 All right, it is five o'clock. I will call the transit commission to order So we have some new members here, so we're gonna be doing a quick roll call Chad Palachuk Heather Cleveland Sarah canal Alder Barb Felde Alder Tray Mitchell Yeah, is the chief online. Do we have anyone else online and Mayor Sorenson is present All right, Alder Decker is excused in Roy Kloss is excused for those in attendance Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? All right chief is here now All right, so we do have some new faces here So if you both would like to we'll just kind of go down the table and we'll introduce ourselves And we'll kind of go around the room too because we've got some staff So my name is Ryan Sorenson. I'm the mayor Yeah My name is Heather Cleveland. I Recently started a business here in Cheboygan called Green Bicycle Company and the focus of the company will be Commuter Bicycles and commuter bicycle gear, so I'm really happy to be part of the transit commission I Also was a small part of the non motorized transportation grant at the engineering consulting firm that I was working at My background is in civil engineering and urban planning, and I also have Six years of nonprofit experience and I'm happy to be here My name is Sarah canal. I Move back to Cheboygan after living in Chicago about I moved back about five years ago after living in Chicago My entire life. I've never owned a car in my entire life I've used mass transportation always and I'm very excited to see what I can do to Change the mass transit system here. I absolutely adore the transportation drivers that I've dealt with Because I take the buses Constantly the system is is great. That's in place now the buses are spotless My background is marketing communications and fundraising I've had some great jobs in Chicago, and I hope to use some of that background to use to further the Mass transportation system here. I'm all to prison barb Feldy District one and council president. I was on the transit committee Many years ago and asked him how long and I said well pre Perez so it's quite a ways back I'm sure things have changed a little since then That's it. I'm Chad Peleshek. I'm the city development director, and I've been with the city now since 2007 and served on the Transit Commission since 2010 when I became the director Introduce yourself Oh, sure Chief you want to introduce yourself to the new folks? Chris Tomergalski. I'm the police chief, and I've been on the transit Commission since 2010 also Trey I'm Trey Mitchell alderman district nine and representative from the finance and personnel committee on the transit Commission And I have been on the Commission for about a year now And I'm Derek Mink. I'm the transit and parking director for the city of Sheboygan I am a transplant to Sheboygan from neighboring Manitowoc. I've been here now just over nine years And serving as director for the last seven plus years So I like to welcome all the new members to the transit Commission I look forward to working with you Over the next several years. I am thoroughly excited to have a nice diverse group of individuals on the Commission Users individuals that are familiar with it non motorized which master ends it likes to pair with very well So I'm excited to have you guys on Commission And also Ryan Mayor Sorensen in his new role on the Commission as well So I welcome you guys if there's anything that I can ever do or be a service to you Now and in the future don't hesitate to ever contact me and I look forward to again working with you guys. Thank you And you want to introduce yourself? Good afternoon, I'm Ann Keller I'm the administrative coordinator for Shoreline Metro And I've been with Shoreline Metro. It'll be 21 years in June. So I do have a lot of background Thank you. Thanks, Ann Right. So since this is a new New term of the transit Commission we have to elect new officers So I'll open up the floor to nominations. Are there any nominations? Mr. Chair, I'll nominate the mayor I'm gonna respectfully decline Just don't want to put too much of my plate right now. I would actually like to nominate Heather Cleveland If she would accept Yes, I accept I think okay, the answer is yes, but I'll need to know more about position and yeah And Derek Derek will look connect you and they'll talk more to Any other nominations any other nominations any other nominations Seeing none All those in favor of Cassie Nana spout for Heather Cleveland as chair of the transit Commission, please say aye Anyone opposed chair votes aye congratulations Heather. Thank you. Do you want me to run the just the rest of the meeting or yes? Okay, we'll do election of vice chair for the election Commission any any nominations for vice chair of the committee I'd like to nominate Sarah Sarah do you accept the nomination? I accept all right Is there a second? Any other nominations any other nominations any other nominations seeing none all those in favor of Casting a unanimous ballot for Sarah canal as the vice chair of the transit Commission, please say aye Hi Anyone opposed chair votes. I congratulations Sarah Is there any public input all right What a long is there motion to prove the minutes from our February 16th meeting for a second Second motion by Chad second by Barb discussion on the minutes for a previous meeting Seeing none all those in favor of approving the minutes, please state aye Anyone opposed chair votes. I the minutes are approved Okay, 3.1 2022 2026 capital improvement program CPI for Shirley Metro for the and the parking utility Derek Thank You mr. Mayor Just for your information Heather and Sarah. I do most of the heavy lifting So if you you want to you want a chair vice chair, you want to switch some time. I'll I'll be honored to switch with you So for your for your consideration tonight is the revised 2022 through 2026 capital improvement program for Shirley Metro in the parking utility Just a little bit of a backstory for perhaps the the new members Annually as part of the city's capital improvement program each of our departments are Charged with the task of presenting capital needs and requests as part of our ongoing I guess replacement of our assets and in general maintenance of our assets so for consideration, I'm presenting revised and updated list for calendars 2022 through 2026 of Which I believe 2022 is really the only one that is being taken action on at this point The other four years are just for preliminary and planning purposes So if you open your packet up, you're gonna see I Don't have much to present especially in parking We have no project schedule for 2022 and the project that is actually scheduled for 2023 is likely gonna fall off the the schedule here probably for next year so And then there's only one other project and that's a major Redevelopment of a parking lot in the riverfront area. I know that probably doesn't mean much now But we'll get into a little bit more of what parking does Maybe on a side meeting with you guys But that's really the only project that's going to be in the five-year capital plan for the parking utility at this point Switching over to transit. This has kind of been a three-year progression here to get where we are with our capital needs But obviously one of the critical elements to providing mass transit other than the human Capital is the physical capital and that is buses So going back a little bit We received our first brand-new fixed rail buses in 2019 and those are the first buses we had received in in nine years Which is wasn't a very healthy replacement schedule, but nevertheless we worked through the challenges and We're awarded some grants to do that. We took receipt of one bus last year through a state program the VW mitigation program if you've heard of it before and Then we were in the works of applying again for a second round of the VW mitigation funding And then along with being a non-attainment area. We are eligible for what's called congestion mitigation and air quality control grants See Mac for short And we were also awarded buses through that grant. So all in all We were awarded 12 buses to be funded Over the next couple of years We did a little bit of work through a couple of those programs and then working with city administrator wolf and his staff to rearrange all those buses into 2022 So when your capital in your packet you're going to see the five-year capital needs plan for shoreline metro and you're going to see There's a whole lot going on in 2022 and then after that It looks pretty clean and that's because we moved a little we move some projects around I'm happy to report that out of the 12 buses. We were granted We're funding 10 of those vehicles and purchase orders have been issued for those 10 vehicles Within the last couple of weeks and now we are anticipating a delivery schedule of late summer early fall of 2022 for those vehicles So your approval on these items is is a matter of formality I'm I'm getting this to kind of late. I actually the ball's already been rolling in the capital improvement committee But I did want to review this with you as these projects have been technically approved in Previous years and previous capital improvement programs So just for your review in future years, there's a couple pair of transit vehicles that are scheduled We have a partnership with Sheboygan County who also purchases vehicles for us on the demand response pair of transit side of things You'll see they're italicized which means that's their responsibility or their Their program year to purchase those vehicles. So aside from 2022 has made your purchase of around four point Six million dollars. You aren't going to see many capital projects for transit in the next five years. So Yeah, good question Chad asks. What does the 12 buses do to the total fleet? I would imagine in in terms of useful life and and condition and stuff So back back prior to 2019 We were driving Buses that were beyond useful life as considered by FTA, which is usually 12 12 years or 500,000 miles We don't think of our cars driving 500,000 miles, but buses their workhorses they 500 is I kind of say it's usually breaking them in because they can go much longer than that if you keep up on maintenance But in 2019 prior to receiving new vehicles our fleet was 75 percent past useful life that basically means two things We're we're driving around high maintenance vehicles meaning that they're very very costly and very inefficient to operate and then also Low low reliability. So when you have that high of a number Past useful life, you start to see both of those things happen, which is really what we were seeing happen To put in perspective here over the last couple years with receiving the five buses in 19 the one bus in 2020 That we got through Volkswagen mitigation and then the 10 that are going to be coming in 2022 That couple with the five buses that we have from 2010 will mean that 100 percent of our fleet is under useful life So we in a matter of three years will have gone from 75 percent past useful life to a hundred percent Within useful life. So that's a that's a tremendous stat and that's a credit to not only my team but Transit Commission City of Sheboygan and the capital improvements program for making that happen in such a short period of time That answer your question Chad. Okay question questions for Derek are getting the capital improvements proposals They're filledy Yeah, you have on there that there are 35 foot buses is Are those the larger buses and are they as fuel? Economic as the shorter ones Really when you come to fuel efficiency, there's there's really no such thing in mass transit buses Whether you're referring to the the smaller vehicles. Yes, you're going to get better gas mileage on a smaller paratransit type bus They're lighter. They're cut away. There's a lot of fiberglass and and in frame But you don't get the useful life on them those typically run about five years a hundred thousand miles or seven years 150,000 just depending upon where you're at. So you don't get you don't get the capacity you don't get the You don't get the longevity and the robustness of a fixed robust So you have to eventually Purchase more or spend more on those buses long haul The reason why we do stick with the or I should clarify maybe a 35 foot bus as opposed to mass transit or fixed rail buses that are 30 feet in length We used to have a Set of about five buses. Yeah, five 30 foot buses, which are 24 passenger buses. That's the lowest Size bus that you'll see in a mass transit system in a fixed rail system When you look at those vehicles as far as gas mileage, there's no difference between those and a 35 footer You can get you can get buses about 40 feet plus then you can get the One that looks like the accordion, I can't remember the name of it You know, you probably know when you're in Chicago the articulated articulated buses. That's it So when it comes to fuel economy You're going to get a little better on the paratransit buses and you are on the fixed route But the fixed row buses are going to be a lot more robust. They're going to last a lot longer We switched over to all 35 footers a couple years ago because of the fact that we had ridership growth Over the last is it nine years since I've been here We've increased ridership by 54 percent and part of that was the development of our SASD school agreement We could not put 30 30 foot buses in service because the capacity was just too great We actually found it much more cumbersome because we had to take these out of the we had to take these out of service Mid-morning and mid-afternoon because we couldn't put enough kids on board That or we needed to put more drivers out there, which is a very costly venture to add buses out into revenue service So we bailed on the 30 footers and we got all 35 footers Which allows us to essentially put between 50 and 60 students on a bus comfortably and yes under normal circumstances five six of our nine buses in the afternoon will hit that capacity so That kind of gives you a little bit more update on it But the fuel economy has a long ways to go in general on buses. It's just not something you typically look at But all of our newer buses All of our buses next year will essentially be clean diesel buses After we get this next replacement so emissions are going to be very low Fuel economy is going to be still you know if he but they are newer buses So that should improve as well over the buses that we have and just to give you a comparison We are running 19 18 and 19 year old buses right now. We actually have eight of those in fleet And they're pushing 700,000 miles. So that's what we're going to be replacing next year Additional questions is there motion to accept? I'll make a motion to accept Motion by Barb second by Chad further discussion mayor, I'd just like to add that with the approval of the The capital improvement request they then are included in the city's general capital improvements program That does ultimately get approved by common counsel and it's our these items are already included into that program All those in favor, please say aye Aye Opposed chair votes. Aye. That's approved 3.2 first quarter 2021 reports for shoreline Metro in the parking utility. All right. Thank you mayor Just to kind of maybe give a little bit of an overview here. Yes, COVID 19 and the coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted ridership on shoreline Metro for Sarah and Heather and maybe Barb 2019 was our highest annual ridership total in close to 20 years We approached almost 700,000 trips When I started here our first year of ridership was 470,000 So that's where the 54% increase comes in and so When the pandemic hit unfortunately, we weren't we weren't going to get to that 700,000 mark as much as we wanted to So the pandemic has has impacted us our ridership was down 45% in 2020 compared to 2019 and now in 2021 we're in that rebound phase where more and more people are starting to use transit for A number of reasons granted schools back in session jobs you name it people just feeling more comfortable and safe to take mass transit In your packet, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna Diver too much away from the report, but in your packet I did include and I'll come back in the director's report, but I did include a summary on COVID-19 for you guys That you can read as to how we battled the pandemic To very important things that we were very proud of was that we were not linked to an outbreak In our organization both for our employees and for our customers And we didn't have to cancel any service due to a lack of Drivers and staff so two things we were very very proud of But for the first quarter Compared to the first quarter of last year ridership is down 51% It's going to be a little bit higher right now because of the fact that We're we had all three months This year We're all in the pandemic whereas all three months on the first quarter last year Or the first two months were in the pandemic and half of the third month was in the pandemic In revenue is down 28% At this point as well Let me see here COVID like I said continues to impact ridership and revenue March revenue is up 27% over last march. So we're hoping that's a positive indicator of recovery and returning to normal The pandemic has reached the 12 months and so future reports now are going to be Comparing pandemic numbers with pandemic numbers Revenue trips for the quarter were 9.38 trips per hour Again, I apologize. I'm rambling numbers off that probably mean very little at this point But again, I hope to educate and work with you guys in the future to help understand some of our performance indicators And so the that was the fixed route 51 down ridership but up and or sorry revenue down 28% Metro connection was very similar Ridership was down for the quarter by 38% with revenue down 35% For most of the quarter Actually, all of the quarter We shifted all of our fixed route Saturday service over to demand response that was provided by metro connection So that contributes to the ridership down on the fixed route side But does help with the ridership up on the metro connection side And hence why there's not as big of a decline in ridership in the first quarter on on pair transit And then I have some same some similar stats here for metro connection the the trips trips per hour are significantly down again And then parking utility revenue Was down for the quarter by 30% You know, it's it's one of those things that We're we're not really sure what that's going to track and how that's going to track It's always positive when we see more and more people downtown. Obviously businesses are back opening Restaurants are getting busy So I think naturally that that rebounds going to happen But I think most of our revenue is probably down in parking permits right now and and that is I think related to people working from home yet to not being back in the office and some of our major employers downtown So In your packet you do have the report for transit and the report for parking utility You'll see this report each quarter and the numbers will fill in as we go along so With that I ask if you have any questions on the quarter reports Any questions for for dere? Not yet, but I will later The report motion to accept the motion second any further discussion Seeing none all those in favor, please state aye Hi Anyone opposed chair votes aye. Thanks, director The director's report then 3.3 Thank you, mr. Mayor First thing on my on my report I did want to spend just maybe a little bit of time on this Just to update you on some things that are going on I don't want to spend again too much time on the kovat 19 stuff. I did Provide you with the white paper that was put together Serving customers during a pandemic. I actually spoke at a chamber first friday forum Weathering the storm and I put this one pager together for that As to how we combated The the coronavirus pandemic and we're able to continue providing service throughout the entire Time to those that needed essential services Including transit So if you have questions on that I'd be happy to take it at the end But I do want to go into a couple of the other items. We Every three years were required to go through what is called a federal triennial review And that's put on by the by the federal transit administration Region five out of chicago Is our oversight region? And I was happy to say that we were able to meet with them yesterday Virtually it was a a little over a five-hour session on zoom So if you've ever done a zoom call before that was officially my longest But nevertheless, it was a very successful day going back We originally supposed to have this review in august of 2020, but due to the pandemic it was pushed out And we were able to complete it yesterday We will have our final wrap-up session two weeks from this thursday. I think that's the third if i'm not mistaken In that at which time we will find out if we have any deficiencies Or any findings as they call it Back in 2017, which was our last triennial review We had a perfect triennial review with zero findings I'm not going to get too optimistic, but i'm pretty certain we probably are going to get a zero finding triennial review this time again Very successful a lot of a lot of work went into it over the years between my staff and Many city departments. So again, thank you for that and I will be sharing that results with you guys As soon as I receive that I'm number three. I've already talked about bus purchases with you gives you a little bit more details As to those purchases For those that were on the commission prior. I've I've updated on a possibility of the town of shabuagan Opting in for transit services that has since been halted And they have put that on the back burner again. So we will not be pursuing any transit relationship with the town at this time But we remain open should they change their mind and and want to Start that dialogue again We recently worked with our union the union that represents the Drivers and the maintenance staff at shoreline metro. It's the amalgamated transit union local 998 To revise the current wage scale for our paratransit operators And the creation of a utility worker position I put some minor details in here But due to the fact that the agreement hasn't been officially signed yet I'm not releasing the the full details of it, but I will say our paratransit drivers. We're making under market value for their services in comparison to other transit systems and Forecasting hiring needs in the next Year or so and knowing where the current conditions are what other relative Like retail manufacturing our hiring at we needed to bump up our wage to stay competitive And still be able to hire excellent and qualified individuals. So we adjusted our wage scale Up slightly for our drivers both current and new hires And so that we can again continue the success of hiring Well qualified safe and and awesome team members for our team And then we also create a new position. It's a utility worker position that allows individuals to perform maintenance duties as well as drive buses both on our fixed road in our paratransit Over the years. We've been trying to take down the silos Meaning that employees were assigned to either driving fixed route or paratransit or performing late maintenance duties We've we've gotten rid of two of the silos and that was that we were able to Have drivers do both paratransit and fixed route The last maneuver here is to kind of tie in those late maintenance duties and offer the opportunity for drivers to fill in Doing some bus cleaning fueling of buses things like that So we've entered into an agreement to make that position possible, which will add a lot more flexibility to our part-time staff so Those items will be signed off and incorporated into the current labor agreement Hopefully making us a much more attractive option, especially for those entry-level driver positions. So Number six our harbour center express was a trolley route Will commence on june 14th and run through september 4th Our trolleys that we currently have were retired Retired because they are tired We are trying to get one back up and running just to get us through But i'm working with chad and city administrator wolf on hopefully procuring a new trolley Use probably trolley to be used in our service But we do for for you guys that that don't know we do offer a trolley route throughout the South pier riverfront and downtown areas throughout the summer It's been a very successful venture for us over the last couple years So we wanted to keep that tradition going especially after last year when we didn't offer the service So hopefully we can rebound that service this summer by Opening it up again and and making it better than ever And you'll see in your packet. I think there was a row guide for the harbour center express. Is that true? Yes, okay. Good. Thank you A couple more items hot spot is my next item here. I'm currently in discussions with a mobile payment company called hot spot Um, they offer mobile payment solutions for both transit and for parking many many individuals or many companies like this in the industry have primarily focused on one or the other but hot spot has Has elected to go and incorporate both Which is very attractive for us. Um, so I've started some discussions. We are going to have a Presentation later this month that brings in additional city officials The the police chief christa magowski and city administrator. Todd wolf will be able to attend that as well Because obviously there's the enforcement side of it So it's not just parking utility doing the operations. It's Also our police department who does the enforcing And their cso's that do allow the customer service downtown. So it's it's really a triangle That makes up our parking utility So we really need everybody on board finance operations and police To make mobile payments happen. So hopefully we'll be moving ahead on that And getting away from the Slowly just coin collecting in the meters. I know everybody that parks downtown would like a mobile Payment option. So we're excited to hopefully work through this and put a solution together that makes sense for this for the city Um Last item that I really have for you guys on-demand service. Um, so during the pandemic we Experimented with using on-demand service instead of fixed-route service Um, that was kind of alluding to maybe barb's question about using smaller buses instead of bigger buses It's called right sizing public transit. So we we started looking at areas where we can right size And perhaps provide on-demand Services very similar. I don't like to use the word uber or Taxis because I like to think we'll do it better. But It is a cost sharing ride sharing program That we would like to try to develop and that would better service perhaps areas of shabuigan Our growing industrial park on the south side and then also our partner Minincipalities with the village of kohler Increasing their needs and different areas for public transit services in the city of falls as well that shares in those things So we're looking at developing a third transit option at this point that Most I wouldn't say most in wisconsin, but probably most systems across the united states are starting to look at it Also known as micro transit If you've heard that term before too so very exciting project on my staff and I have been Tinkering with over the last year during the pandemic and we hope to Bring that out and make that a reality here either layer this year early next year And then lastly just want to say thank you to everybody I know you guys are new and maybe it didn't feel like you had a hand in everything but No going forward that you're going to have a significant hand in assisting Myself and my staff with shoreline metro and the parking utility And again, I'm excited to work with you guys. So thank you for being a part of the transit commission And don't hesitate to contact me if I can ever be of service to you guys. So with that, mr. Mayor I am done with the director's report Thanks, derek appreciate it questions for derek As they're about to accept the director's report second motion by chad second by bar additional comments Seeing none all those in favor of accepting the report. Please state. I I Anyone opposed chair votes. I that's approved. Thank you, derek. We've exhaust the agenda next meeting will be determined Is there motion to adjourn Second motion second to adjourn all those in favor of adjourning. Please stay die Hi Anyone opposed chair votes. I we're adjourned at 5 35. Thanks everybody