160808 Transit Pilot Committee MINCommunity Transportation Pilot Program Steering Committee (Tillsonburg)
Minutes
August 8, 2016
Minutes Taker: Deb Clarke Time: 10:00 -11 :30am
PRESENT: Geoffrey Reekie, Executive Director/CEO, Tillsonburg & District Multi-
Service Centre; Marty Graf, Chief Executive Officer, Community Living Tillsonburg;
John Verbakel, Chair; Carolijn Verbakel, Community Advocates Tillsonburg; David
Calder, CAO, Town of Tillsonburg, John Preston, Community Transportation
Coordinator, Larry Ongena, Bus driver, Brian Stephenson, Councilor, Town of
Tillsonburg
REGRETS: Ashley Farrar, Social Planning Council Oxford.
1. Welcome:
John V. welcomed everyone to the meeting.
John V. thanked John P. for sending out the information package in a timely
manner.
2. Review and adoption of minutes from previous meeting and business
arising.
Change "Every Sunday will be free for groups/residents, church groups
etc .. " to "The goal is to provide free transportation service every Sunday for
~/residents, church groups etc ... "
Minutes have been adopted with the noted change.
3. Brief Update/Ridership Stats -John Preston:
• John P. reviewed the ridership stats.
• There is a balance between senior and youth riders.
• Revenue for the month of July is $478.00.
• Larry is getting positive and supportive feedback from the riders.
• We have 300 rides this month. Ridership stats are at 2.4%
• Maple Lane Senior Building -we stop there twice a week (Thursday's &
Friday's) for regular scheduled pick-ups.
• Other Day Cares in the community should be contacted and given a T:GO
business card in case they need us in an emergency service example -if
walking from a park and it is raining and need to be picked up.
• We have Ministry guidelines that need to be followed when picking up children
within a Day Care setting.
• Harvest Retirement Home -John and Larry have presented T:GO to them, they
do have their own bus, however, it only runs two days per week.
• Someone from the executive level has to write the CVOR test before the T:GO
bus can be driven out of town.
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4. Coordinator Salary -John Preston:
• John P's works 35 hours/week. There has been a shortfall for a couple of
months and could continue up to the end of March. John is suggesting to
change his hours from 35 to 28 hours per week. There is also a possibility to
lower the hours further with a part-time driver.
• It was suggested that John maintain his 35 hours per week for Marketing,
Promotions and Coordinating.
• The Coordinator's position shortfall is $10,000.00.
• Money can come out of the Advertising and Events budgets.
• We could cover Larry's salary until November 2016.
• If the hours are expanding with the need for Special Olympics using the bus, a
second driver may need to be required for minimal hours.
• Marty explained how Community Living Tillsonburg and the Multi-Service
Centre agencies have supported this program. The Transportation Program
needs support from the Municipality and other agencies to make this program
sustainable.
• The Multi-Service Centre's revenue has gone down for the Wheelchair
transportation program. Geoff explained how we need to get a broader
ridership, we should also be promoting more wheelchair transportation for
Multi-Service Centre as well. The Multi-Service Centre has a target they need
to meet in order to maintain their funding.
5. Budget Bottom Line -David Calder:
• $54,496.00 has been spent out of $100,000.00.
• There is 10% hold back.
• $25,000.00 was requested from Community Living Tillsonburg in July 2016.
• $40,000.00 -$45,000.00 is remaining.
6. Operational Budget Update and Discussion:
• John P. reviewed the Transit Operational Cost, Transit Grant Budget 2015/2016
and the Financial Summary.
• The Coordinator position made $3,100.00 -$3,200.00 in the months of June
and July.
• The driver position makes $2,561.00 a month.
• Wage subsidy is not in affect as of July 19, 2016.
• We plan on having Larry stay on until the fall. The driver cost without subsidy is
$1,656.00.
• The total revenue will drop by $1,458.00.
• The Gas Tax would cover the expenses.
• When presenting to the council in September we need to provide the numbers
and the name of the groups who are supporting the Transportation program as
well as donations and in-kind donations. We need the Municipalities support
and be able to access the Gas Tax to sustain T:GO. The Municipality is the only
one who can access the Gas Tax by applying for it, they have two streams -
Infrastructure and Transportation (it is an untapped resource).
• Strategically we should also be connecting with other Municipalities (2015 Gas
Tax -Ingersoll has a slush fund that is only used for transportation and cannot
use it until they have a program put in place).
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• The $2.00 fee was set as an introductory rate. The T:GO passes are also set at
a $2.00 as well. People who live in Poverty could not afford more than $2.00. If
we cannot raise the price then we need to get more Municipal funding by the
end of March 2017 so it can be sustainable.
• Out of all the 22 Municipalities that have run transportation programs only a few
have survived.
• Donations need to be finalized from the TCSI Golf Tournament.
• We need more community investment. Could T:GO be used as an
Entrepreneurial Business to generate more income than what the
transportation is making to off-set the cost for example: Weddings, Events,
Charter to Blue Jays Games or to the Theatre etc ...
• We need to stick to the plan for now but we could put this idea into the business
plan later.
7. Report on Action Items not yet dealt with:
Brief update sent out to all pilot supporters -John V.
• John V sent a list of supporters to John P and a brief update was emailed out to
all the supporters.
One-on-One Rogers interview with Brian Donlevy -John P/John V/Ashley.
Bus driver training to deal with sensitive situations -Marty.
• Training has not been scheduled as of yet.
8. Other Business:
• Geoff and John P to work on the Youtube Video to be done by the end of the
month and played at the next council meeting (September 26, 2016) during
presentation creating a visual impact statement.
• The Multi-Service Centre is upgrading their software program and there is a
transportation aspect to it. We may want to discontinue with the Simpli
Software and go with this new software program. Geoff invited John P. to sit in
during the training. If we stick with one software program that the Multi-Service
Centre will be using we can integrate the invoicing as well or Community Living
Tillsonburg can invoice separately.
10. Next meeting, Monday, September 19, 2016 (10:00-11:30am).
11. Adjournment
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