Published: August 26, 2008 10:19 pm         

Council votes to increase funding for agency’s transportation system

Beckley Common Council voted to increase the city’s funding to the Raleigh County Community Action Association’s public transportation program after the organization cited financial strain from skyrocketing gas prices and other fiscal concerns.

Council unanimously voted to approve $35,000 in funding for the year. Mayor Emmett Pugh said the city normally provides $30,000 in funding to RCCAA every year, but the organization’s leaders have cited more financial concerns.

In a letter to Pugh, RCCAA Executive Director Bobbi Thomas-Bailey said the organization has been strained by soaring gas prices and the 27.2 percent increase in the minimum wage. This comes at a time when the public transportation program has seen an increase in riders every year. The RCCAA had more than 53,539 boardings in 2007, an increase of 3,926 over 2006.

The transportation program has been able to overcome the expense increase without sacrificing services, Thomas-Bailey said. However, pending increases in personnel expenses, gas prices and an aging bus fleet has required RCCAA to ask for more funding.

Funds allocated from the city will be used as a local match for two federal grants, Thomas-Bailey said. A portion will be used as a 20 percent match to purchase vehicles, and the remaining allocation will be used to match a grant from the Federal Transit Authority.

“I personally don’t have a problem with this,” Pugh said. “I do know their costs have gone up, and the bus service has been utilized more than it has been.”

In other matters:

Pugh presented representatives from the Beckley and Fayetteville Lowe’s stores with Community Service Awards. Pugh said U.S. Army Capt. Matt Fitzwater, now serving in Iraq, contacted him earlier about providing care packages to soldiers.

The soldiers, Pugh said, needed home improvement items and tools to do their day-to-day work, which includes teaching Iraqis how to help themselves. Pugh spoke with Lowe’s representatives about possibly providing discounted items, but they provided an estimated “several hundred dollars” in battery chargers, screwdrivers, saw blades and various other items free.

Councilman A.K. Minter asked Police Chief Tim Deems if he had again heard from the state Division of Highways. Minter would like to see the DOH install lighting around the New River Drive and Robert C. Byrd Drive intersection.

Deems said the DOH would have to do a traffic study.

“The state likes traffic studies,” Pugh quipped.

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com