Cities to vote on Easy Rider levy

By ROGER ADKINS, radkins@newsandsentinel.com
PARKERSBURG — Voters in Vienna and Parkersburg will decide whether to continue funding Easy Rider buses when they head to the polls May 13.

The Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority operates Easy Rider bus service in Parkersburg and Vienna, in addition to the Intermodal Transit Center on Juliana Street in Parkersburg. The transit center is a facility that features a parking garage and a transportation hub.

The MOVTA is funded by federal money and local taxpayer dollars. The organization must garner local taxpayer funds in order to receive the federal money, said Joe Lockhart, transit manager.

The MOVTA receives about $670,000 in federal money.

In past elections, voters in Vienna and Parkersburg have approved funding that allows the MOVTA to operate for two years, Lockhart said. The transit authority is again asking for two years of funding this election year with minimal increases to cover increasing costs of operation, he said.

According to sample ballots, owners of Class II (residential) properties in Parkersburg will pay $0.1136 per $100 of their property’s value. Owners of Class IV (commercial) properties will pay $0.2272 per $100 of their property’s value.

This means the owner of a Class II property in Parkersburg worth $100,000 would pay $113.60 a year toward the continued operation of bus service while the owner of Class IV property worth $100,000 would pay $227.20 a year.

In Vienna, the owner of a Class II property worth $100,000 would pay $102.60 a year while the owner of a Class IV property worth $100,000 would pay $205.20 a year.

The levy would generate a total not to exceed $1,130,440.81 a year from Parkersburg and a total not to exceed $484,662.44 from Vienna.

Lockhart said revenues from the parking garage have allowed the transit authority to ask for a minimal increase.

“It has allowed us to ask for a renewal with small increases. Parkersburg’s total increase per year is about $21,000 and Vienna’s is about $9,000,” he said.

It is likely that bus service would have to be reduced or eliminated in a city that elected not to fund service. The transit authority would not be able to cover the cost of operating buses, especially considering the increasing cost of fuel.

“We could continue for a while, but eventually it would have to be reduced or eliminated,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart said the MOVTA attempts to make the best use of taxpayer money by running as efficiently as possible.

“We’re constantly thinking of ways we can do better. The first thing we’ve done is attempt new routes that indicate the current demand, where the people are,” he said.

In addition, bus drivers literally go out of the way, if possible, to pick up passengers using a system called route deviation. Buses still operate on a fixed route, but drivers are able to deviate from that route to pick up a passengers who call ahead, Lockhart said. The buses can only deviate to certain predetermined areas, he said.

“As opposed to what we think of as a fixed route, we’re able to swing off and pick up people in areas that weren’t covered before. We have to do it on our schedule. We don’t just go out and get them. The bus runs along a published route and in certain areas we can go off of that route and pick someone up,” Lockhart said.

The system has worked well and is managed so that it doesn’t cause any schedule delays, he said. It has become a common practice for transit authorities across the country, he said.

In addition, the transit authority recently switched to biodiesel fuel in an effort to save funds, Lockhart said. The MOVTA uses a 5 percent mix of soybean oil.

“That could be increased. We did it slowly to see if it would affect engine performance. So far there’s been no effect,” he said.