2015-12 MTSC report-minutes 24Feb15

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Communication No. 2015 -12 PCDP Mass Transit Subcommittee minutes, February 24, 2015 In attendance: June Conant, Rusty Jones, Jon Olson, Sharon Daun, and Hannah Hedrick. June attended the Transportation Commission meeting in Kona on February 12 and met with Danny Paleka, Greggor Ilagan, and Tiffany Kai on February 19 in Danny's office. At the Transportation meeting, Tiffany said that MTA was working on a schedule for the Hilo airport and hoped to have it operational in 2 months. She did not give any information for a Kona schedule. At the February 19th meeting, Tiffany started by stating that Hawai'i County MTA now has a mandate from the Federal Transit Authority to provide paratransit for Hilo and Kona or they will lose federal funding. The notice was sent by the Hawai'i Dept of Transportation. She said they have set aside $800,000 to contract the service out. Danny said he will get more information on this situation to determine the obligation and the plan for implementation. June expressed to Tiffany that the MT Subcommittee is frustrated because there has been no response to the letters sent by the PCDP requesting information about the County Master Transit Plan, hub and spoke, and airport /post office service. She reiterated that the Mass Transit Subcommittee is willing to help in any way it can to make these important issues a reality. Airport /post office service — Tiffany said that the Hilo airport schedule will be incorporated into the Keaukaha route and that the route, which now takes a lunch break, will change to be continual during the day. They are working on the possible schedule now and hope to have it in place within 2 months. The committee asked if the following points were discussed: 1. Was a stop at the airport post office discussed? No 2. Would there be a double fee for those going from the airport to Hilo town? Currently, when ship visitors board the bus at the market, some drivers charge them from the market to Richardson's and from Richardson's to Hilo because Richardson's is considered "the end of the route" . That was not discussed. June stated that the hourly route for that bus always runs late so the added time to the airport has to be realistic. Kea'au bus shelter — at a July, 2013 meeting with June, Patti Pinto, Larry Brown, and Tiffany, she stated that she had the funds and Shipman's permission to build a shelter at the vacant lot on the Hilo side of the Kea'au farmer's market. When asked why that didn't happen, she stated that it was part of a CIP to build 1 shelter each in Kea'au and Kurtistown, and 2 in Na'alehu. The funds never came through. She was requested to determine the status of that CIP. Mass Transit Plan — Tiffany admitted that MTA has been lax on getting this accomplished. She did not make it part of her recent budget and she realizes that it needs to be done. June asked if her assistant, John Andoh could work on a rough plan. She did not know. Danny asked June to send him the original CIP request from the PCDP. Bus racks — Stephanie Bath has requested that racks able to hold 4 bikes be available especially on Puna buses Tiffany said she has been working on procuring a few of them.