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Editorials
Yorkville funding cut could affect Oswego : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisYorkville funding cut could affect Oswego
| 2/21/2013
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As we reported last week, the City of Yorkville-the city that will pay $120,000 this fiscal year for health insurance benefits for four of its part-time aldermen-is considering dropping its membership in the KAT (Kendall Area Transit) program.
Mayor Gary Golinski said city officials are considering leaving KAT because it can no longer afford to spend "$30,000 a year for a program that serves about 400 residents."
KAT is the first public transportation service to operate in Kendall County in nearly 50 years. To participate in KAT's dial-a-ride program, riders must first register their names with KAT and then are charged fares ranging from $3 to $5 for rides in the county and an extra $2 for rides outside the county.
Prior to the start-up of KAT in 2010 we frequently heard from county residents-especially senior citizens-about the need for some form of public transportation in the county. Those calls increased over the past decade as the county's population more than doubled to over 113,000. Based on ridership numbers reported by both Yorkville and Oswego officials, we're certain that KAT is providing a vital service to many county residents. We strongly suspect that a significant number of KAT riders use the service to get to the store or to medical facilities in the county and to hospitals in nearby Aurora.
Shortly after KAT began service in April of 2010, Paul LaLonde, the programs' director, estimated that roughly half of its riders were using the service for transportation to medical facilities.
Though U.S. Census Bureau data shows Kendall County is affluent compared to many other Illinois counties, there are those among us who are poor, elderly or disabled and cannot afford transportation of their own. Who are they to rely on if they have no friends or family to take them to that next doctor's appointment or to the store for food?
The possibility that Yorkville might withdraw its membership and funding in KAT should be a concern to Oswego officials. The village joined KAT as a member municipality this past fall under terms of a three-year agreement. At an annual cost of $80,000, KAT not only extended its dial-a-ride service to the village's 33,000 residents, it also provides weekday bus service to the village's Metra Park-n-Ride facility.
If Yorkville now pulls out of KAT, it will not only leave a few hundred city residents in need stranded without a dependable form of transportation, it may result in Oswego and other KAT member municipalities having to pony up more money each year to keep the service in operation.
Golinski suggested it's hard for the city officials to justify continued funding for KAT when it is serving only a few hundred of the city's residents. That argument doesn't hold water. If city officials were to apply that line of thinking to other municipal services they should also consider pulling funding for the police, public works, library and parks departments. The vast majority of city residents-thankfully-won't call the police for service this year and many others won't visit the city's library, drive down streets in the next subdivision or visit the city's parks. Still, they'll all pay the city to keep these departments and the services they provide in operation. Combined, the services make Yorkville-and any other municipality-a desirable place to live and work. Public transportation for those in need should be included in that mix of necessary public services.
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