 - The Wind River Transportation Authority is continuing to work with the Community Transportation Association of America to come up with “viable solutions” to the WRTA funding shortfall that resulted from the failure of Fremont County’s half percent sales tax for economic development last year, WRTA Director Tim Nichols told the Fremont County Commission this week.){kind=link}
(Lander, WY) – The Wind River Transportation Authority is continuing to work with the Community Transportation Association of America to come up with “viable solutions” to the funding shortfall that resulted from the failure of Fremont County’s half percent sales tax for economic development last year, WRTA Director Tim Nichols told the Fremont County Commission this week.
For example, Nichols said the CTAA has already helped the WRTA find funding for a study that is currently underway to identify “some opportunities to redesign the service, maximize efficiency, and have a stakeholder engagement strategy.”
A “key component” of that study is “evaluating the feasibility of (a) micro-transportation or demand-response service,” which “may provide greater flexibility and accessibility (for) Fremont County residents while lessening costs for WRTA,” Nichols said.
He noted that WRTA has already amended one of its capital grant requests to the Wyoming Department of Transportation to “fit the scope of the demand-response model” by requesting a “transit van style bus” instead of “what would have normally been a 14-passenger cutaway bus.”
“We’re kind of slowly adjusting (to) some potential changes within the program, just to anticipate some of those service redesigns,” he said.
USDA grant
The CTAA has also helped the WRTA apply for a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture that could support another study “focused on developing a sustainable funding model” that ensures “no disruptions to service are encountered if a significant funding source dries up or is no longer available,” Nichols said.
The Commission voted Tuesday to send a letter to the USDA supporting the WRTA’s grant application.
If the grant is approved, Nichols said the study would take about 12 months to complete, and during that time frame, “individuals from CTAA will likely be in Fremont County off and on assessing the efficiency of the system, likely meeting with a lot of stakeholders, governing boards, (and) governing bodies and really kind of moving that forward.”
In the meantime, Nichols said the WRTA will be working to develop more immediate cost-cutting measures and “refining our operations as best as possible.”
For example, he said he has been collaborating with other local transportation providers to “help consolidate some of the additional expenses” they all face when it comes to fleet maintenance and software purchases, and to discuss the potential for “employee pooling” to “help alleviate some staffing shortages.”
WRTA also plans to reallocate about $250,000 in grant money from its operating fund to its administrative maintenance account in order to decrease the local match required for the grant by about $100,000, he said, and the agency is working to increase the amount of advertising revenue it brings in.
“Our advertisement revenue has increased significantly,” he said. “We’ll continue to grow that base in hopes that it will kind of fill some of the shortfall we’ve encountered.”
For more information, call the WRTA at (307) 856-9782.