Mountain Rides Transportation Authority is considering reducing services next year if local governments in the Wood River Valley decrease their funding to the organization.
The possibility of cutting back on commuter bus services comes at a time when ridership continues to grow and Mountain Rides is on track to have service from Twin Falls running in October.
The prospect of reduced services was discussed at Wednesday's meeting of the Mountain Rides board of directors. Executive Director Jason Miller reported that his staff has prepared two options for the fiscal year 2011 budget. One option assumes funding similar to this year's with the same level of services, while the second, which Miller described as a "worst-case scenario" assumes a 10 percent funding cut and a resulting 10 percent reduction in services.
"There's no surprises in there—less funding means less service," Miller said.
Board Chair Peter Everett said there are already indications that the city of Sun Valley will reduce its contribution to Mountain Rides. The city contributed $330,000 for fiscal year 2010 but Everett said it's looking at paying somewhere between $275,000 and $300,000 for fiscal 2011.
"I don't think we can say a lot more until we get more input from the cities," Everett said.
The first option, assuming the same level of funding from municipalities, would put the Mountain Rides fiscal 2011 budget at $2.55 million. The second option, assuming funding cuts, would put the budget at $2.35 million.
Funding from other cities in 2010 was $497,610 from Ketchum, $75,000 from Hailey and $3,000 from Bellevue. Blaine County contributed $123,500.
Other funding sources are various federal grants, the Idaho Transportation Department, private businesses such as Sun Valley Co. and Webb Landscape, donations and ride fares.
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Mountain Rides provides free around-town bus service in the Ketchum-Sun Valley area and in Hailey. The organization charges for service between Ketchum and Bellevue and for commuter van service from the Magic Valley.
Miller reported that ridership is running higher this year than last.
"May is always our slowest month, but this past May was our strongest May ever," he said.
According to Miller's report, there were 17,908 total rides in May this year, compared to 12,984 in May 2009.
Hailey town service, which started April 5, rose from 368 rides in April to 611 in May.
Total rides for the organization for the first five months of 2010 were 214,340, compared to 192,974 during the same period last year. The 12-month total for 2009 was 374,380 rides.
In other business, the board of directors approved a "request for proposals" for daily bus service between the Magic and Wood River valleys. Mountain Rides intends to hire a private bus company initially for the service because it doesn't have a bus for long highway trips.
According to the latest schedule, the request will be released later this month and proposals will be accepted until August. A winning proposal will be selected in September and service will start in October.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Mountain Rides Transportation Authority reports that ridership is up this year, but the organization faces the prospect of reducing services if municipalities in the Wood River Valley decrease their funding. Photo by Mountain Express
