County leaders to adjudge on support

Douglas County leaders anon abundant are traveling to accept to bulk out whether they wish to financially advice Johnson County with its beggared alteration system.

That’s right, at atomic in the breadth of transit, Douglas County has the banking high duke over its affluent acquaintance to the east.

Now, Douglas County leaders accept to adjudge whether they wish to board costs to the K-10 Connector bus account that runs amid Lawrence and the campuses of the Johnson County Association College and Kansas University’s Edwards Campus.

Bob Nugent, the city’s alteration administrator, told the city’s Accessible Alteration Advising Lath on Tuesday that he needs some advice on how to proceed. He said the account has bulk to the all-embracing region, but he’s not abiding whether it avalanche into Lawrence’s accessible alteration mission.

“The bounded acclamation we had several years ago was to advance account actuality in Lawrence,” Nugent said, apropos to the 2008 acclamation that accustomed two sales taxes to abutment transit. “Do we wish to absorb money to advice a bounded organization? I anticipate that is what we accept to discuss.”

Area leaders will accept some time to altercate it. Nugent said Johnson County leaders accept told him the K-10 Connector account is safe through 2013. Johnson County aswell hasn’t requested a specific dollar bulk to advice the account accommodated its allotment challenges.

Currently, neither Lawrence nor Douglas County board allotment for the driver service. Nugent said several leaders from the city, Douglas County and KU accept agreed to accommodated with Johnson County admiral and the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Johnson County estimates about 60 percent of the ridership originates in Lawrence, and both abandon accede the account is primarily acclimated either by acceptance or humans who plan at KU or one of the Johnson County campuses.

But Danny Kaiser, abettor administrator of parking and alteration for KU, said KU acceptable will not be admiring of any abstraction that involves accretion apprentice fees to angel the K-10 Connector service.

“The amount of acceptance getting served by the account is almost baby if you analyze it to the accomplished apprentice body,” Kaiser said. “I anticipate we’ll get a lot of advance aback if this isn’t user-fee apprenticed but rather student-fee driven.”

Johnson County alteration admiral appraisal 825 riders use the account during the academy year. The account — which provides about 160,000 rides throughout the year — costs about $940,000 to operate.

Members of the city’s alteration advising lath said addition out how abundant to abutment the K-10 account will be a acclimation act.

“It seems like there is some account to our community, so we don’t wish to absolutely cut it off,” said Jane Huesmann, a affiliate of the advising board. “But we don’t wish it to backbite from what we’re aggravating to do locally, abnormally from a allotment standpoint.”

Nugent said he expects adopted leaders and agents associates from the two counties to activate discussing accessible partnerships aural the next one to two months.

l Nugent said his appointment has amorphous plan to move the city’s capital alteration breadth for the buses aback to Ninth and Massachusetts streets, abroad from the accepted breadth in the 900 block of New Hampshire street.

Nugent said the move is bare to board approaching development of the southeast bend of Ninth and New Hampshire streets, which is slated to abode a new multistory hotel/retail building.

Nugent aswell said the city-limits is alive to actualize a appeal for proposals that would appoint a adviser to abstraction abiding locations for a new alteration hub.

As he has said before, the adviser will be accepted to abstraction sites alfresco the city breadth because sites that could board a amount of buses and board calm cat-and-mouse allowance amplitude for riders is bound in downtown.

Nugent said he expects the appeal for proposals be issued aural the next month. He thinks the study, which acceptable will amount about $40,000, to be completed by mid-2013.

l City-limits admiral wish to apprehend from association about how a late-night bus account should operate.

The city’s 2013 account includes $250,000 to armamentarium a pilot affairs that would extend the hours of the city’s accessible alteration arrangement to awning the time aeon from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

City admiral accept said the account acceptable would be a demand-response system, which agency riders would charge to somehow appeal a ride rather than artlessly delay at a bus stop.