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Story Archives: Council considers hiring $75K employee for city transit system


Council considers hiring $75K employee for city transit system
posted Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 @ 10:14 pmE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
The Monroe City Council was asked to approve spending $75,000 in federal economic stimulus money to hire a Florida woman to oversee special projects for the Monroe Transit System.

Monroe transit has received $1.7 million in federal economic stimulus funding for several transit projects throughout the city. Of that amount, roughly $80,000 can be used for an additional management position to oversee the new projects.

If approved by the city council at its next regular meeting, the woman would oversee special projects for a year.

Monroe Transit general manager Valerie McElhose introduced Janet Willis to the city council Tuesday during the council's regular meeting.

Willis currently works for a transportation planning organization in Florida.

The city is working with First Transit to bring Willis to Monroe. First Transit is a national firm that specializes in passenger transportation contracts and management services.

"Because we have been given this money at 100 percent, we have the ability to bring someone in to manage special projects, and we feel like First Transit will be able to offer a temporary, one-year person, who will come in and manage these projects," McElhose said.

While Willis' main focus would be the special transit projects funded by the $1.7 million federal stimulus dollars, McElhose anticipates Willis would be available to help with other activities at Monroe Transit.

"That will free me up and I will be able to go out and build new routes and do other projects while this person assists me," McElhose said.

One of the first projects Willis would tackle would be adding new bus stop signs throughout the city of Monroe.

Monroe Transit also is in the process of upgrading the technology on the city's buses by adding digital recording equipment and global positioning systems.

"There's all kinds of other projects like that which she would help out with right off the bat," McElhose said.

Monroe Transit also plans to renovate its operations facility and possibly construct a new terminal in a centralized location within the city, she said.

Over the next few years, McElhose anticipates Monroe Transit will acquire more federal funding for additional projects. She also believes the city will see its ridership increase substantially.

"I see us becoming this regional hub, a leader, if you will, in transportation for this area," she said. "I think people will soon see the difference."

"We are always looking at our community, which is the city of Monroe, but we are also an urban area, and the federal government assigns us dollars based on urban areas," McElhose explained. "This urban area stretches outside the city of Monroe. Our routes already extend outside city limits."

In the near future, McElhose sees Monroe Transit serving neighboring communities such as Richwood, Swartz and others.

"That's what I see us doing to increase our ridership," she said.
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