CITY OF OLEAN
Council to vote soon on bus partnership
OLEAN — The Olean Common Council could vote as early as next week on a public transportation agreement uniting busing services of the city, St. Bonaventure University and Cattaraugus County.
The proposal, introduced in the City Operations Committee meeting Tuesday night and supported by all five members, would authorize Mayor David Carucci to execute a “Coordinating Partner-Public Transportation System Funding Agreement.” The matter will be taken up by the Committee of the Whole next Tuesday and then could be passed to the Common Council, which also meets the same night.
Community Development Director Mary George explained the partnership will unite the Olean-Area Transportation System (OATS) and the Bona Shuttle and may pave the way in the future to invite the Allegany County bus system into the fold.
She said the city has taken the lead in administering state and federal funding to support citywide transportation through May for the OATS bus.
The partnership means St. Bonaventure will pay $52,000 to buy into the city’s contract with First Transit, the bus contractor. The system’s total budget is about $181,000, including county Department of Social Services vouchers and public fares of $1. The agreement will formalize a formula to assure each partner will pay a fair share of the transportation costs of its constituency: students, county Department of Social Services clients and other riders.
George said the state now is pushing for this type of transportation planning and intermunicipal cooperation among communities that receive transportation funding.
The resulting Cattaraugus County Transportation Coalition, a group of agencies and local governments, has been assembled by the Cattaraugus County Planning Department, and a plan should be in place within four months. The coalition will hold a meeting Sept. 18 that will be open to the public.
In addition, she said, plan partners believe rising energy costs and the need for efficiency will drive an expansion of the service and thus insure future funding and more partner agencies.
“I’m not for getting into the busing business, but it’s not going to cost money,” said Common Council President Rick Smith. “It won’t cost taxpayers anything, and hopefully you will see more people using it and you will see the ridership increase with the students, and I think Bona is a great addition.”
In January, the Bonas bus will extend to Wal-Mart, where passengers can transfer to an OATS bus. Another early step in the city-county-college partnership will be to collect ridership numbers and analyze trends to find out why the passengers are using the bus, along with their origin and destination, George said.
“This is our attempt to provide a reasonable cost to St. Bonaventure University and Cattaraugus County so we can all get on board to make an efficient transportation system,” she said.
The city already has purchased buses that, when they are delivered, will be leased by the transportation contractor, First Transit. First Transit is based in Allegany County and, under the administration of that County Legislature, already brings five daily buses into Olean from Allegany County and other locations.
First Transit also operates the Bona Shuttle, which last weekend carried upwards of 500 students per day around the campus and to the surrounding community, some of them traveling to connecting points with the OATS bus serving the city.
Outside the meeting room, former Carrier Coach owner and Olean developer Lou Magnano told reporters he is unhappy with First Transit submitting a low bid earlier this year and taking a large share of the bus transportation market to Allegany County from Cattaraugus County.
“They should keep it local,” Magnano said.
