SPRINGDALE — The Ozark Regional Transit Board of Directors voted 9-0 Thursday not to renew a contract with First Transit, which acted as outsourced management for the regional operation.
The contract with First Transit is in its seventh year and ends Dec. 31. The cost this year is $467,412.
Fast Facts
Ozark Regional Transit
• There are 10 routes operating on a daily basis.
• The authority provides six different route services in the four major cities, as well as Interstate 540 express services and rural demand services to residents in Madison, Benton, Washington and Carrol counties.
• At peak service, 16 vehicles are operating throughout the Northwest Arkansas area.
• Shuttles run from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. except for Route 54, which runs from NorthWest Arkansas Community College to the University of Arkansas’s Lot 56 until 10:10 p.m. on weekdays when school is in session.
• Buses can be chartered for personal use, but because of public funding and Federal Transit Administration law, local charter businesses have to be notified and can seek the charter first.
• The authority operates on about a $2.7 million contract.
• Go to ozark.org to find more information, transit schedules and pickup stations.
Source: Staff Report
The board also voted 9-0 to begin negotiations to hire in-house management and staff. The resolution directed the board to ask if Joel Gardner, the current First Transit general manager for the authority, is interested in staying on as an Ozark Regional Transit employee.
The board hopes to save as much as $150,000 to $200,000 with in-house management, said Jerre Van Hoose, board chairman.
Van Hoose said members chose to move to in-house management so they could use their resources more effectively. They hope to provide more services and increase ridership.
“We believe we’re of the size now where we need a direct in-house management so we can set performance expectations as a board instead of contracting them,” said Don Marr, board member. “We can better target our audience. We don’t think there will be a negative.”
Plans call for increasing services and extending routes to rural areas of counties. The transit service only offers rural on-demand service currently, Gardner said.
First Transit paid $15,000 to move Gardner to Springdale in November 2012, said Bill Harned, area vice president of First Transit.
Ozark Regional Transit was operated by Community Resource Group, a Springdale private nonprofit organization, until 2001. Ozark Regional Transit Authority then hired First Transit Inc., which provides management services for transit operations, in 2006.