The Town of Black Diamond is just weeks away from launching its shuttle service, but there’s much work ahead from deciding on fares to choosing a name.
Earlier this year, the Town entered a partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Foothills to operate a handi-bus/community shuttle service that will provide transit within Black Diamond and to its surrounding communities.
Administration has been working to determine such factors as what fares to charge, what decals/designs to put on the buses, what to name the shuttle service, when and where to operate the buses and who to make the service available to, said chief administrative officer Sharlene Brown.
The Town is currently in the works of signing an agreement with the Foothills Boys and Girls Club, she said.
“There’s a lot of little pieces we’re still trying to get under our hat,” she said. “We have to get these logistical things figured out. We expect to have it completed in a month.”
In 2018, the Town partnered with Turner Valley to establish the Black Diamond and Turner Valley Community Transportation Strategy with help from a committee comprised of councillors, administration and members at large who hosted open houses, workshops, surveys and meetings with stakeholders and citizens.
The strategy, presented to both councils last year, recommends the Towns implement an on-demand transit service that would run two days a week with the Towns equally sharing the capital and operating expenses.
After Turner Valley council chose not to move ahead with the strategy last December, Black Diamond council directed administration to explore partnership opportunities with other stakeholders.
Black Diamond council passed a motion on June 17 directing administration to develop details and prepare an agreement with the Boys and Girls to establish a handi-bus/community shuttle service, focused mostly on providing transit for seniors, and bring the information back to council for consideration. The details are expected to go before council in early October.
Council also approved the purchase of two handi-buses for the program.
Over the summer, the Town purchased two one-year-old commercial passenger buses equipped with wheelchair lifts at $55,000 each from Southland Transportation. They were lease-back buses the Town of Okotoks had used for its pilot public transit program.
Ten per cent of the cost was covered by the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF) and 66.6 per cent by the Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP) fund, leaving a remaining balance of just under $13,000 each, which was paid for from an account the Town had set up two years ago for an inter-municipal transit program.
“We’re really looking forward to launching this service,” said Brown. “People who have barriers to transportation will have some form of accessible transportation within our community.”
To help cover this year’s operating expenses, Black Diamond council agreed at its Sept. 16 meeting to reallocate the $5,491.25 in the Family and Community Support Services’ Community Access Program operating account into a new transit operating account.
The Community Access Program subsidized the Diamond Valley Taxi and Foothills-Okotoks Seniors Shuttle, but both programs have since ceased and the account hadn’t been used since July, Brown said.
“Before we’re ready to launch the service we do need the dollars to operate,” said Brown. “We’re moving into a transit program, but it has no operating dollars. There is some pieces that we do have to pay now that we’ve got the buses. Insurance is one and we have no money to do that.”
The service is estimated to bring in a revenue of $3,978 this year based on regular shuttle service to Okotoks, two round trips per week from the High Country Lodge to the doctor’s clinic, one round trip per week from Turner Valley to Black Diamond, six trips to Calgary, one trip to Longview for the Light Up display and one to Calgary for Zoo Lights.
Administration is hoping to collect $1,500 from sponsors – whether it be businesses, service clubs or organizations - with the potential to place their logo put on the buses, depending on the size of donation.
“If any organization or business wants to support and endorse a handi-bus service to help reduce the operating costs on an annual basis we would love to hear from them,” Brown said.
Expenses for this year are estimated at $11,218 to cover such costs as bus decals, advertising, a mobile phone for the driver, insurance, registration, fuel, maintenance and the contract with the Boys and Girls Club.
The $7,240 difference will be partially covered by the $5,491.25 transferred from the Community Access Program, leaving a balance owing of $1,749.
