By Joe Pinchot
MERCER COUNTY — Fueled by high gasoline, diesel fuel and lubricant costs, the budgets for Shenango Shuttle Service and Mercer County Community Transit are much higher than Thomas R. Tulip would like.
“I’m not happy with the budgets, but we balanced the budgets,” Tulip, executive director of Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, which runs shuttle and transit, told the COG board Tuesday.
And, he balanced them without asking shuttle’s municipal partners — Sharon, Farrell, Hermitage, Sharpsville and Wheatland — to raise their operating assessments, or riders to shell out more cash, although a fare hike is possible later in the year.
On the shuttle side, COG hopes Mercer County commissioners will agree to come up with about $8,400 more for a total contribution of $40,000.
The $844,000 shuttle budget is up 13.4 percent over this year, and the $1,505,795 transit budget is up 7.3 percent. The budgets run from July 1 to June 30.
Tulip said he expects shuttle and transit will end this year with small carryovers. While reducing the transportation deficit — which was $582,683 as of June 30, 2006 — has been a priority, Tulip said he will not take much out of it this year, and expects it will be at about $150,000 when the audits come in later in the year.
Fuel and lubricant costs, while significant gainers in the budgets — up $45,000 to $200,000 in transit and $20,000 to $75,000 in shuttle — still do not compare to the costs of personnel, including salaries and benefits.
In the shuttle budget, personnel and benefits take up more than $77,000 of the more than $90,000 budget increase. On the transit side, people and benefits take up more than $53,000 of the more than $102,000 hike.
The increases primarily come from wage hikes and the addition of a second administrator. Last year, former Transit Manager William A. Jones was set to make $56,167. This year, transit Operations Manager Michael Nashtock and Administration Officer Jill Boozer each will make $41,600. All of Nashtock’s salary comes from the transit budget, while Ms. Boozer’s is split between shuttle and transit.
COG Office Manager Kim DiCintio said benefits costs such as hospitalization and worker’s compensation insurance have held steady the last couple years.
Once the audits are completed, COG officials will start looking at a fare increase, which could include requests for more money from the state, riders, or both, Tulip said. Fares were last raised in 2005.
Nashtock said he also is studying whether gasoline or diesel engines are more cost-effective. If, as it appears, gasoline engines are more efficient, he would look into converting bus diesel engines to gasoline. He noted that gasoline engines do not need to be heated during the winter when they are not running, as diesel engines do.
COG currently pays $4 a gallon for diesel and $3.50 a gallon for gasoline.
Tulip said COG also is looking into the feasibility of running a daily bus to Boyers to serve Mercer County residents who work for the storage companies located there.
Ridership has remained steady, although the generally declining population in the county does not bode well for ridership in the future, Tulip said.
