HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Committee Minutes 11.12.24 (pending approval)
Attendees:
Al Hartman Paul Esslinger, Council Jim Collins, Transportation Director
Jim Stapel Sean Lynch Steve Tomasik, Operations Manager
Jeff Armstrong Deb Martin Excused: Evelyn Meuret
Also Present: OPD Representative – Lt. Kraemer
The meeting was called to order by Al Hartman who then explained protocol for public comment.
Public Comment - N/A
Roll Call & Approval of Minutes
Chairperson Hartman requested roll call, and later Jim Stapel made a motion to approve the minutes from
the September meeting, seconded by Paul Esslinger. Motion carried after roll-call vote.
Old Business –
Citizen complaint about bus shelter (Court & Washington) – Jim Collins gave an overview stating this
issue was presented during public comment at the September meeting so it was added to the agenda this
month. The homeowner (Tim Neubauer) was present and wished to address the Committee for a short
comment. Tim wanted to remind the committee members that he already spoke with the River East
Neighborhood Association and they had no issue with his request to move the shelter. He said since the
meeting in September, the problem with loitering and homeless people trespassing onto his property
continues. There continues to be trash near the shelter and in his yard. Although signage was posted on the
shelter as to when the bus hours are, that has not changed the loitering issue. He is fine with leaving it as a
bus stop, but not with a shelter that invites people to loiter, often overnight. Tim feels very few people use
the shelter for what it is intended for so moving it to a nearby location should be feasible. He said he
couldn’t find another bus shelter throughout the city that was in front of a single-family dwelling and feels
this is a small request.
Paul Esslinger said although the home owner knew there was a stop present upon the purchase of
the property, he feels moving the shelter would be a reasonable request especially since there is a relatively
small cost involved. Jim Collins said it is a heavily used stop and there would be costs involved including
pouring a concrete pad. Jim Stapel said since Director Collins has been working with OPD and they stated
they will monitor the area more heavily, he made a motion to wait and see if there is improvement in the
next few months before taking a vote to physically move the shelter especially since it probably will involve
the expense of a concrete pad. If there is no improvement, moving the shelter could be discussed at the
February 2025 meeting. Paul Esslinger seconded the motion which carried after roll-call vote.
Transportation Committee
Meeting Minutes
November 12, 2024
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New Business
Request to clean up a parking ordinance on South Main Street – Jim Collins said as a result of
reconstruction on South Main, parking cut-outs were added. The ordinance needs to be changed to:
no parking, west side from Fox River to W. 9th Avenue and no parking, east side, from 7th Avenue to 40’
south, and from 180’ south to 260’ south to better accommodate these cut-out areas.
Jim Stapel made a motion to approve as presented; seconded by Jeff Armstrong.
Motion carried after roll-call vote.
Request to add new East 9th Parking Lot – Jim Collins said in association with the Sawdust District Plan, a
new parking lot was constructed for public use. The new parking stalls will be free with no time restriction
other than prohibiting overnight parking (2 a.m. – 5 a.m.). This lot needs to be recorded in the City
Municipal Code.
Jim Stapel made a motion to approve as presented; seconded by Paul Esslinger.
Motion carried after roll-call vote.
Request to remove on street parking in a small section on Dove Street (citizen request) – Jim Collins said
the citizen that lives in the area made the request and was present to address the committee. Richard Mohr
(1233 Dove St.) said he is requesting the parking rule go back to how it was originally set up as no parking
due to the issue he has with the out-of-town people that come to ice fish since Sawyer Creek is now known
as a hot spot for fishing. The parked cars often block his driveway and make it very difficult for garbage
collection and mail delivery. Jim Collins added that he feels this is a reasonable request and there will still
be ample street parking to accommodate the extra vehicles.
Jim Stapel made a motion to approve as presented; seconded by Paul Esslinger.
Motion carried after roll-call vote.
Request to match Paratransit Service Hours to Fixed Route– Jim Collins said the initial 3-year contract
that handles paratransit services expires at the end of this year, however there is an option for 2 one-year
extensions if mutually agreed upon. GO Transit hired East Central Wisconsin Regional Plan Commission
(ECWRPC) to study our service and suggest ways to improve upon it. They presented their study at the
September 10th Transportation Committee meeting and a copy of the study was included in the meeting
packet. One item identified to make the contract more attractive to bid on is the service hours. The 24/7
offering is unique to Oshkosh vs. peers throughout the State of Wisconsin and the FTA/ADA only requires
the paratransit hours to match Fixed Route (6:15 a.m. – 6:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday).
He said this does not impact the hours of the Access-to-Jobs program which provides transportation
to and from work. There is a potential in the future to meet the needs of some of these riders with a micro-
transit program but it would need to be offered to both paratransit and fixed-route riders. There was
consideration to handle the program in-house, but that would be a very costly undertaking to acquire a new
building, fleet of specialized vehicles and approval for additional staff.
Steve Tomasik who manages the entire Paratransit Program said bottom line is it not sustainable to
continue with 24/7 and the goal is to improve the service and make the contract more attractive to other
vendors. He is trying to improve the overall quality to all riders and provide them with reliable, safe
transportation. He envisions offering online scheduling and tracking by upgrading the software
requirements to the vendor. He did conduct a study and discovered the number of confirmed riders using
after hours averaged out to about 10 per day.
There were several members of the public registered to speak on this agenda iems:
1) June Wiechman (475 Marion) June said this issue impacts her personally as she relies on Cabulance for
transportation. She doesn’t feel it is right that the City of Oshkosh will take away her ability to get to church
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on Sunday. It is a wonderful service that she appreciates even at times when it is not perfect. This is the
only way they can get from Point A to Point B. She is frustrated that first Holidays were taken away and
now they are thinking of taking away more service. She urges the members NOT to approve this change.
2) Deb Atkinson (1850 Bowen) – She said both she and her husband are disabled and are Christians that
attend Church every Sunday. She asked the board “what right do you have to take that away? She then
wanted to know if all the committee members were also going to stay home every Sunday after this gets
taken away from her. She said the drivers are good people and she and her husband appreciate every one
of them. This change would be very unfair.
3) Kari Straus (100 Court St.) – Kari said she obtained a copy of the 16-page study and read it over several
times. She said it seemed like it came down to money and it continued to compare Oshkosh to other cities
in Wisconsin. She urges Oshkosh to stand out and do something different to stand out as a city that cares.
She is 42 years old and an active volunteer at various organizations and her church. Her involvement is
now in jeopardy with the outcome of this decision. Faith is vital for the disabled community and it would
be inhumane to be compared to the regular bus riders. She said the fee to private pay Cabulance is
outrageous costing $50 for a one-way trip ($100 dollars to go to church each week!). The study said it does
not impact very many riders and that message has been received. Her suggestion would be reduced hours
to still accommodate such as 6:15 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. (Monday-Saturday) and 6:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Sunday).
4) Margie Hanson (300 East Custer) – Margie said her daughter is in a nursing home at Parkview and this
is the only transportation she has to visit and likes to stay until 8:00 p.m. She also cannot afford to pay $100
for round-trip transportation to Church each week. Her family works and is not available to accommodate.
She feels Cabulance is doing a great job and is already very reliable and on-time so there is no need for
change. It would be wrong to stop when the normal bus routes stop.
5) Mary Kay (2144 W. 9th Ave) – She said she takes care of a man that needs Cabulance. He likes to get out
and be independent and needs it to go to see sporting events.
6) Kaecey Pitz (208 Sterling Ave) She is concerned if the hours would change, she couldn’t attend the
Council meetings because they are past 6:45 p.m. She said disabled people are already restricted and
certainly cannot afford the fee charged for private pay. She feels the only option is to either get money to
pay for transportation or change your faith and find one that doesn’t worship on Sunday.
7) Tracy Carroll (475 Marion Ave.) – She said she will be checking the rules with the ADA and feels by
making this change, it is doing a disservice to the disabled community as a lot of activities happen after
hours. She is urging the Committee to have mercy when making this decision and feels there is plenty of
money out there to help pay for this program.
8) Dan Carroll (475 Marion Ave.) – Her husband was also present and said he certainly didn’t predict he
would end up in a wheelchair and wanted to stress that this group of people really need this program and
agrees they usually do not have the means to private pay for cab service.
9) Mary Malinoski (3305 Logan Drive) – Mary was very unhappy that GO Transit cut 30-minutes from her
bus route by Logan Drive but that was another topic. She said she has very poor eyesight and relies on
public transportation. She feels very isolated if she cannot go other places. She then asked the board direct
questions and became agitated that the board wasn’t answering her questions. Jim Collins quickly
explained proper protocol and said it isn’t a Q&A session. Mary said “that is also ridiculous” and sat down.
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10) Sandy – Sandy said she has lived in Oshkosh for 30 years and will be here the rest of her life. She said
the highlight of her whole week is attending church on Sunday. She doesn’t feel it is right that the only
option is to pay $50 or quit attending service. She also wanted to know how long she must use up her
agency tickets. When she moved to Oshkosh, she started to also take the bus but likes taking Cabulance too.
11) Savannah Block (1639 White Swan Dr) – She said she is a regular user of the paratransit after hours and
on weekends to take advantage of various Oshkosh activities. She said this change would drastically impact
a 33-year-old in a wheelchair. She enjoys activities such as Waterfest, movies, restaurants with friends and
recently enjoyed the 2nd Annual Macabre Market. She urged the committee members to reconsider this
change as people like her depend on the 24/7 service to experience night life and all that Oshkosh has to
offer on a social level, she she feels people like her deserve to experience.
Chairperson Hartman brought the topic back to the group for discussion and reminded everyone
that he wanted to point out that this group isn’t being targeted and this goes beyond just a money issue. Jim
Stapel said from his count, a few citizens are concerned about attending the city council meetings and at
least five are concerned about getting to church on Sunday. He understands the dilemma that if vendors
won’t bid because it is difficult for them to service those hours and hire employees, the entire program will
be hard to sustain. Perhaps there are some tweaks to the current proposed changes that could still attract
quality bids. Steve Tomasik said he is open to ideas and reviewed the ridership numbers based on a period
of January ’23 to July ’24. The average was 35 after hour rides which averages to 1.1 per day. Deb Martin
feels that there needs to be some changes made or the entire program may be in jeopardy.
Jeff Armstrong asked for clarification from staff what the concerns are with the current vendor.
Steve Tomasik said he works with City Cab very closely to ensure good service from them. He doesn’t
believe they have a plan in place for when they decide to retire so that is a concern. Bottom line is he feels
the riders deserve better. There is a need for better software to provide better dispatching and tracking. He
said longer hours = less competitive bids for the contract. Jim Collins said Sunday seems to be a shared
concern by many in attendance, his suggestion is to table this topic for a future meeting. Staff will
investigate further and may take advantage of the contract optional extensions to allow adequate time. Jeff
asked if that contract has any clauses in case a solution comes up; Jim stated yes there probably is an “out
clause”. Al Hartman said it would be helpful for staff to pull data specific to Sunday and report back the
findings. Jim Collins said he can also check with an agency he used to deal with called “Options for
Independent Living” and the ADRC to get input and report back in spring.
Jeff Armstrong made a motion to table this agenda item while staff gathers additional information;
seconded by Sean Lynch. Motion carried after roll-call vote.
Truck Route Study Follow-up– Jim Collins said the committee already saw the presentation at the June
meeting. A notice was sent and we received no feedback. The Committee originally recommended Phase 1
of the truck study. Feedback was received from a resident on Jackson Street concerned that the traffic on
Jackson could increase if the truck route is no longer offered on North Main. KL and staff both believe that
would be very minimal as trucks are still allowed to take the most direct path to and from their origin and
destination so many already avoid N. Main Street. This recommendation was already recommended by the
Committee so no additional action was needed.
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Staff Statements
❖ Stall allocation in city lots – Jim said in follow-up to this agenda item, he spoke with the city
attorney. For parking ordinances to be affectively enforced, they need to go through a formal
ordinance adoption process therefore she isn’t comfortable with this idea. She did say in order to
expedite the requests, she felt it may be appropriate for the Transportation Director to take the
changes directly to Council and ask that the 2nd reading be waived if needed. The changes would all
get reported back to the Committee once a year as requested. This appears to be a good compromise
and allow the committee to stay focused on more important issues.
❖ EAA Shuttle – GO Transit will discontinue the shuttles from UWO to and from EAA during the
week of the Fly-In. It is no longer possible to efficiently provide this extra service with our current
staff. In order to operate the service, some drivers were working up to 100 hours a week which
raises safety concerns and negatively impacts regular service. The number of man hours for the
week was 446.62 for a profit of only $7,000. Other private shuttle services will most likely pick up
this work. Jim Stapel asked if someone will contact EAA; Jim Collins said he is working with Amy
Albright from the Oshkosh Convention & Visitors Bureau who will act as a communication liaison.
❖ Traffic Signal Request (Bowen & New York) – Per the request of Paul Esslinger, Jim had the
Electricians study this intersection and they felt no changes were needed due to the intersection
being actuated, the bike route on New York and the total traffic count being 6100 vehicles.
❖ Electric Vehicle Charging Stations - This topic is on consent to adopt the plan; but no funds will be
allocated. This is the first step to have a plan in place in case this topic comes up in the future.
❖ Ridership – Steve Tomasik gave a quick update stating that fixed route ridership is up 12% over
2023 numbers and student ridership is slightly less. So far there has been zero suspensions with
students and the partnership with OASD has been going well.
❖ Electronic Card Readers – The WisGO roll-out continues to be overall positive. Several agencies have
been involved with the roll-out and are getting cross-trained on the new program.
Future Agenda Requests
Jeff Armstrong didn’t have a new agenda request but was curios on the status of the overnight
parking topic. Jim said that will be handled at the December Transportation meeting.
There were no additional agenda requests.
Adjournment
Jim Stapel made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Paul Esslinger. Motion carried after roll-call vote Meeting
adjourned at 5:30 pm.
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