Budget includes funds for mobility manager, continuing current operations
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The Walworth County Transportation Coordinating Committee voted in favor of a proposed budget for county transportation needs in 2016 at its meeting Monday afternoon.
Walworth County Transportation Consultant Dave Lowe said Monday the budget information provided to the committee started with what the county had this year, which included about $232,000 from the 85.21 grant, a required match of about $46,000, about $28,000 from passenger revenues and around $265,000 from Walworth County Health and Human Services, totaling about $571,000.
In looking at the possibility of going to public transit, Lowe said there are things the county will not want to open up to the general public, noting out-of-county travel as an example. Something like this, Lowe said, should remain as an 85.21 item through health and human services and out of public transportation.
Lowe said his best guess for out-of-county travel would be about $172,000, based off the cost of an average month, multiplied over 12-months.
Additionally, Lowe said eight months of local travel, within the county, under the 85. 21 funds, would be about $165,000, totaling about $337,000 for the two items that would not be available for public transportation. This, he said, would leave about $234,000 for local, shared transportation.
In the proposed budget, Lowe said he had included funds for a mobility manager for the county with a $45,000 salary and a 40 percent fringe benefit package, something he felt was reasonable. He said by the time they have the job posted and get somebody hired for the position, presumably in May of next year, this would be about $42,000 total for next year’s budget.
Lowe said in the upcoming year’s budget and viewing it from a public transportation standpoint, he’s also estimated for the possibility of switching to an hourly rate for public transportation, rather than a per trip rate.
Lowe said with the per trip rate, they’re getting more people on the same vehicle at the same time, causing costs to grow exponentially.
Included in the budget, Lowe estimated for three vehicles running about 60-hours each week, Monday through Saturday, with two additional vehicles overlapping schedules Monday through Friday. This, he said, would provide for five vehicles during the day’s peak times.
Lowe said he put in an additional $30,000 for things such as administrative costs, dispatch, transition expenses and more, and $20,000 for capital.
Lowe reiterated the budget is essentially trying to guess what the county will be doing transportation a year from now and doesn’t necessarily “tie anybody’s hands” at this point.
Lowe said based on this budget, the total local share needed would be about $107,000 with the additional $20,000 for capital.
Lowe said while they’re a long ways away from getting everything done, the proposed budget should be good enough to use for applying for state grants to help fund county transportation.
