City of Lawrence

Public Transit Advisory Committee

City Commission Room, First Floor of City Hall

February 12, 2018 minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Heather Thies, Zachary Kelsay, Mark Hurt, James Pavision, Lance Fahy

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Sarah Trumble

STAFF PRESENT:

Robert Nugent, Wendy Koerner, Serena Pearson, Ashley Myers, Mike Sweeten

PUBLIC PRESENT:

None

 

 

1. Call to Order and Introductions

Heather Thies, Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:15. Quorum met. Introductions went around the room.

 

2. Approval of Minutes – (Action Item) – Jim Pavision made a motion to approve the minutes from the January 8, 2018 minutes. Zachary Kelsay seconded, all in favor, no opposed.

 

3. Proposed Service Changes (Action Item) – Bob Nugent discussed proposed service changes for routes 3, 27, 29, 36, 38, 42 and 44. These routes will have proposed changes that will be presented and discussed during the public meetings February 21-23.

 

The proposal for Route 3 would eliminate the Peterson/Kasold piece of the route. Other route combinations were discussed, such as the route going one way at the top of the hour and another way at the bottom of the hour.

 

The only proposed change to Route 27 is the direction of travel on the 23rd/Alabama/Louisiana/25th Street loop.

 

Route 36 is proposed to be divided into two different routes (possibly Routes 34 and 36) in order to simplify this route.

 

Route 38 is proposed to change the routing so it will go through the new Central District at KU. This is also the case on Route 42 and 44. Route 44 is an evening campus circulator and there are proposed changes to simplify this route.

 

The other proposed change is to eliminate Saturday service on Route 29 since the ridership is low on Saturday.

 

Jim Pavision made a motion to present proposed route changes to the public. Heather seconded, all in favor, no opposed.  

 

4. Public Hearings – Bob Nugent explained that the proposed service changes include both the city and KU routes. Since this is a coordinated system, the public meetings are for all routes in the Lawrence Transit System. The meetings will be held Wednesday 21st from 2:30 – 4:30 at the Crossroads Room at the Kansas Union, Thursday 22nd from 9:00 – 3:00 at 933 New Hampshire and from 6:00-7:00 at the Lawrence Public Library Room C, and Friday 2/23 from 9:00-3:00 933 New Hampshire.

 

5. Personnel Changes – Zach Kelsay explained that Danny Kaiser, KU Assistant Director of Parking & Transit retired as of last month. Aaron Quisenberry has replaced him and today was his first day at his new job. He was the Senior Associate Director of the Student Involvement & Leadership Center at KU. He will most likely attend the next PTAC meeting.

 

Bob Nugent explained that Mike Sweeten, General Manager at MV Transportation will be retiring on April 1. No determination has been made as of yet who will replace him.

 

Also John Augusto, PTAC member, has recently moved to Atlanta, which leaves us down three members, so we are searching for new PTAC members.

 

6. Quick Updates

a. Transit Center – Bob explained that we are still waiting on final report from Trans Systems. We received a report that was not complete so we are waiting on the finalized report on the Transit Center Study.

 

b. Fixed Route Vehicles – Bob discussed purchasing three 30-foot buses from Gillig. If the piggyback order goes through, it would take around 18 months to get the buses.

 

8. Public Comment – No public comment.  Heather Thies commented on Transit Day at the Capital which will be on February 28.  Bob said that if any PTAC members would like to attend, he can put them in touch with someone from the Kansas Public Transit Association (KPTA.)

 

9. Next Meeting – April 9, 2018. The committee made a determination to cancel the March meeting and wait until April when the results of the public meetings can be discussed and action can be taken.

 

10. Adjournment - 5:15 pm

 

 

-Submitted by Serena Pearson