LIMA — The Allen County Regional Transit Authority will be tightening its proverbial belt in 2016.
The agency adopted its first draft of its 2016 budget Tuesday, with the total budget reduced from $3.7 million this year to $3.2 million.
“We lost two contracts this year,” RTA Executive Director Sheila Schmitt said. “We’re seeing a reduction in service with the Allen County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and we’re seeing a reduction with Job and Family Services. A private taxi service came in with a lower bid than we had. Due to that, we lost quite a bit of service with Job and Family Services.”
Schmitt anticipates that the RTA will make up for the shortfall with reductions in overtime hours and other cuts that would not impact services.
“We have eight fixed routes that are in the city and Allen County area that try to cover all the businesses, medical facilities and the college,” she said. “We do not anticipate cutting those services at this time.”
Schmitt has made an appeal to Allen County commissioners to help make up some of the shortfall. Commissioners have not supported the RTA financially since 2008.
“We do have 50 percent of our service in the county,” she said. “There’s been an increase in businesses outside the city limits, and we provide service to them.”
Schmitt said that any assistance from commissioners would have a great impact, as their money would be doubled thanks to a matching grant.
“That means that even if they gave $75,000, that would be a $150,000 impact for us,” she said.
While the organization continues to try to make ends meet, it has seen positive trends, including an increase in ridership.
“We had 330,000 last year, and I think we’ll eclipse 350,000 this year,” Schmitt said. “That’s an amazing number for a community this size.”
