Transit authority updating takeover plans at meeting

The Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority will meet today at its new location in Cape Girardeau to update plans for its takeover of Kelley Transportation Co.

With a little more than a month till the takeover date of July 1, the authority has rented out two offices in the Medical Arts Building at 937 Broadway. The main office will be in the former Medical Arts Pharmacy on the first level of the building. A dispatch center set up in a basement office.

"It was a great move for us, and we feel it will be a very strategic move," said director Jeff Brune.

The transit authority's office will be centrally located on the proposed bus route -- which will loop through the south side of Cape Girardeau, run downtown and head west on Broadway to provide service to hospitals, grocery stores and shopping areas.

The office will serve as a hub for people who live outside Cape Girardeau city limits. Vans will shuttle residents into the transit authority's main office, where they can access the bus route.

Doug Richards, chairman of the authority board, said the new office space is under renovation and should be complete by the takeover date. The transit authority will hold its regular weekly meetings in the Kasten Community Room at the Medical Arts Building.

While the authority will still have a small office in Jackson, it will not be at its current site on West Main Street.

"We're not sure where it will be. That's something we're still working on," Brune said.

Because the takeover date is five weeks away, the transit authority has met on a weekly basis to finalize plans. "We're continuing to update the board on what's getting done," Brune said about today's 8 a.m. meeting.

The board will approve a $63,300 contract today with the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging. The contract will subsidize transportation for senior citizens with limited means.

In the past, both the authority and Kelley received funds from the Area Agency on Aging. The new Area Agency on Aging contract will combine those funds and distribute them solely to the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority, Brune said.

Other items of discussion will be zones and fare rates for the fixed bus route system. The authority has proposed a route that will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fares on the bus will be $1.50 for adults and $1 for seniors and the disabled.

But the zones and rates are subject to change.

The county transit authority plans to buy Kelley Transportation Co. Inc. for $360,000, although the contract hasn't been signed yet. The purchase will consolidate public transpiration under one entity.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246