BENTONVILLE -- Public transit is growing in Benton County with ridership up by 83 percent, county officials were told Thursday.
Joel Gardner, executive director of Ozark Regional Transit, told the Quorum Court the transit service has been working to increase ridership in the county, as the justices of the peace have asked them to when Ozark Regional Transit has sought more money from the county.
Gardner told the Quorum Court the service saw 2,546 trips in the county in 2013 and that number has increased to 4,671 in 2014. Gardner said the service has seen increases in use of its fixed route service, its demand response service and in para-transit trips. He said the service has obtained state and federal assistance to buy buses to replace older vehicles, including four new buses fueled by compressed natural gas. He said the service has also used state grant money to rebuild the bus wash and refurbish its maintenance facility.
"We have grown significantly in Benton County and we have done everything we said we were going to do this year," Gardner said.
Gardner said the service got additional money from Washington County, Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville and Springdale. Benton County's money for transit will be considered as part of the 2015 budget process. The next meeting of the Budget Committee is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
AT A GLANCE
Benton County's Quorum Court met Thursday and approved: Appointing Sean Collyge to the Planning board, replacing Ken Knight Amendments to the planning code Accepting the 2012 audit from the state Division of Legislative Audit Setting the property tax rate for 2014 Providing "host city" approval for Mercy Health system to spend money from a Missouri bond issue on facility improvements in Benton County Transferring money within the jail budget for 2014 to pay for the medical services contract Spending $30,700 from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program Spending $69,249 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Grant Spending $2,693 from the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Spending $13,000 to repair air-conditioning at the jail Transferring $7,005 from the general fund to pay part of the cost of a replacement vehicle for CenCom Spending $18,809 to replace a Sheriff's Office vehicle Spending $531,996 for the Windmill Road improvement project Spending $281,200 for the Information Technology Department to replace the county's Data Domain Spending $5,000 for computer equipment for the Collector's Office Spending $30,000 to buy fire equipment for the Pleasure Heights Fire Department.
Source: Staff report
For 2014, Benton County provided $15,000 for public transit.
The Quorum Court also approved a resolution thanking the Walton Family Foundation for a $2.8 million grant to help renovate the County Courthouse. The foundation offered the money to do part of the work identified as needed during the county's study of its courts facilities.
The project being proposed by the foundation includes repairing the exterior, including the steps on the west side of the building; repair or replace waterproofing in the basement; remodel the Prosecuting Attorney's offices and various window repairs. The estimated cost was put at $2,864,669.
Another part of the offer will make the top two floors of the Massey Building available to house some of the offices of the Prosecuting Attorney during the remodelling.
General News on 10/29/2014