities on the request.
Hayden contributes $11,696 and has informed the county it will not be able to increase that amount this year. Dalton Gardens chips in $2,904 and Huetter $165. They were not asked to increase those amounts since there is only one stop in those cities.
The setting of Monday's deliberations by the commissioners on the Citylink changes was in stark contrast to the public hearing earlier this month on the proposals in which comments on the planned transit center were also allowed.
Just two residents turned out for Monday’s meeting, while nearly 100 attended the public hearing that morphed into emotional testimony on the transit center.
Funding for the transit center planned in Riverstone, which is where the current temporary park and ride is, was approved by commissioners in January.
However, a resolution by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee — to suspend construction of the center until the need is established and the costs are well-defined — caused some pause. Concern the center would increase crime was also cited in opposition to the center.
The first phase of the transit center is expected to go out to bid soon with construction estimated to start in March 2018. The center will include a facility with about 2,500 square feet of office space, a bus pull-through area, covered seating, paved parking and security cameras. Law enforcement officials said they don't have concerns about the center increasing crime.
The county and Tribe purchased property for the center three years ago.
County resident Jennifer Grimes, who attended Monday's deliberations, said she believes county staff did a good job of developing Citylink changes to improve the system, so she was pleased with the board's actions in that regard.
However, she supports a scaled-down version of the transit center because she believes a full-fledged facility opens the door to other systems such as Spokane Transit and Greyhound tying into it even though commissioners would have to approve that.
"A nicer, cleaned-up area is needed," she said, referring to the current dirt parking area. "However, the center (with an office building) will draw more people and that is not going to be conducive to the environment of Riverstone."