2014-39 MTS minutes 6-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Communication No. 2014-39 PCDP Mass Transit Subcommittee minutes,June 24, 2014 In attendance: June Conant, Jon Olson, Hannah Hedrick, Rusty Jones, Sharon Daun, Stephanie Bath Guest: Catherine Ford There is no official chair of this committee, but June called the meeting to order shortly after 3:30 pm. Hannah has compiled a complete synopsis of communications regarding Mass Transit as related to the PCDP from 2006 to 2014. The communications focus on the hub and spoke system with brief references to the airport transport. She has been in touch with Sherry Bracken,the radio broadcaster who gets involved with community concerns, and is communicating with her regarding the lack of bus access to the airports. Within Hannah's information there was a $350,000 grant to the MTA regarding the hub and spoke implementation that had been awarded in July, 2010. June questioned what happened to it. No one knew so she will check with Larry Brown to see if that can be tracked. The fact that there is no definite Keaau hub is still an issue. When Patti and June met with Tiffany a year and a half ago, she indicated that she had made arrangements with Shipman to place a shelter on the vacant property next to the Keaau Market and there were funds to build it. Zendo Kern, without any coordination with the PCDP, was pushing a location across the hwy to be a hub with a "bus terminal". Catherine Ford has been investigating how to provide subdivision service without disturbing the main bus routes. She has been looking into equipment. The 28 passenger busses cost$600,000 versus 15 passenger vans which are in the $40,000 range. Her plan is to have the vans be available to the subdivisions and take residents to within one block of where the Hele-On stops on the hwy. The vans would stay within the subdivision. It was pointed out that without proper bus shelters on the hwy, that could be an obstacle. Sharon proposed that the airport shuttles start at the Mall. Others felt that downtown Hilo to the airport would be a better route or a combination of both. It was decided that access to the airports and the hub and spoke be separated in regards to MTA requests. At this time,the committee would send a letter to the mayor for the airport issue and include access to the post offices, also. Hannah's compilation could be sent as an attachment to the letter. Sharon and June will work on a letter with Sharon notifying Larry Brown to include it on the July agenda. The PREP fair is planning on having a mass transit booth to bring them into the emergency picture and June suggested that we might have a simple survey for participants to complete in relationship to their use of MTA. The next committee meeting will be Tuesday,July 22 at 3:30 pm. The meeting adjourned at 5 pm. Respectfully submitted, June Conant