RTC staff seeks service cuts

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 | 8:53 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission will consider cuts to the countywide public bus system during its regular meeting Thursday.

RTC staff members have asked the commission board to approve reductions or changes to 21 Citizens Area Transit routes, including the elimination of a route serving Mesquite in the northeast part of the county.

The cuts are needed to help offset a $3.5 million deficit, staff members have argued. The cuts -- which would take effect in September -- would save about $1.5 million, the agency predicted.

The 2002 estimated budget of $95 million was hit hard by falling sales tax and ridership fares after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The move comes just weeks after the RTC emerged from a bitter strike and as the RTC staff and board ask for support for a proposed package of tax increases to support road and transit improvements.

Among the routes to be affected is Boulder City's route 116, which would lose its final two runs in each direction daily.

"You have to look at the routes that are least productive for the RTC and these are the ones that are going to be affected," said RTC board member Bryan Nix, also a Boulder City councilman.

But the biggest impact could be on Mesquite, which would lose route 602 -- its one and only bus line -- under Thursday's proposal.

"It's the only one we have. Politically, it's very tough," said Mesquite City Councilman and RTC board member Cresent Hardy. "We'd all like to keep everything great in our home town, but it's one of the lowest performers.

"We have to do what's fiscally responsible."

Hardy and Nix said the book is not closed on bus service to Mesquite or on future expansion of the bus system.

One possibility is to have a sort of "dial-a-ride" service that costs less to operate, Hardy said.

"This large bus out here has never made a lot of sense," he said.

RTC spokeswoman Heather Curry said public hearings will be held in Mesquite before the route is shut down.

Nix said that in the long term, the entire system will have to expand to meet the growing population throughout Clark County.