HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/06/2009 05B Minutes 10-29-2008 Council Transportation/Transit Committee 0
Minutes of
Yakima City Council Transit Committee
City of Yakima CED Conference Room
Yakima City Hall, 129 North 2 Street, Yakima, WA 98901
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
4:00 — 5:00 p.m.
City Council Members Staff Other
Neil McClure Ken Mehin; Transit Manager Paul Overby; Selah
Micah Cawley Chris Waarvick; Public Works Director City Council
Rick Ensey (Absent) Helen Harvey; Senior Asst. Attorney
Bill Lover (Alt) Karen Allen; Marketing & Program Administrator
Gary Pira; Transit Planner
Wayne Parsely; Transit Route Supervisor
Laura Vallejo; Transit Department Assistant II
Councilmember Neil McClure called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. in the CED Conference
Room at City Hall. He opened the meeting with the first item on the Transit Agenda, which relates
to the separation of Union Gap Transit and Yakima Transit. Ken Mehin said they had met with the
Yakima Valley Conference of Governments (YVCOG) and Union Gap officials regarding the final
0 plan on the transfer points to Miner's, 3` Ave and 10 Ave on Washington.. They reported that
Union Gap will develop their own bus route to extend to the Ahtanum Youth Park where the Senior
Nutrition site is. They will include our routes 7 and 9 in their bus book to show the transfer points to
Yakima Transit. Mehin added that we will no longer be making stops DOT and will go back to
our previous route to Miner's only.
Micah Cawley commented that with that being said they should now concentrate on the DAR
boundaries which was the recommendation brought back from the City Council. Neil McClure
started the discussion on the City boundaries and Bill Lover commented that his concern about the
change in the DAR service is the vehicle transferring that the ADA clients will have to make. He
suggested that we should come to some kind of agreement to have boundaries extended. Mehin
pointed out the 3 /4 mile boundary line on the map that we cover. Chris Waarvick explained the how
the fixed route came about and how Union Gap voted their sales tax in.
Paul Overby questioned if Union Gap was planning on providing service over a 15 -mile radius how
it would affect both Yakima and Selah because they were not going beyond their boundaries.
Waarvick commented that we don't have a problem if Union Gap comes to Yakima but again we
have the City limit boundaries that were put in place by the City Council years ago that we have
adhered to. Karen Allen brought up that we have a 3 year contract with the Tri -City Taxi Inc., who
is also the provider for the Union Gap service through August 2009. Should we re -bid the contract
and another provider has the service that might cause further issues.
Allen added that she recently reviewed the Union Gap trips and came up with 496 -drop offs at
DeVita Dialysis Center making this the number one drop off trip destination. The second highest
• was 221 drop offs at the Union Gap Mall and the third highest place was the Senior Center at the
Ahtanum Youth Park. The top location in Yakima was the Yakima Dialysis Center with 780 -drop
offs. McClure responded that there was not going to be that much of a savings if we didn't continue
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going to these facilities and motioned to move 3 /4 of a mile from the border forward with a 6 month
trial period. Micah Cawley seconded the motion. McClure said this would be a trial basis with a •
full review in 6 months.
Overby commented that Selah's next City Council Meeting will be on November 25 in which they
have put expanding transit bus service in Selah on their agenda, He added that they currently have a
transit tax surplus and will keep it in their Reserve Funds. They will also bring up some additional
options before the Council and we'll abide with whatever decision the Selah City Council makes.
Other comments made were that the Central WA State Fair Bus Shuttle was a success with over
3,000 passengers more riders and great advertisement for Yakima Transit. Mehin added that
recently Transit had transported over 400 students to the Ecology River Festival event at the
Greenway; which was also a success.
Allen questioned whether there would be a New Year's Party downtown. Neil McClure responded
that had not heard anything on it, but was not opposed to it.
Ken Mehin's final remarks were that ridership has gone up by 13% with 1.5 million bus passengers
projected to be carried on our system for 2006.
Neil McClure adjourned the meeting at 5:00 p.m. The next scheduled meeting is set for December
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