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Will cost $1 99,500 -in first year Sentir citizens to pay fuli fare By MICHAEL KNELL Free Press Staff Whitby wlll have a municipally run bus service starting on April 1. 1 At a special meeting of council, held after its regular meeting on Monday night, council decided to ac- cept the 10w bid of Charter- ways Ltd. to run the system, and include the service in the 1980 budget. The service will run five days a week (from Monday to Friday) from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a haif-hour epak period service twice daily fromn 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.M. Ini the first year the ser- vice wll cost $199,500 of which the net cost to the town will be $89,813. The remainlng $89,812 will be raised through fares and by a Ministry of Transpor- tation and Communications (Ontario) subsidy of $44,906. These costs are based on an MTC estimate of 500 riders a day and acciding to treasurer AI Claringbold the cost will go up and down with the ridership. Couincil also decided on the fare structure for the bus service. Aduits (including senior citizens) will pay 50 cents and students and children wilI pay 25 cents. Under the recommen- dations that council accep- ted, the town will purchase 200 bus stop signs and posts, as welI as the printing of transfers, fare boxes and shelters where required. Also, the buses will be allowed to make the left at Brock and Dundas Streets. The decision bas left two town councillors only 50 per cent happy. Barry Evans (Centre Ward) and Joe Bugelli (West Ward) both advocated a second option which would have seen the buses run from 7 a.m. to il p.m. with the same peak period ser- vice. Bugelli said that this was needed if the town was going to provide a proper service for those people wanting to use many town facilities such as the Iroquios Park complex, the public library or the Senior Citizen's Ac- tivity Centre. However, Regional Coun- cillor Bob Attersley said that if the system that was adop- ted is a success then the ser- vice could always be expan- ded to accomodate those people who want a night ser- vice. Claringbold told council that MTC studies show that public transit services are not as well used after 6p.m. or on the weekends and based on this the recom- mendation was made. Mayor Jim Gart.shore, a long-time opponent of the bus service, said that it was i"wiser" to go with the 7 a . m. to 6 p.m. option because if would be the period when the service would be used by more people. However, he stressed that he was stili opposed to the idea. one concern that the council had was what the system would do to the school bus service presently provided by the Durham Board of Education. According to available in- formation, the school board would not discontinue its ser vice until at least September and only then if it deemed the service provided by the town adequate. Any decision to discon- tinue school busing will only affect high students accor- ding to a report presented to council by the board. Bugelli was concerned that if the school bus system was discontinued, would the taxpayers get credit in the form of reduced school taxes. He was told by Clerk- Administrator Bill Wallace that school busing is 75 per cent subsidized by the province and that the remning 25 per cent would not be a substantial amount. Treasury department chairman, East Ward Coiin- cillor Joe Drumm said that council could not speculate on the board's action because it was not known whether they wouid find the Whitby service adequate. However, since the bus service will only serve the urban service area (people and homes south of Rossland Road) school busing will continue for students living in the northern areas of the town. The net impact on the tax- payer wilI be 1.4 milis on residential assessment and 1.6 milis on commercial and industrial assessment ac- cording to a report from Claringbold. This is roughly equal to $10 per household. d'l , . . . i*: .. 1, c., "i hik onal' or.rt io oun«e ors sée 3 ,P rt, h* b 10, get, s.ewers, h'ls'year'l", see page, 5 ei e