Perrysburg Affirms Its Support for TARTA: But City Wants Option to Quit Bus Service

By David Patch, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

May 4–Just days after testifying in support of a bill that would allow Ohio communities to join or leave regional transit authorities as they please, Perrysburg Mayor Nelson Evans told TARTA trustees yesterday that he is not set on pulling his city out of the transit system.

“There are some residents who would [have us] get out in a second, but as a community, we do not want to get out,” Mr. Evans told the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority board.

“The city of Perrysburg is not against TARTA. It is not against public transportation,” Mr. Evans said.

I would like to see northwest Ohio become the shining jewel of public transportation in the United States,” he said.

What Perrysburg officials hope for, the mayor said, is better service that will entice more of the city’s citizens to ride the bus and thus generate a better return for the $1 million or so in property taxes that Perrysburg residents pay annually to the transit authority.

“We understand that we’re probably a donor community,” Mr. Evans said, using a term referring to the city paying more into TARTA than it gets back in service.

“But on our way down to Columbus, we passed three TARTA buses — two big ones and one small one — and there was nobody on any of them,” he said.

And for the numbers who currently ride, the mayor said, the city could just as easily rent cars for less than it costs to provide transit service.

Transit authority officials responded that steps they have taken to make riding the bus more convenient — most notably, revising the Call-A-Ride service to allow more direct trips — and a marketing campaign have boosted Perrysburg ridership.

They said buses can’t be expected to be full all the time, and providing a car wouldn’t help passengers who can’t drive.

“I want Perrysburg to stay in,” said Mary Destatte, a TARTA board member who uses a wheelchair.

“I like going over there for different things, and I would not have that access. … If I wanted to get a job over there, I’d have no access. If I lived there and wanted to go somewhere else, I’d have no access,” she said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Evans led a delegation to Columbus that also included two Perrysburg councilmen and Oregon Mayor Marge Brown to speak in favor of Senate Bill 88, which would enable communities to decide to leave regional transit authorities.

Ohio law requires the consent of all transit authority member communities on the addition or withdrawal of members.

Mr. Evans said yesterday he considers the legislation a voters’ rights issue and noted that Perrysburg voters historically have supported TARTA levies when they’re on the ballot.

Mrs. Brown has said she would urge Oregon City Council to consider joining the transit authority if the option to leave without other transit communities’ consent was available.

But Harry Morell, a transit trustee from Toledo, said Perrysburg or other suburbs would be able to “use that Bill 88 as a gun to our head,” and Ms. Destatte said that other states that allow transit-system members to opt out also provide transit systems with more state money than Ohio.

The state Senate hearing Tuesday was strictly for testimony in favor of the bill, which was introduced by state Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green) at Perrysburg officials’ behest.

James Gee, TARTA’s general manager, said officials from TARTA and other transit agencies plan to testify at a hearing for the bill’s opponents.

During the first four months of this year, 5,943 passengers have boarded the Perrysburg Call-A-Ride route, including 1,469 during April.

That’s up from 4,800 for the same period in 2006, including 1,070 riders in April, 2006.

Other TARTA routes have carried 11,844 passengers in or out of Perrysburg during the year’s first four months, up from 10,994 last year.

In April, regular-route ridership in Perrysburg was 3,524, up by more than 1,000 from the 2,493 passengers who boarded TARTA buses there a year ago.

Mr. Gee blamed the drop between January and March on stormy weather that discouraged discretionary travel.

Along with Perrysburg, TARTA member communities include Toledo, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, Sylvania Township, Rossford, Waterville, Maumee, and Spencer Township.

The Toledo Area Regional Paratransit Service, which provides special van service for disabled people, also operates in those communities.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

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