Mayor to hire administrator for intercity bus program

Athens City Council voted Monday night to allow Mayor Paul Wiehl to hire an administrator for an intercity bus program that will provide transportation from Athens to Cincinnati and Columbus.

Wiehl told council members that one of the requirements for grant monies to set up the program is for the city to designate an administrator.

"Rather than hire a staff person at this point, we thought we'd be able to contract out for the administration of it," he said. "In particular, the Athens to Cincinnati route has to be built and actually put together. That's why we need an administrator to do that."

Wiehl said that the city currently has an extension of its Lakefront Lines grant until May 1.

"The faster we can get somebody hired to do this, to administer, the better," he said, "because we'll have to actually sit down and make a route as well as put a [request for proposal] out for the actual bus service."

The program is designed to have a minimal cost to the city, Wiehl has said, with Athens only paying for 20 percent of the salary of the program administrator, and no other costs.

A grant from ODOT would cover 50 percent of the cost of the bus program. Other match money, Wiehl has said, would come through the Greyhound bus line. Most of the money would be "pass through," and the city wouldn't actually see any of it, Wiehl explained, except for operating expenses such as ticket taking at the Community Center.

In December, Wiehl gave council members a sample operating budget looking at the administration of the potential program. With a full-time administrator and the expenses for ticket sales, cost comes in at $130,000, he said.

Total cost for the bus program, he said, is around $800,000. The current cost of the Lakefront system is about $300,000, he said.

Wiehl said that the schedule he had would have three buses stopping in Athens four times per day.

Transportation committee chair Christine Knisely has said that there has been interest expressed before about expanded routes, especially among Ohio University students.

"Parents contact the bus lines, interested to find out before they come here," Knisely said. "In fact, I've actually taken someone to the dorm and they've said, 'I'm from Cleveland. How's my daughter going to use public transportation to get home?'"

In 2010, the city projects having about 3,700 passengers between Columbus and Athens, Wiehl said.

"We don't know what Cincinnati is going to look like," he said. "And I think that's one reason why they would like to see an in-house person market it."