Gary, Ind., Bus Board Rocked By Resignations, Loss of Funding
By Keith Benman, The Times, Munster, Ind.
Jan. 3–GARY — The mayor and Common Council are replacing board members at the troubled Gary Public Transportation Corp., but it remains unclear how long buses can keep running without federal funding.
Three of the seven members have been replaced after resignations or at the change of terms. Board chairwoman Cherokee Stanton and secretary Sadie Sheffield have so far refused to step down, according to Common Council President Jerome Prince.
“They feel if they resign it’s an implication of guilt, and I have expressed, ‘No, that’s not what we’re intending to say,’” Prince said. “We’re saying, ‘Let’s just do this in the spirit of keeping bus service for our community.’”
Contacted on Wednesday about her possible replacement, Sheffield hung up the phone. A call to Stanton’s home was not returned.
Prince also said he remains “open-minded enough” on some role for the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority in keeping bus service in Gary alive. But he said that the authority, which currently has no buses of its own, is not in any position to take over GPTC.
RBA project manager Kenneth Dallmeyer said the RBA could assist GPTC by following through on plans to run regional bus routes such as its Broadway Express or Tri-City, which go across municipal boundaries.
But the RBA is not capable of any wholesale takeover of Gary bus service, Dallmeyer said. The RBA operates under a two-year, $6.5 million grant from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. It has no ongoing source of tax support and has not yet been designated a recipient of federal funds.
“The answer is … we’re interested in seeing how we can help,” Dallmeyer said. “But we don’t know how much we can do.”
A March letter from the Federal Transit Administration to GPTC chair Stanton referred to the possible removal of board members who were at the agency when it entered into a sham contract with a vendor six years ago.
The FTA later suspended all federal aid to GPTC, which the federal agency said could snuff out bus service by the end of the year. Federal aid makes up almost one-third of the bus company’s annual budget.
Prince said the FTA has made it clear it wants long-time board members replaced.
As far as how long the bus company can keep going, Prince said things looked bleak a few weeks ago, but he now expects the buses to keep running for at least three months more.
“What I’m trying to avoid is any gap in service for bus riders,” Prince said.
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