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News
Buses delivered for Kendall transit service : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisBuses delivered for Kendall transit service
| Rides won't be available in Oswego, Montgomery due to funding
| by Matt Schury
| 10/29/2009
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Five buses arrived last week for Kendall County's new KAT program (Kendall Area Transit), with two more expected to arrive on Oct. 30, according to Jeff Wilkins, county administrator.
Rides are slated to begin in December, Wilkins said, with the program covering most of the county.
"Hopefully they'll be out for the holiday season," Wilkins said.
The larger buses can seat 22 people and the smaller buses can seat 12 passengers.
The county board voted to acquire the buses more than a year ago and contributed about $50,000 for the purchase. However, most of the money came from $320,000 in federal grants that went through Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).
While the county owns the buses, the DeKalb-based Volunteer Action Center is in charge of the vehicles and maintenance.
"We thought we would have them a year ago," Wilkins said of the buses, adding, "We're pretty excited now that it's finally happening."
Instead of set routes, the buses will operate based on requests for the service.
He said the county will set up a toll free number and riders need to call 24 to 48 hours in advance to schedule a trip.
He said service is open to all residents of the county, but there is a priority.
"Priority is for those that are disabled or elderly for medical trips and shopping," he said.
He added that there will be connections to Metra and Pace services outside of the county.
"People are going to be able to really access a lot of transportation," he said.
On the financing side, Wilkins said the county has gotten funding commitments from Aurora, Plattville, Sandwich, Millbrook, Plainfield, Plano, Minooka, Yorkville and Newark. The county has collected about $22,000 in operations funds from those communities with Plano contributing the most at $17,000. Wilkins added that the county board has committed $41,000.
However, Wilkins noted that Oswego, Joliet and Montgomery have not provided any matching funds for the program and have not passed resolutions of support.
Under guidelines, based on population, Oswego-the county's largest municipality with a population of 29,012 as of last year-would have to contribute $44,000 a year to participate in the program.
"Services wouldn't be available in Oswego," Wilkins said, adding, "Initially to have the service in your area, the community needs to be a sponsor community."
Wilkins adds that he remains hopeful.
"I believe Montgomery may very well come on and I believe Oswego too, But if we were to start right now, no," Wilkins said. "They have to make a decision about whether they want their citizens served or not. It's a board decision," Wilkins said.
Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq said that his board was approached by Wilkins for a financial contribution at the 11th hour of their last budget meeting in March.
"We had an unbalanced budget that we had to work on and so the last thing we were going to do was add new obligations," he said. "None of us said 'Hey this is an evil idea.'"
He added that the board wasn't ready for a long-term commitment to the expense.
"We don't want to commit to something unless we have all the T's crossed and I's dotted," he said. "There were a lot of mitigating circumstances that went into this, but I don't think we were in a position at that time to commit the resources that were being asked," he said.
LeClercq added that if it was a $2,000 or $5,000 decision they wouldn't hesitate, but they were asked to put up the largest amount of money.
"There was no set number before us for the next number of years so this could go up dramatically,"
LeClercq said he empathizes with Wilkins and knows he has been working on the project for a long time.
"I appreciate that (Wilkins) has and that hasn't gone unnoticed," he said. " But I think this transportation thing became a victim of circumstance.
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