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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN APR 01 1980 REGULAR SESSION CITY COUNCIL - CITY OF BEAUMONT HELD APRIL 1 , 1980 BE IT REMEMBERED that the City Council of the City of Beaumont , Texas, met in regular session this the lst day of April , 1980, with the following present : HONORABLE : Vi McGinnis Mayor Pro Tem & Councilwoman , Ward II Tom Combs , Jr. Councilman , Ward I Calvin Williams Councilman , Ward III Leroy Evans Councilman, Ward IV Absent : Maurice Meyers Mayor Ray Riley City Manager Kenneth Wall City Attorney -000- The Invocation was given by Mr. R. E . Platt , Asst . City Manager . The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Councilman Williams . -000- Mayor Pro Tem McGinnis issued the following proclamations : "Census Day in Beaumont" - April 1 , 1980; "Governor William P. Clements Day in Beau- mont" - April 2 , 1980; and "Mrs. Agnes Stewart Day in Beaumont" - April 1 , 1980. -000- The Annual Financial Report and Audit Report for Fiscal Year 1979 was presented by Mr . Phillip DeShong, outside auditor, with Wathen & DeShong. -000- An ordinance changing the zoning from R-lA to R-2 for a 1 .01 acre tract , located at 290 N. Major Drive, was considered : AN ORDINANCE ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 30 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF BEAUMONT, TEXAS, AND IN PARTICULAR THE BOUNDARIES OF THE ZONING DISTRICTS AS INDICATED UPON THE ZONING MAP OF BEAUMONT, TEXAS, BY CHANGING A 1 . 01 ACRE TRACT OUT OF THE HEZEKIAH WILLIAMS SURVEY, BEAUMONT, JEF- FERSON COUNTY, TEXAS , AS HEREINAFTER DESCRIBED, PRESENTLY R-1A TO R-.2 ; PROVID- ING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. Councilman Combs made a motion to table consideration of this ordinance for one week because of the 4/5 voting requirement ; motion was seconded by Councilman Evans. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Ordinance No. 80-28 changing the zoning from R-1 to R-2 for a 1 .6 acre tract , located in the 4800 Block of Highland Avenue was considered: -53- April 1 , 1980 ORDINANCE NO. 80-28 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 30 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF BEAUMONT, TEXAS, AND IN PARTICULAR THE BOUNDARIES OF THE ZONING DISTRICTS AS INDICATED UPON THE ZONING MAP OF BEAUMONT , TEXAS, BY CHANGING A 1 .6 ACRE TRACT OUT OF THE GARLAND ADDITION, BEAUMONT, JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS , AS HEREINAFTER DESCRIBED, PRESENTLY ZONED R-1 TO R-2 ; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. The ordinance was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Combs. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- An ordinance issuing a specific use permit for a 3 . 95 acre tract mobile home park, located at 5375 Fannett Road was deferred for a change in pro- perty description. -000- Ordinance No. 80-29 amending Section 30-11 .C(3) of the Code of Ordinances was considered : ORDINANCE NO. 80-29 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE REPEALING SUBSECTION (C)(3) OF SECTION 30-11 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES AND ENACTING A NEW SUBSECTION (C)(3)(a) PROVIDING FOR SIDE YARDS FOR LOTS IMPROVED WITH ONE STORY AND TWO STORY STRUCTURES ; ENACTING A NEW SUBSECTION (C)(3)(b) TO SECTION 30-11 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES PROVIDING FOR SIDE YARDS FOR CORNER LOTS ; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL; AND PROVIDING FOR A PENALTY. The ordinance was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Williams. Question : Ayes : Mayor Pro Tem. McGinnis Councilman Williams Councilman Evans Nayes : Councilman Combs -000- Resolution 80-100 authorizing the City Manager to enter into a contract with the Beaumont Heritage Society to pay them $2 ,200.00 from Community Development Block Grant funds for updating the SPARE Beaumont Survey of historical and architecturally significant properties within the City was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and seconded by Councilman Evans. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-101 authorizing the City Manager to execute an agreement with Carl Neukirch, Sr. , of Jump Pilots to allow for parachuting activities at Beaumont Municipal Airport was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and seconded by Councilman Williams . Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -54 April 1 , 1980 Resolution 80-102 appointing Bruce Drury and Larry Porter as members to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee for one-year terms was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Williams. Question: Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-103 authorizing advertisement for bids on the sale of a 1 .033 acre tract on College Street , approximately 1 ,000 feet east of Langham Road , acquired in 1958 as part of the Amelia Water District , was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and seconded by Councilman Evans . Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-104 authorizing a five-year extension of the agreement to provide an emergency supplemental water supply for the West Jefferson County Municipal Utility District (at a cost of 25% above the in-city rates) was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Council- man Combs. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-105 accepting the bid of Law Enforcement Equipment Company for furnishing 11 . 357 Smith & Wesson pistols at a cost of $1 ,803 .67 and 22 protective (Bullet Proof) vests (cost of 11 vests provided by interested businessmen) at a cost of $3 , 199. 80 for the Police Department was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Combs. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-106 accepting the bids of Fernon 's Office Outfitters ($1680. 50), Norwood' s Office Products Company ($392 . 16) , and Szafir's-Remex, Inc . ($1 , 203. 20) for furnishing furniture for the Beaumont Municipal Airport Terminal was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and seconded by Councilman Evans. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-107 accepting the bid of Pyramid Concrete Pipe Company, Inc for furnishing 40 L.F. Box Culvert , 2 cartons of Ramnek and 5 gallons of primer at a cost of $3,433 . 62 (Drainage District 6 to install these drain- age materials) was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and se- conded by Councilman Evans. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-108 accepting the bid of Copy Service, Inc. for furnishing a copier for the Building Maintenance Department at a cost of $1 ,695.00 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Coun- cilman Combs. Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-109 rejecting bids received on energy-absorbing bumpers for the buses (bids did not meet specifications) was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and seconded by Councilman Evans. Question: Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- -55 April 1 , 1980 Resolution 80-110 establishing the Beaumont Industrial Development Corpora- tion and appointing Messrs . Ted Leja; Jim Williams ; C. L. Sherman, Jr. ; Frank McGonegel and Joseph Victorian for six-year terms was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Combs . Question: Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- An ordinance relative to the salaries of elected. City Officials was deferred for action. -000- Ordinance No . 80-30 relative to FICA II was considered: ORDINANCE NO. 80-30 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE COM- PENSATION PLAN OF THE CITY OF BEAUMONT; PROVIDING FOR CITY PAYMENT OF THE EM- PLOYEE' S TAX UNDER THE FEDERAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS ACT; PROVIDING AN INCREASE IN THE CITY'S CONTRIBUTION FOR EMPLOYEE DEPENDENT HEALTH CARE INSURANCE; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE . The ordinance was approved on a motion made by Councilman Combs and secon- ded by Councilman Williams . Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- Resolution 80-111 authorizing transmission repairs to a front loading refuse truck by Safeway Transmission Company at a cost of $1 ,862. 21 (Unit #6008) was approved on a motion made by Councilman Evans and seconded by Councilman Combs . Question : Ayes : All Nayes : None -000- There being no further business, the meeting was recessed before continu- ing with the Public Hearing scheduled relative to the application for Transit Operating Assistance to the Urban Mass Transportation Administra- tion. -000- -56- April 1 , 1980 PUBLIC HEARING APPLICATION FOR TRANSIT OPERATING ASSISTANCE THOSE present for the public hearing were : Vi McGinnis Mayor Pro Tem & Councilwoman Ward II Tom Combs, Jr . Councilman , Ward I Calvin Williams Councilman , Ward III Leroy Evans Councilman , Ward IV Ray Riley City Manager Kenneth Wall City Attorney Clyde McManus Transportation Administrator -000 CITY MANAGER RILEY: I believe we have scheduled the public hearing relative to the transit grant . The information that we have is that we are . . . this is related to our application for . . . to the Department of Urban Mass Transit con- cerning our estimated deficit for the fiscal year ' 80. There are some changes which are being proposed in the system and I 'd like for Mr . Mc- Manus to explain what the nature of the amendments are being made to the present system which would be considered as part of the application which we ' ll make to UMTA. MR. McMANUS : We are still pulling together all the items we hope to bring to you in the near future . . . let you have a look at service improvements for the transit system. Several of the things that we are considering right now, first of all , is the addition of a new route that will include service to the elderly housing project on the French Road area and that particular end of that route will also extend into the Tall Timbers - T,4ary Howell addition as well . The other end of this new route that we are proposing to you will go by the Best . Years Center and provide service directly to there and we will have a transfer point downtown for all the other routes to provide better access to the Best Years Center from the public transit system and it will also serve the Amelia area of town. We are kind of taking perhaps a little different philosophical approach at least from a staff level with the transit buses this year than we have in the past . We'd like to be able to respond to some of the requests for service in the manner of an experimental service effort . I think both of these new routes will certainly do just that . We are get- ting a lot of requests from people in the French Road area for the bus trans- portation service. Over time in the last couple of years , we have had quite a few requests from people in the Amelia area. It is pretty hard. to put a number on it and say this is exactly what we think is going to happen when we put service out there. A certain number of people will ride and we can expect "X" number of dollars in revenue. We would like to be able just to try it on an experimental basis. Put it in , say, for 90 days and evaluate it against some other performance indicators of the overall system. I think probably that ' s the most significant thing that we are going to do. That ' s . . . that ' s a whole new route for us and it ' s the major item. We also pro- pose to modify an existing route now. The Magnolia Refinery Route. It ' s currently built into Parkdale Mall and Census Tract 17 on the other end. Remove it from the Mall and take it by the Maida Low Income Housing project area. We then will hopefully do some other things to maintain a good ser- vice level into the Mall . This is a pretty big destination for quite a few people who 'd like to take advantage of that public transit service into the Mall . Those are the two major things I guess that we are talking about . A whole new route and a pretty big modification to get to a large generator of transit riders. We "11 be putting all this together in a package in the very near future in a couple of weeks - taking it to the Transit Advisory Committee and then to . . . probably take it to Council for consideration . . . Are there any questions about the . . . . . . -57- April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 2 COUNCILMAN COMBS : A couple of things I wanted to ask you about . One was . . . of those two covered bus shelters, are either of those scheduled for Parkdale Mall stop out there? MR. McMANUS : No, sir. The Mall is going to put in a shelter out there . COUNCILMAN COMBS : They are? MR. McMANUS : Yes, in fact , I believe, they have already ordered it . COUNCILMAN COMBS: Will this become sort of a "park and ride lot" for anybody that ' s north of that area? Come and ride the bus? I know quite a few people that ride from that point . Also, I wanted to ask you, too. I feel like that on a . . . I know that there are only "X" amount of people out there that are going to ride the bus and we could probably advertise all day long and we are not going to necessarily generate a whole lot of new people , but at the same time I think probably we are a little bit weak in promoting some of our new routes and this sort of thing and I just wondered how we might be able to do a better job by utilizing public service time and radios and television and this sort of thing - newspapers - to get the informa- tion out a little bit better . We've had real good coverage on the Lamar route but on some of the other new routes. ; . the experimental routes, we haven 't had the exposure that we really need to generate riders. I just wondered how is our advertising, bus advertising inside of the bus , how is that handled? MR. McMANUS : We have a contract with Holland Advertising Company to handle that . Quite a bit turns out to be public service type ads that we have printed for our own purposes, mainly to promote the system itself , and some of them may be for local public services, Lamar University, things of that nature.: There is a great potential to do things just like that , certainly on the buses , and also perhaps you have seen some of the billboards around town that are promoting the ones that we've passed . . . . . . we are trying to move more and more into that area. It has been a people problem up to now; but we do have the services of a transportation planner now. A great deal of his time will be spent in marketing the system. I think we definitely need to be doing a lot more in that area. I agree with you . We are seeing some trends and changes take place in ridership. A little bit of what we are seeing now in putting together this study that I was referring to - the work trips which was some where in the order of 50 per cent of all the transit trips in the past has now dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of about 40 per cent but offsetting that is a pretty pronounced increase in both shopping and personal business type trips. So we are seeing perhaps what may be a "choice" rider taking the opportunity to ride with us perhaps more so than in the beginning when they had no other way to go . We hope to accomodate those people certainly as best as we can . -58- April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 3 COUNCILMAN COMBS : Are our routes structured in such a way that , you know, a choice rider, a person who might be riding out of choice that might have their own vehicle would be able to utilize the system as far as timing schedules and neigh- borhoods served in the morning areas? MR. McMANUS : It depends a great deal on where they are going. What we are relying on is an on-board survey that asks just the type of questions that you are probably thinking of . You know, where are you getting on? Where are you ultimately going? We develope that kind of inforamtion into a demand for a number of trips from Point A to Point B and hopefully aligning the routes so that a person gets there as directly as possible. We can' t always do it in the manner which allows someone to get on at their house and go directly to their destination . It often requires a transfer downtown or something like that . There are other things that perhaps we can do to accomodate the short rider like the Lamar subscription service and things of this nature. We are doing that as much as we can. We 've been sending questionnaires to the large employers in the area and we have been talking to them over a period of months now. It seems there is an interest in subscription ser- vice like what we 've done with Lamar and with Gulf States Utilities and we hope to capitalize on that . These have been very big efforts for us, I be- lieve, from the public seeing the system more and it becomes . . . it is more in their minds and perhaps they will take advantage of it . COUNCILMAN COMBS : Do we have transfer points other than downtown? MR. McMANUS : There are transfer points at other locations where routes overlap . . . several of them over town. COUNCILMAN COMBS: So that if a person were trying to get from one area of town to another, he wouldn ' t necessarily have to go all the way into town? He might be able to bypass the drive into town and back out again. MR. McMANUS : Yes, many of the routes use Liberty/Laurel coming in to town and there are quite a few transfers along there to transfer . . . COUNCILMAN EVANS : I have one other question. Do we . . . is our transportation commission . . . are they active anymore at all? MR. McMANUS : Well , yes , sir . They haven ' t probably been as active as they should have been. -59- April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 4 COUNCILMAN EVANS : Whose fault is that? Is that ours or . . . . . . ? MR. McMANUS : That ' s probably mine for not having gotten in there and called the meetings and had enough really going on to justify . . . . . . COUNCILMAN EVANS : I was hoping that sometimes we could and I know . . . and I 'm not complaining because I know that you 've had the airport and this and that and you wear many hats , but I was in hopes that probably this commission could probably do a lot in the area that we are just talking about because I think they have the time - some do - and when you are on something . . . assigned some- thing, I think they would act more like the Parks Commission or the Library Commission or this sort of thing and this is something that I 've been real disappointed in because they . . . we 've had them now for a number of years and we usually have a meeting at least once a year and maybe not that often . MR. McMANUS : They are meeting quarterly now. We are trying to get them on a more regu lar schedule '. COUNCILMAN EVANS : But I think that if they had some responsibilities I think they would be an asset to you. CITY MANAGER RILEY: Councilman , we have been attempting the last couple of weeks . . . we need to appoint a number of members to the commission in order to reestablish the terms. As a matter of fact , probably the consideration of appointments . . . we would be ready to do that next week provided the Council has its neces- sary appointments. MAYOR PRO TEM McGINNIS : I have a name. How many do we need? CITY MANAGER RILEY: Well , we have three we need to appoint representing the handicapped and I think there is a total of seven . . . well , six others which are non-handi- capped - in other words , representing the public at large - three. We have submitted the proposed names of , I think, a number that would repre- sent the areas of the handicapped. I think we have submitted about nine names there but , at this point , we are ready for the reappointment or some appointment of the remaining six representing the public at large. MAYOR PRO TEM McGINNIS : I would like . . . are we also going to structure it formally so that there would be absenteeism, for instance, would be taken care of . . . ? -60- April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 5 CITY MANAGER RILEY: Certainly could, yes, ma' am. I think that our structure now is as we see it a total of nine members - three of which represent handicapped; the other six, the public at large. They would meet no less than quarterly and I think that with the activities, our concern about mass transit , that they will be meeting more often than that in the future, probably on a monthly, no less than every bi-monthly . . . . . . MAYOR PRO TEM McGINNIS : I would like to remind you that this is a public hearing and if anyone in the audience would care to make any comments concerning our transit system, they are invited to do so at this time . If there are no comments - oh, come forward, Mr. Leggett . This is concerning the transit system? MR. J. C. LEGGETT, 1849 Washington Boulevard: Yes, that ' s the one I want . I want to add one more point where to place one of these here new housing business . . . the weather, you know, the rainy weather , wind, hot sun . . . and that is right across the street from Weingarten' s on Calder . MAYOR PRO TEM McGINNIS : Which Weingarten' s? MR. LEGGETT : The first Weingarten 's . . . it ' s out here by Fifth or Sixth, I believe. I drive along there and I see lots of people standing out there. They've got both arms full of groceries and if it was to be raining, they couldn' t set them on the ground and they'd be caught in the rain and trying to get out of the rain , so it is a very important place to place one of these that they've still got on hand. That ' s about all I can think of on that outside of some potholes around different places. MAYOR PRO TEM McGINNIS : Is there anyone ? If not , we would declare this portion of the public hearing closed . . . . . . and do we actually . . . . . . ? CITY MANAGER RILEY: I don ' t believe any action is required on it . It is a matter of conducting the public hearing and then we provide the comments to UMTA. PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED. END OF EXCERPT. -000- The regular City Council session was reconvened for the purpose of citizen comments relative to City business. Mr. Mark Roberts, 1645 Tulane, addressed Council to complain about the money spent to turn the sound system around at the Fair Park Coliseum, the Animal Ordinance which allows dog catchers to pick up dogs on private pro- perty, and a proposed bond issue to remove trains from downtown area. -61- April 1 , 1980 Mr . Jack Farley, 2270 Gladys , addressed Council to commend them for past actions and to say that he would miss Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Evans as part of the Council . -000- There being no further business, the meeting was recessed before continu- ing with the City Council workshop session. -000- I , Rosemarie Chiappetta, Deputy City Clerk of the City of Beaumont , Texas, certify that the above is a correct copy of the minutes of the regular City Council session held April 1 , 1980. Rosemarie Chiappetta Deputy City Clerk -62 April 1 , 1980 PUBLIC HEARING APPLICATION FOR TRANSIT OPERATING ASSISTANCE THOSE present for the public hearing were : Vi McGinnis Mayor Pro Tem & Councilwoman Ward II Tom Combs, Jr . Councilman , Ward I Calvin Williams Councilman , Ward III Leroy Evans Councilman , Ward iV Ray Riley City Manager Kenneth Wall City Attorney Clyde McManus Transportation Administrator -000 CITY MANAGER RILEY : I believe we have scheduled the public hearing relative to the transit grant . The information that we have is that we are . . . this is related to our application for . . . to the Department of Urban Mass Transit con- cerning our estimated deficit for the fiscal year 180 . There are some changes which are being proposed in the system and I ' d like for Mr . Mc- Manus to explain what the nature of the amendments are being made to the present system which would be considered as part of the application. which we ' ll make to UMTA. MR. McMANUS : We are still pulling together all the items we hope to bring to you in the near future . . . let you have a look at service improvements for the transiI- system. Several of the things that we are considering right now, first of all , is the addition of a new route that will include service to the elderly housing project on the French Road area and that particular end of that route will also extend into the Tall Timbers - Mary Howell addition as well . The other end of this new route that we are proposing to you will go "y the Best Years Center and provide service directly to there and we will have a transfer point downtown for all the other routes to provide better access to the Best Years Center from the public transit system and it will also serve the Amelia area of town. We are kind of taking perhaps a little differen�" philosophical approach at least from a staff level with the transit buses this year than we have in the past . We 'd like to be able to respond to some of the requests for service in the manner of an experimental service effort . I think both of these new routes will certainly do just that . We are get- ting a lot of requests from people in the French Road area for the bus trans- portation service. Over time in the last couple of years , we have had quite a few requests from people in the Amelia area. It is pretty hard, t,o put a number on it and say this is exactly what we think is going to happen when we put service out there. A certain number of people will ride and we can expect "X" number of dollars in revenue. We would like to be able just to try it on an experimental basis . Put it in , say , for 9C days and evaluate it against some other performance indicators of the overall system. I think probably that ' s the most significant thing that we are going to do . That' s . . . that ' s a whole new route for us and it ' s the major item. We also pro- pose to modify an existing route now. The Magnolia Refinery Route. It ' s currently built into Parkdale Mall and Census Tract 17 on the cther end . Remove it from the Mall and take it by the Maida Low Income Housing project area. We then will hopefully do some other things to maintain a good ser- vice level into the Mall . This is a pretty big destination for quite a few people who 'd like to take advantage of that public transit service into the Mall . Those are the two major things I guess that we are talking about . A whole new route and a pretty big modification to get to a ,large generator of transit riders. We ' ll be putting all this together in a package in the very near future - in a couple of weeks - taking it to the Transit Advisory Committee and then to . . . probably take it to Council for consideration . . . Are there any questions about the . . . . . . April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 2 COUNCILMAN COMBS : A couple of things I wanted to ask you about . One was . . . of those two covered bus shelters, are either of those scheduled for Parkdale Mall stop out there? MR. McMANUS : No, sir. The Mall is going to put in a shelter out there . COUNCILMAN COMBS : They are? MR. McMANUS : Yes, in fact , I believe, they have already ordered it . COUNCILMAN COMBS : Will this become sort of a "park and ride lot" for anybody that ' s north of that area? Come and ride the bus? I know quite a few people that ride from that point . Also , I wanted to ask you , too. I feel like that on a . . . I know that there are only "X" amount of people out there that are going to ride the bus and we could probably advertise all day long and we are not going to necessarily generate a whole lot of new people , but at the same time I think probably we are a little bit weak in promoting some of our new routes and this sort of thing and I just wondered how we might be able to do a better job by utilizing public service time and radios and television and this sort of thing - newspapers - to get the informa- tion out a little bit better . We 've had real good coverage on the Lamar route but on some of the other new routes. , . the experimental routes , we haven 't had the exposure that we really need to generate riders . I just wondered how is our advertising, bus advertising inside of the bus , how is that handled? MR. McMANUS : We have a contract with Holland Advertising Company to handle teat . Quite a bit turns out to be public service type ads that we have printed for our own purposes , mainly to promote the system itself , and some of them may be for local public services , Lamar University , things of that nature.. There is a great potential to do things just like that , certainly on the buses , and also perhaps you have seen some of the billboards around town that are promoting the ones that we 've passed . . . . . . we are trying to move more and more into that area. It has been a people problem up to now; but we do have the services of a transportation planner now. A great deal of his time will be spent in marketing the system. I think we definitely need to be doing a lot more in that area. I agree with you. We are seeing some trends and changes take place in ridership. A little bit of what we are seeing now in putting together this study that I was referring to - the work trips which was some where in the order of 50 per cent of all the transit trips in the past has now dropped somewhere it the neighborhood of about 40 per cent but offsetting that is a pretty pronounced increase in both shopping and personal business type trips . So we are seeing perhaps what may be a "choice" rider taking the opportunity to ride w=th us perhaps more so than in the beginning when they had no other way to go . We hope to accomodate those people certainly as best as we can . April 1 , 1980 Public Hearing - Transit Operating Assistance Page 3 COUNCILMAN COMBS : Are our routes structured in such a way that , you know, a choice rider, a person who might be riding out of choice that might have their own vehicle would be able to utilize the system as far as timing schedules and neigh- borhoods served in the morning areas? MR. McMANUS : It depends a great deal on where they are going. What we are relying on is an on-board survey that asks just the type of questions that you are probably thinking of . You know, where are you getting on? Where are you ultimately going? We develope that kind of inforamtion into a demand for a number of trips from Point A to Point B and hopefully aligning the routes so that a person gets there as directly as possible. We can ' t always do it in the manner which allows someone to get on at their house and go directly to their destination. It often requires a transfer downtown or something like that . There are other things that perhaps we can do to accomodate the short rider like the Lamar subscription service and things of this nature. We are doing that as much as we can . We ' ve been sending questionnaires to the large employers in the area and we have been talkipg to them over a period of months now. It seems there is an interest in subscription ser- vice like what we 've done with Lamar and with Gulf States Utilities and we hope to capitalize on that . These have been very big efforts for us, ? be- lieve, from the public seeing the system more and it becomes . . . it is more in their minds and perhaps they will take advantage of it . COUNCILMAN COMBS : Do we have transfer points other than downtown? MR. McMANUS : There are transfer points at other locations where routes overlap . . . several of them over town. COUNCILMAN COMBS: So that if a person were trying to get from one area of town to another , he wouldn ' t necessarily have to go all the way into town? He might be able to bypass the drive into town and back out again . MR. McMANUS : Yes, many of the routes use Liberty/Laurel coming in to town a:.c there are quite a few transfers along there to transfer . . . . . . COUNCILMAN EVANS : I have one other question. Do we . . . is our transportation commission are they active anymore at all? MR. McMANUS : Well , yes, sir . They haven ' t probably been as active as they should have been. April 1 , 1980 i