Beadle County commissioners meeting
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
HURON – People’s Transit, a transportation lifeline for individuals of all ages, is on pace to replace two to three vehicles per year in a capital improvement plan to retire the agency’s high mileage buses, the executive director said Tuesday.
“We currently have federal money awarded for a total of six new vehicles, which will upgrade our aging fleet significantly,” Gayle Kludt said.
In an annual report to Beadle County commissioners, she said People’s Transit is auctioning five buses online that have been released by the state. Revenue from those sales will be used as the local match to leverage federal dollars to purchase a new bus.
Kludt said one seven-passenger van has been ordered. The local match is being paid for by the Business Improvement District.
A handicap-accessible van, not ordered as yet, will have the local match paid for by United Way Heartland Region, she said.
Also, two buses have been ordered.
“They are configured to be either 17-passenger or flip three seats up to become 11-passenger, two-wheelchair buses,” Kludt said.
Their cost will be $73,025, with the federal mtach at $58,420 and the local match being $14,605. Kludt said Auto Body Clinic has committed to the local match for one vehicle. The agency is still looking for a local match for the second bus.
“We have received federal grant money for two more buses,” she said. “I am waiting for the state to procure bids on transit vehicles, which would be smaller and more economical.”
Businesses, agencies and others who provide the local match for the vehicles are granted advertising rights on the vehicles. It means their message not only is seen by people in Huron, but in the surrounding small towns People’s Transit serves and a number of major cities in eastern South Dakota where transit drivers regularly transport riders.