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2 counties team up to improve transit

A $282,000 grant is giving Scott and Carver counties the means to move toward merging their bus systems for efficiency as fuel costs soar, needs arise and subsidies shrivel.

By DAVID PETERSON, Star Tribune

Last update: January 5, 2008 - 11:20 PM

In what looks like a modern version of the miracle of loaves and fishes, Scott and Carver counties are promising to provide 42,000 more transit rides per year without adding any more drivers or buses.

A big key, officials say, is breaking down bureaucratic walls so that -- in just one example -- a dial-a-ride bus from Scott will no longer have to meet a bus from Carver at the county border to transfer a passenger. The Carver bus can just scoot straight to Shakopee and drop the rider off.

"We're talking about borders created 150 years ago that should no longer be affecting how services get delivered," said Lezlie Vermillion, public works director for Scott County.

What could turn into an all-out merger between the counties' transit services is getting underway this year, thanks to a $282,000 federal grant from the Metropolitan Council.

A merger wouldn't occur before 2009. It's a direction that the League of Minnesota Cities and the Association of Minnesota Counties are urging local officials to follow as state subsidies dwindle, the need rises and costs -- notably fuel -- soar.

The grant will be spent, among other things, to equip buses with mobile computer terminals allowing drivers to learn of cancelled or added rides mid-trip, rather than just carrying the pieces of paper they now receive.

It should also allow both sides to greatly reduce one of the worst things about the existing system: the need to deny hundreds of requested rides each year, Vermillion said.

Bottom line: Using the same numbers of staff (38 people) and vehicles (32), the two counties ought to be able to increase the number of hours of operation by 8,000 per year, the number of rides by 42,000 and the number of miles traveled by 166,000. Each is an increase of about 20 percent from what's done today.

The grant gives the council "a chance to see how this service will work, without having to use regional transit dollars," said Met Council spokeswoman Bonnie Kollodge.

For Carver County, said administrator Dave Hemze, combining transit services with Scott could help a rapidly growing county expand what it can provide.

"Historically it's been more a matter of taking the elderly to medical appointments, as compared to mass transit to places of employment," he said. "But I'm sure [the officials involved] have the thought in mind that we could evolve beyond that if we increase efficiency."

A big difference between how the counties operate now, Vermillion said, is that Scott's dial-a-ride services are a public works function while Carver's are a unit of that county's social services department. That implies that rides are aimed chiefly at folks like the disabled.

"Our board decided in 2003 to serve more than just that human-services population, and to provide more dial-a-ride routes to the public in general," she said.

The two counties' main population and job centers are just across the river from one another, and there is plenty of traffic back and forth. If each side knew what the other was doing at a given moment, officials are convinced, they could be putting three people on a small bus from point A to point B instead of one.

It's a model other communities ought to be watching, Vermillion said. "There are multiple community-based providers in the metro area," she said. "If we can show that we can drive costs down by collaborating like this, it may be a model for more efficient service."

Her boss, Dave Unmacht, likes to say that more and more efforts of this type may lead to something approaching a single county - an entity he has dubbed "Scarver."

Hemze, his counterpart across the river, is not so sure.

"'Scarver?' how about 'Carrot?' It sounds a lot better and puts us first."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023

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