SALISBURY – The Salisbury City Council committed additional financial support this week to Shore Transit for a new program with a more formal agreement to come.
An ordinance amending the Fiscal Year 2015 General Fund Budget to appropriate additional funding to support the Shore Transit Circulator Program came before the council for final approval on Monday evening.
New this school year, Salisbury University and the City of Salisbury formed a partnership to connect Salisbury University students with downtown Salisbury by offering transportation via the Shore Transit trolley.
“The Shore Transit Circulator program has been determined to be extremely beneficial to downtown. The City’s FY 2015 budget does not contain an appropriation sufficient to cover this expense,” the ordinance states.
Shore Transit was able to obtain $50,000 in grant money for this project through a Maryland Transit Administration operating grant relating to economic development, which funded 80 percent of the operation with state and local money covering the remaining expense.
According to the ordinance, the FY 15 Budget included a $16,000 appropriation to support the Shore Transit Circulator program. However, after further review, an additional $21,000 is needed to support the program during FY 15.
Discussion regarding the program’s benefits continued from first reading prior to the council casting their final vote.
“It is not entirely self-sufficient. The public is looking at this wondering if it is worth their money, and to build downtown improvement I am going to stretch and say, yes it is,” Councilman Tim Spies said. “I don’t think people are going to be too happy if we continue to make this a taxpayer funded event. We need to make it pay for itself and get the people who directly benefit from it, which are the downtown merchants and everybody on the route, to pony up and make this happen. It is not an outrageous amount for all the vendors to give a little bit towards it.”
The city also needs to look toward the businesses to provide data to verify the operation as successful, or not, Councilman Jack Heath said.
“Is there a return on investment for this,” Heath asked.
Council President Jake Day acknowledged a more active partnership between the city and Shore Transit needs to be formed and some sort of kind of mechanism to track the number of Shore Transit riders traveling downtown should be established.
“Moving forward from here we need to have a conversation about how we interface with Shore Transit, and pull Salisbury University into that partnership. This has been largely completed on a handshake but maybe need a detailed MOU to move forward. This is the city’s first foray into transit in decades. Without expertise we should lay the ground rules out,” Day said.
Councilwoman Laura Mitchell pointed out next fiscal year’s budget discussions are approaching and the city is in need of more information if it’s looking to continue funding Shore Transit.
“We need to know what those objectives are and make sure the people that will be able to give us those facts are on board, because they are ones that are benefiting, and if they are not willing to give us that information then what are we doing this for,” she said.
The council voted unanimously to approve the additional funding to support Shore Transit Circulator program.
“We will make a note that we will work with the administration to identify a time and process for meeting with Shore Transit and Salisbury University to have these conversations,” Day said.