Next stop for Concord Area Transit: more money.
For fiscal year 2017, Concord’s budget proposal would increase its annual contribution to the bus service by $40,000.
“It’s coming down to a point where the wells are drying up,” said Jim Sudak, director of Concord Area Transit. “I need drivers, and the city has stepped up to the plate, and hopefully it will get through the city council.”
The city would also pay $30,000 on the cost of a new bus; this is the second in a three-year cycle to replace the agency’s oldest vehicles. The state will also kick in $30,000 this year for the new bus, while the federal government will cover $240,000.
Concord Area Transit has operated since the 1980s and is owned by the Community Action Program of Belknap-Merrimack Counties. Sudak estimated more than 100,000 riders used the buses last year; and the Penacook loop is the most popular out of the three fixed routes.
Its funding structure is complicated, but much of the money for the roughly $900,000 operating budget comes from the federal government. The state pays in nothing; for years, the city has contributed $125,350 annually to the bus service.
Sudak has long been asking for more.
“It’s mainly the operating costs that we have been hurting for, for some years,” Sudak said.
The increase would allow Concord Area Transit to raise pay for bus drivers, he said, bringing their wages closer to the market level for commercial drivers. Sudak said he has trouble attracting and retaining those employees at current levels; right now, the agency needs 22 drivers but only has 18 on staff.
Without the increase, Sudak said he would likely need to cut routes or services.
“That’s the last thing we ever want to do,” he said.
City Manager Tom Aspell said he finally agreed to the additional funding because he has seen positive changes in recent years. For example, he said, Concord Area Transit works well with members of the city’s transportation policy advisory committee and helped with the city to move bus stops during Main Street construction. Sudak also noted a staff person helps explain the bus system to refugees new to Concord.
“There’s still changes that need to occur coming up, but I think it’s worth the investment,” Aspell said. “If you had asked me five years ago, I would have said no. But now, I think the time has come to put the dollars down.”
The money will also give Sudak leverage to request another $40,000 from the federal government, he said. The service relies on advertising revenue to fill in the gaps in its budget and makes no money from fares, he said, so those dollars are significant.
“At a dollar and a quarter a ride, we don’t make money at it,” he said. “We’re out there to help them get around, it’s the middle- and low-income people that really need us bad.”
Next, both Aspell and Sudak said they want to see a study of all the Concord Area Transit routes.
“I don’t think those routes make sense anymore, particularly the crosstown route,” Aspell said. “I think there’s ways to improve whether the distance . . . between the stops can be lowered and more people can use it, which would be a better investment for the community. I think they’ve come a long way, and they still want to do some analysis.”
For more information about Aspell’s budget proposal and a schedule of public hearings, visit concordnh.gov. A final public hearing and vote will take place June 6 at 7 p.m. in council chambers.
Concord state Sen. Dan Feltes will be the parade marshall and keynote speaker at the city’s annual Memorial Day parade.
The parade will assemble in the Storrs Street shopping center parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Monday and get underway at 9 a.m. The route will follow Pleasant Street Extention to North Main Street, then to Franklin Street. At Franklin Street, the participants will turn onto North State Street and march to the State House.
While the ceremony has stopped at the Old North Cemetery in past years, this year will conclude with laying of wreaths and playing of taps at the State House arch. Concord Veterans Council President Paul Lloyd said his group will still lay wreaths at the city’s cemeteries, however.
He said the parade is open to local dignitaries, youth programs and groups that work with veterans. Excluded are political campaigns, fancy cars or other hallmarks of flashy parades; Lloyd said he wants the focus to be on Memorial Day’s true meaning.
“I would hope they would remember that freedom’s not free,” Lloyd said. “There’s a price for it. And each generation has lost probably some of their best folks fighting in battles. As they go about their weekend, I would hope that people remember to keep that in mind.”
This week and next week, the construction crews on Main Street will only work four days in observance of Memorial Day. They’ll take off Friday and Monday, according to an email update from the project PR team.
Before the holiday weekend, the granite crews will begin laying down pavers in the new bump outs on South Main Street. This week, that work will mostly be concentrated near the Pleasant Street intersection. At the same time, crews will be working in front of the Love and Smile building and preparing that area for a snowmelt system.
New light poles will also arrive this week.
For more information or to sign up for email updates about the downtown construction, visit concordmainstreetproject.com.
(Megan Doyle can be reached at 369-3321, mdoyle@cmonitor.com or Twitter @megan_e_doyle.)