Trolley receives facility funding

A ride is just a call away weekdays in Creston and surrounding communities. The Southern Iowa Trolley has been serving seven counties since 1979.

The regional transit system provides services for elderly, handicapped, students, and the general population. Since its fiscal year started July 1, the trolley has served nearly 20,000 people. In September alone, 7,800 people were transported.

But in all the years they’ve served the community, they’ve never had their own building.

Transit Director Leesa Lester said they’ve always rented. “The facility is leased,” she said. “The rent money we spend every month is considered an operating expense.”

In her 10 years with Southern Iowa Trolley, Lester has always worked in the same building on Montgomery Street.

But as times change and transportation adapts, the facility no longer meets the needs of the agency. Lester said they applied for grant funding through Iowa’s office of public transit who collected and submitted applications for multiple transit agencies.

The trolley was awarded $1.6 million of federal funding for a new building. “The grant for the facility is so important,” Lester said. “It’s a start. I don’t think the $1.6 million will be enough to cover the funding for the building with prices these days.”

Electric

HIRTA, a public transit agency serving seven counties including Madison County, was also awarded grant funding. While they will receive money for a facility, they are also receiving funding for electric buses.

“We’re going to have to start replacing gas vehicles to the electric buses,” Lester said. “That’s what this whole no emission grant was for.”

The grant states the funding is for “urban and rural transit agencies to buy battery electric buses and charging equipment. The project will also support the construction of transit facilities and workforce development activities. The project will reduce operating costs and emissions while improving transit service in communities across Iowa.”

Lester said the buses are required to be kept and driven for 10 years. While she tries to replace three to five vehicles every year, she won’t be looking at electric vehicles in the immediate future.

“I’m not going to be able to start replacing vehicles with electric until the building is built,” she said. “I’m in the process now of getting the building built, but it’s still going to be two three years out I’d imagine.”

One of the challenges of an electric bus fleet is the lack of charging stations nearby. That’s one of the reasons the new facility is so important - they can’t put charging stations into a rented building.

“We should see some kind of savings once we get to that point,” Lester said. “With the cost of gas, we don’t know how high it’s going to go.” The trolley’s annual fuel budget is $135,000. For the last several years, they’ve stayed under the budget amount.

Security

One of the concerns a new building would address is the lack of security at the existing facility.

Over the years, their vehicles have been broken into and vandalized on multiple occasions. Just last week, several vehicles had the catalytic converters stolen. “It’s a prime example,” Lester said. “We’re struggling to stay afloat as is and then you have someone do that. It’s discouraging.”

Not only is there a substantial cost with the part replacement, but Lester said they are in high demand since this is an ongoing crime. Most of the affected vehicles are still out of commission as only one refurbished converter has been found.

“It’s just an unnecessary cost,” Lester said. “We’ve had several broken into. There’s nothing in there.”

Since the incident, security measures have been put in place to prevent it from happening again, but a new facility would provide even more security.

Vehicle storage

The fleet of vehicles sits outside the facility year round. In Iowa, weather plays a big factor in the life expectancy of a vehicle.

“Hopefully the facility will help with that - keep the vehicles a little more protected from the elements. Salt, sand, we know they wreak havoc on personal vehicles,” Lester said. “Our expectancy to maintain and take care of them is a big responsibility.”

In the case of an evacuation, the trolley could be used as an emergency response, but Lester said their ability is limited. “Our parking lot, we have vehicles parked one in front of another,” she said. “That can delay us getting over if we’re trying to help a nursing home or wherever.”

One thing Lester is hoping to gain from the new facility is an increase in bays in the maintenance shop. “We only have one bay,” she said. “He doesn’t have space to move things around to accommodate if more than one vehicle needs to be worked on.”

Building

Lester plans to keep the facility in Creston as its the most centrally located in their service area.

Having their own building will give them the autonomy to address facility issues as they come up. One of their restraints in the existing building is the lack of training space or meeting rooms.

“We only have one small conference room now,” Lester said. “When we have our mandatory training every year, we have to rent a space or Jo at Emergency Management has been nice about letting us use her training room.”

They’ve also had ongoing issues with dispatch. The addition of a TV screen to follow and track drivers has helped them be more efficient with dispatching drivers, but the new facility would provide a dedicated space built for their needs.

Lester is pushing for solar energy at the new facility to cut down on electricity cost.

“It always costs money to save money,” she said. “This building is essential.”