The Maricopa City Council unanimously approved the purchase of two buses for $262,774 in a special meeting held Tuesday night. The money for the purchase is part of nearly $600,000 the city was awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year. Initially, the city was planning to purchase a larger 30-passenger bus with the funds, but was made aware by representatives at the Arizona Department of Transportation they could purchase two smaller 26-passenger models instead. “We decided the two smaller buses gave us more flexibility,” said Kelle Kelly, the city’s transportation director. Currently, the city’s transit service, MaricopaXPRESS, consists of three buses; two traveling to central Phoenix and one to downtown Tempe. The two additional buses now brings the fleet total to five. The nearly $800,000 to operate the commuter service is paid for through a federal transportation matching grant of which the city’s portion is roughly $226,000. The purchase of a single bus through the stimulus dollars was originally planned to offset $9,000 in total cost to operate the program; however, Kelly said that now the city is looking at using the two buses locally to implement transit service within Maricopa. “We are working on the initial details of a local circulator route, so not much information is available,” Kelly said. However, she did say the launch month of the new service is slated for October 2010. The money to operate the new service would be included in the city’s next grant application, she said. The city will be holding a series of public hearings over the next several months to gage residents’ needs and provide feedback to make modifications to existing Valley routes. “We are looking at possible route modifications, new routes and another input the public would like to bring forward,” Kelly said. While the two new buses will arrive in Maricopa within 120 days of the purchase, the city is waiting for an environmental clearance to move forward with the expenditure of the remaining stimulus dollars. “We think we should have the clearance any day now,” Kelly said. Some of those dollars would be used to build a new park-and-ride facility. The current location is on Garvey Road, west of John Wayne Parkway, near an old steel building the city leases for $1,000 per month. It is a parking structure Kelly says is isolated and creates an unsafe feeling. The new park-and-ride facility will be located next to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office location on John Wayne Parkway and feature lighting, a climate-controlled waiting area, restrooms and an area to park the buses. In addition to the approved amenities, the city would reduce the cost of their transit-system operations by $12,000 a year through the move. The stipulations on the stimulus dollars require this project to be completed by September 2010, but Kelly said she hopes it can occur before then. “We are really excited about these projects,” she said. Photo by Jim Williams |