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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Committee Minutes 6.10..25 (To be approved) Attendees: Al Hartman Sean Lynch Jim Collins, Transportation Director Evelyn Meuret Deb Martin Steve Tomasik, Operations Manager Jeff Armstrong DJ Nichols Also Present: SGT Adam Haberland (OPD) The meeting was called to order by Al Hartman who gave a quick overview for the public comment protocol. No one in attendance wished to provide commentary. Roll Call & Approval of Minutes Chairperson Hartman requested roll call, and later Evelyn Meuret made a motion to approve the minutes from the April meeting, seconded by Sean Lynch. Motion carried after roll-call vote. Old Business – N/A New Business 1. Election of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of Committee Jim Collins explained that the terms for this committee is one year therefore elections are required each June for both the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson. Al Hartman opened nominations up at this time. Chairperson: Evelyn Meuret nominated Al Hartman to remain as Chairperson for another term, seconded by Jeff Armstrong. Vice-Chair: Sean Lynch nominated Evelyn Meuret to remain Vice-Chair for another term, seconded by DJ Nichols. Motion carried after roll-call vote. 2. Request to restrict parking on Eagle Street near the Evergreen Retirement Community. Jim explained that the current condition is: No parking, east side, from Maple Avenue to Buchanan Avenue. The proposed condition is: No parking, east side, from Maple Avenue South to its’ terminus. This is a request from a resident. Evergreen employees are parking in this area which is directly across from his driveway and the loading zone for the Evergreen facility. Vehicles are parked on the west side as well so this area becomes very congested making it difficult for vehicles to navigate the area safely. DJ asked if Evergreen had any issues with the request; which Jim confirmed that they did not. Evelyn Meuret made a motion to approve, seconded by Jeff Armstrong. Motion carried after roll-call vote. Transportation Committee Meeting Minutes June 10, 2025 2 | Page 3. Workshop to discuss Saturday Transit Hours Jim Collins said this agenda item is not up for vote, however he would like to get the discussion going in regards to Saturday hours to explore possible options. He said some direction would be helpful as he approaches the 2026 budget season which starts in June. Included in the monthly packet were some reports to show Saturday ridership numbers itemized by routes. He explained the shift hours potentially were a reason two drivers left to go to other departments that had more attractive hours for similar pay. The candidate pool competes with Fond Du Lac and Appleton Transit and now that Valley Transit has reduced Saturday hours, it is becoming a problem to find good candidates. Valley Transit offers Microtransit after 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays with their Valley Connect service. Green Bay Transit has also been very successful with the Microtransit program in their area. Another identified issue is limited supervisory staff to deal with issues after Saturday morning as the drivers mentioned that the homeless continue to become an ongoing issue. At the current time, the assigned mechanic in the service shop tries his best to fill the supervisory gap after the driver supervisor leaves for the day. During the week, the maintenance manager provides early a.m. supervision Monday – Friday until the Driver Supervisor reports for duty at 10:00 a.m. so the issue is mainly Saturday afternoons. DJ Nichols asked if a survey has been done because it would be interesting to know if these rides are work related for these afternoon riders. Jim Collins said this is the early stage of discussion so a survey has not been conducted yet, but he will do that soon. He also wanted to explain that any riders that are using the bus for employment purposes probably would qualify for the access-to-jobs program. DJ Nichols asked if a better option might be to eliminate some of the routes that have the lowest ridership like routes 3 and 9. Jim said Operations Manager Tomasik said the problem with that approach is Route 9 is the only way to get to Mercy Medical Center. Jim reviewed the options that are being considered: 1) keep everything the same for now 2) eliminated Saturday and just operate Monday – Friday (like Fond du Lac) 3) reduced hours (like Appleton) 4) have a later start time for Saturdays (8am – 4pm – like Sheboygan) 5) Hybrid with on demand service (note: this option probably would require a fare increase) Jim said the contract is up next year so it is good to have the discussion now so he is very clear as to which direction to go when it goes out for bid. It may attract vendors that do both paratransit and on-demand Microtransit service if that is the direction that is recommonded. DJ said he would like to see the results of a survey and find out information like where are the rider is going and what are they are using the bus for on Saturdays. Deb agrees and said the time would be important on the survey as well to get a better understanding of when to reduce the hours to. Jim said the budget may be challenging this year because there are many viable options. Steve said there are still a lot of questions and a lot of options and agrees that the survey is the next step to gain a better understanding of the consumer needs. DJ asked if they ever 3 | Page have someone physically taking surveys on the bus to get input from current riders; Jim said last time East Wisconsin Central Regional Planning was hired and they had in-person survey takers, social media links, QR codes, posters and POLCO surveys to get a wide array of public input. Staff Statements ❖ Jim wanted to remind everyone that there is still an alternate committee vacancy for this board now that Sean moved up into the full-time member spot. Future Agenda Requests Al Hartman asked if there were any future agenda requests. Jeff Armstrong asked if someone could research the intersection near Oshkosh Avenue / High Avenue because he noticed there is quite the bottleneck because the one lane only goes right so cars are scrambling to merge creating a lot of chaos. Jim said he will research and may be able to get traffic counts again as this was looked at probably 6-7 years ago. One obstacle is that WISDOT also must be involved since it involves a state highway. Jeff said he would appreciate if it was looked at as it does seem very busy in that area especially if the bridge is open. DJ wanted to know the protocol for notices to home owners for agenda items as it pertains to sidewalks. Jim said that used to fall under the Bike & Ped committee but that committee has merged into Transportation so it does fall under this committee now. The notice usually starts with Public Works and then again when it is an agenda item with the TC Committee and a third time when it goes to Council. One obstacle is it goes to the owner, not the resident so any apartment complexes or rentals would not receive a notice and often the landlord doesn’t feel the need to attend for comment. Adjournment Evelyn Meuret made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Sean Lynch. Motion carried after roll-call vote Meeting adjourned at 4:43 pm.