The Fox Cities Transit Commission met 05/25/2021. They only had one action item which was to approve payments for April. There were no questions about any of them, and they were approved unanimously. The bulk of the meeting was taken up with informational reports
The first report was the Income Report. Administrative Services Manager Deb Ebben gave the presentation.
As of the end of April they were 1/3 through the year so the various items should be at roughly 33% of the budget. Fair revenues continue to be under budget due to lost ridership because of Covid-19. [They’re at only 19.70% for the year vs the 33% they should be at.] On a positive note, inquiries for advertising had increased during April and May and it looked like that revenue may recover by the end of the year and they may end up taking in close to what they budgeted. [Other Charges For Service was at 26.49%.]
“Other Revenues” included rent from Greyhoud and commissions from the vending machines. The vending machines have been empty, but they’re going to restock them. Their revenues have been down in that area also, but they sold some city assets which is why it shows as being over budget. [38.86%]
Expenses were also under budget for the month of April in all categories except Utilities and Repairs and Maintenance. She noted that in Repairs and Maintenance it appeared that they were over budget in their Software Support (91.18%), but that was because they paid the full cost at the beginning of the year.
She noted that their independent auditors would probably be presenting their 2020 audit results at the second Transit Commission meeting in June.
Deb then reviewed April’s Ridership and Revenue numbers.
Fixed route ridership was lower than normal. It was higher than it was in 2020, but not back to 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels. Total fixed route ridership in April was 46,267. In a typical April they would have over 80,000 riders, but last year they were only at 24,725 so they were up 21,000 riders. Year To Date ridership was down 87,000 rides compared to last year. [That was because last year they had 2 1/2 pre-pandemic months. I would guess that, by the end of the year ridership in 2021 will outstrip ridership in 2020.]
She said that ridership was picking up in all of the fare categories. She noted that the pre-paid revenue probably looked funny, but that was because they did their billing to the Appleton Area School District and Fox Valley Technically College.
Their ADA and ancillary services were up compared to 2020 but still down compared to a typical year.
Overall, their total ridership for the year through the end of April was down over 91,000 riders compared to 2020.
Commission Chair George Dearborn thought they were positive trends that would continue.
After that, Assistant General Manager Amy Erickson provided a service update.
There were few detour routes that Valley Transit planned to make permanent. Several inbound and outbound routes servicing the south side had to be changed in response to downtown construction projects. Valley Transit decided to make those detour routes permanent. Affected routes were Route 1 (Midway/Telulah), Route 19 (South East Appleton), and Route 21 (Neenah/Menasha). These detours had lasted a couple years and they know there are more projects to come in the future (the demolition/reconstruction of the Soldier’s Square parking ramp and the building on the U.S. Venture/bluff site). These detour routes have been in place for two years with no complaints about the rerouting.
She said that they had received a complaint from a Kaukauna resident, asking that the bus stop in her terrace be removed due to concerns about trash, vandalism, and people walking all over her property. When they receive complaints like that they evaluate them on an individual basis. They pulled the passenger count from that stop and discovered it was very low. Even prior to Covid-19 it only averaged one boarding and alighting per day. There is a bus stop two blocks to the north and two blocks to the south. They will, therefore be honoring that request. When they decommission a bus stop they place a sticker on it warning people that it is scheduled for removal in the next 30 days as a way to give riders ample warning.
General Manage Ron McDonald then went over Valley Transit’s Table of Organization.
A couple years ago, the Transit Commission asked to be provided with a table of organization so they knew who the administrative and supervisory staff members were. Ron said he tries to go over that whenever they make changes. Since they last reported on the Table of Organization, they hired Sarah Schneider as the Mobility Manager and Stephanie Lenz as a Travel Trainer. Stephanie reports directly to Sarah. He said they were busy out in the community and, since Covid has been winding down, they’ve had a lot of people express interest in learning how to ride the bus. They’ve also been successful in helping interested people who were using the ADA/paratransit service to learn how to use the regular buses. He mentioned one individual in particular who was now able to use the bus four days a week instead of relying on the ADA/paratransit service. That was one of those reasons why they created the Mobility Manager and Travel Trainer positions.
Another notable change was that they had upgraded Matt Anderson’s position. He had previously been a Road Supervisor and had been upgraded to Operations Supervisor. This gave Valley Transit greater flexibility in assigning work instead of trying to have two differently classified individuals handle the same tasks.
Jeff Pelligrini had retired as Maintenance Supervisor around March 1st, so they hired Dan Kobussen to replace him. Dan had been working for Valley Transit part time and accepted a buy out at his full time job in order to come work full time for Valley Transit.
Ron briefly touched on Covid-19 and noted that, although things are opening up again, the buses were still operating under the Presidential Executive Order which requires facemasks on all public transportation–buses, planes, taxis, etc. The initial order was going to expire in early May but was extended through September 13. Anyone riding on a public transit vehicle or using a public transportation hub (i.e. the transit center) is required to wear a face mask at all times until the President withdraws that order. The order did not apply to Valley Transit’s Whitman Avenue facility. It was stringly for public facing services such as the buses and the transit center.
He then gave an update on the Transit Commission’s return to holding meeting at city hall. The Transit Commission works under the City of Appleton and must follow their rules. The Appleton Common Council had enacted a resolution to allow for virtual participation at City of Appleton meetings. The Common Council decided to end that resolution on June 30th. Effective July 1, all City of Appleton meetings will be back in person without video conferencing allowed. So the Transit Commission would be able to have their June meeting under their current format with some participants appearing virtually, but effective July 1 they will have to revert back to completely in-person meetings. He said he would keep them updated if there were any changes.
[As a side note, the Council does plan to discuss implementing some kind of permanent changes that may allow virtual participation in some form going forward. They have an Organizational Meeting scheduled 06/16 to go over this.]
Ron pointed out that the plexiglass barriers in the Common Council chambers had been removed and things were returning to a sense of normalcy.
Chair Dearborn said it would be great to see everyone there.
Ron said that, in the past, he had talked about having one-on-one discussions with each of the commission members. They now had a couple new commissioners, so he wanted to bring that back up again. His intention was to have one-on-one meetings with each of them and had already had some very good discussions with some of the commissioners. These meetings would offer the opportunity to discuss what was going on in their municipalities, answer questions, talk about things they want to look at in the future, and get an idea of what was happening in each commissioner’s community. He noted that they had to be careful and not talk about agenda items or try to get a feeling for how someone was going to vote on something, but he did want to have candid conversations about questions commissioners may have and work on opening up lines of communication. He planned to reach out to everyone with whom he had not already set up meetings.
Two Commission members spoke very highly of the one-on-one meetings they had had and said it gave them the opportunity to discuss things that don’t come up at the meetings.
They didn’t have anything to discuss at the June 8th meeting, so they decided to cancel that. The June 22nd meeting will probably feature the independent financial auditor coming in to give their 2020 report.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=858663&GUID=1A0BAC42-9814-4097-9D40-B85EC14C748E&Options=info|&Search=
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