County's senior bus coupon program may run out of money by August

Seniors using the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority service face higher fees. Much higher, according to Tom Mogelnicki, the CGCTA's executive director.

He made the announcement during the the transit authority board of directors meeting Thursday.

The transit authority offers $3 one-way tickets to anywhere in the county for seniors, with support from the county's senior citizen board, which authorized a $45,000 grant to help fund the program this year.

By the end of April, Mogelnicki said, the grant was reduced by $28,000.

"By the first of August, we will be out of coupons," Mogelnicki said. He said he's considering asking the senior citizen board for another $45,000 to continue the coupon program or raising coupon prices to $5.

He told the board that senior ridership will likely double over the next eight years.

"Sometime in the new year, all fares are going up," he said. "We can subsidize, but gas increases eventually are going to erode the subsidy."

Last month the transit authority paid $7,000 more in fuel a month than a year ago.

The transit authority has an exclusive fuel agreement with Rhodes 101 convenience stores, he said.

Danielle Waites, the transit authority's business and finance director, said negotiations were underway for lower prices, but that Rhodes 101 offered the convenience of doing "all the paperwork for our reimbursements. Smaller shops won't do it or do all the required paperwork by hand."

Mogelnicki said the transit authority was "breaking even, but we could always be better." Advertising is being used to bolster income; buses have been carrying ads for months. Mogelnicki announced Thursday that he had sold a two-year contract to John's Pharmacy to hang a promotional banner inside the buses.

"We're also looking at putting 17-inch plasma TV screens on all the buses," he said. The TVs will be used to play advertisements.

Mogelnicki also told the board he is in the process of buying a second wheelchair-accessible van and is in the process of designing a third bus route. The new bus is scheduled for delivery in August, but could come as late as December, he said.

After learning each route makes an 80-minute circuit, Doug Richards, the board's chairman, asked Mogelnicki to find a way to make the circuits more quickly -- possibly by adding a bus to each route or eliminating some stops -- to encourage ridership.

Bus service to Southeast Missouri State University at Academic Hall will be eliminated, Mogelnicki said, but a new stop may be added on Sprigg Street. He said the university's students "rarely use the bus service. Maybe if we move the stop over by Towers [residence hall] it will pick up," he said. Given a choice between providing rides to students and low-income people, he said, he would "rather provide rides to the low-income people in the Cape Meadows area."

Richards suggested looking into getting at least one satellite phone for emergency preparedness purposes.

The next Cape Transit Authority meeting is scheduled for 7 a.m. July 24 at Denny's on William Street in Cape Girardeau.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

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