Commissioners to vote on transit merger
A Washington City Transit bus makes its rounds as it travels on North Main Street in this 2013 photo.
Transit official Joe Thomas, second from left, speaks Wednesday with Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi. At right is Sheila Gombita, executive director of Washington County Authority.
Those who ride buses or paratransit likely won’t see immediate changes in either service or fares, but Washington County commissioners expect to vote on a resolution today that will merge City Transit and Washington County Transportation Authority.
County Solicitor J. Lynn DeHaven told commissioners he has prepared documents related to the jointure of the two agencies, including notification for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration, which grants money solely to City Transit.
“Ultimately, I think it will result in an improved public transit system,” said Joe Thomas, director of City Transit, which generally receives a few hundred thousand dollars courtesy of federal taxpayers. “We have always used that for capital needs,” Thomas said, citing the construction of transit center and acquisition of buses, fare boxes and radio communication equipment.
Washington County Transportation Authority, formed in 2001, for the first time this year received a $45,000 infusion from Washington County taxpayers, although it was granted local share money from gambling proceeds at The Meadows Casino to start its fixed-route service.
The merger will require an additional $68,230 to be paid from county tax dollars before June 30, 2016, while the city will contribute a $85,000 local match during the 2015-16 fiscal year. Mayor Brenda Davis said before the city passed a similar resolution a few weeks ago that she expects the city to save $75,000 a year due to the merger.
“In 2015, I can’t imagine that we’ll see any changes to fares or fixed route services,” said Sheila Gombita, executive director of Washington County Transportation Authority, Wednesday after the commissioners’ agenda-setting meting.
Gombita and Thomas will compare their agencies’ routes with the streamlining of overlapping fixed-route service in mind. Both agencies will be housed by the end of summer at the new intermodal transportation center on East Chestnut Street, the likely site of a bus stop that now picks up and discharges passengers in the vicinity the parallel North College and North Main streets between Beau and Chestnut.
Washington County Transportation Authority operates the white, red and blue Washington Rides paratransit service and the black and gold Freedom Line fixed-route service between McDonald and Washington. City Transit, with lime-green vehicles, travels between Washington and Pittsburgh and on fixed routes in the Washington area.
The new entity does not include Mid-Mon Valley Transit, which has bus runs into downtown Pittsburgh along Route 88 and throughout Mon Valley shopping hubs.
Donna Weckoski, former finance manager for Mid-Mon Valley Transit, recently was named executive director of the Mon Valley transportation provider. “We were into some discussion,” Weckoski said Wednesday. “Right now those discussions are at a standstill. Mid-Mon Valley board members want majority representation on the new board that would be formed.”
Plans for a merger call for equal representation from each entity, but the Mid-Mon Valley transportation authority now has 20 active members on its board, much larger than those of Washington City Transit or the Washington County Transportation Authority.
Weckoski called the representation issue “a major stumbling block and I don’t know if that can or will be resolved.”
The commissioners initially zeroed out Mid-Mon Valley Transit in the county’s 2015 budget, then approved a supplemental appropriation of $15,300 in January whle encouraging merger discussions.
“We’re certainly interested in still continuing our talks with them,” Gombita said.