Fountain getting $137,000 to keep bus service running
If the town can't get more, 2009 service could end
Bus service to Fountain will continue through the rest of this year and possibly through next year, following a decision Wednesday by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments board to give the cash-strapped city an infusion of money.
Bus service to Fountain was in danger of being cut off Sept. 12 if the city doesn't receive money to reimburse Colorado Springs' Mountain Metropolitan Transit, which provides a fixed route and para-transit service to the smaller city.
The PPACG board, comprising elected officials in the region, approved giving Fountain $47,000 to continue bus service through 2008 and $90,000 to help fund bus service in 2009.
The money will come from $6 million in federal funds.
Still, Wednesday's deal requires Fountain to come up with $268,000 in matching money to fund bus service in 2009.
Fountain, with a general fund budget of $10 million, is looking at a flat budget next year, said City Manager Scott Trainor.
Mayor Jeri Howells said she will meet with City Council members to figure out if that money can be found.
If not, bus service will cease at the end of this year.
The one fixed bus route to Fountain is not particularly well-used, with just 50 to 60 people riding the bus each day, according to Mountain Metro statistics. But a parallel para-transit service has one of the highest ridership levels in the system, with 10 to 20 riders a day.
PPACG board member and El Paso County Commissioner Wayne Williams said that by his calculation, that means bus service in Fountain is costing $5,000 per rider per year, an amount he considers excessive.
Other PPACG board members, especially representatives of the Colorado Springs City Council, were biting in their criticism of Fountain.
The smaller city's former mayor and council decided in 2004 not to ask voters to join with other residents of the region to approve a onecent sales tax to fund the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority.
Over the past 3½ years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised by the tax to fund dozens of transit and transportation projects in Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls and El Paso County.
Springs councilmen Jerry Heimlicher and Darryl Glenn, the only members of the 23-member board to vote against giving Fountain the money, said that the city has squandered several chances to ask its voters to pay for transit services.
Howells said the city's leadership will ask voters for transit funding during the 2009 election and also supports joining the RTA when it comes up for voter renewal in 2014 or possibly 2012.
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Contact the writer: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com
