By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos County Council unanimously approved the Atomic City’s five-year transit plan during its regular meeting Tuesday night.
The plan includes several recommendations, which are:
Increase in Route 1 Peak services, as staffing will allow;
Discontinue Route 2 Peak services;
Support the Saturday service concept recommendation as staffing will allow. Micro-transit options with limited fixed route are identified as the logical service to pilot;
Support for the Route 2T – second loop from 3-5 p.m. to adjust for traffic congestion;
Redesign Route 3 to include service to Western area and redesign Route 1 to include service to Camino Entrada area for hourly service;
Support early morning micro-transit services as staffing will allow; and
Recommend Route 5 Range Road be serviced as on-demand.
Councilor Randall Ryti voiced his support for the plan.
“I appreciate the work that’s gone into this … I appreciate also the opportunity to continue working on refining this … I’m looking forward to getting feedback from the community as we implement something that’s been long desired and I guess tentatively funded 3-4 years ago – the Saturday service is something I am looking forward to seeing how that is used,” he said.
Council Chair Denise Derkacs agreed.
“I too am looking forward to the Saturday service and I echo the recommendation that if we are able to hire more drivers that we can look to adding more services in the future…,” she said.
According to the staff report, the Short-Range Transit Plan affords the County to take an in-depth look at the existing transit systems, identify the optimal manner that transit can meet the public’s needs, and identify where transit resources should be devoted.
In terms of ridership numbers, the plan reveals that the number fell from 446,836 boardings in Fiscal Year 2019 to 42,739 in Fiscal Year 2021. However, the number increased in Fiscal Year 2022 to 193,686.
Transit Manager James Barela reported during Tuesday’s meeting that hiring drivers continues to be an issue. He said four new drivers were hired but still have five driver positions open.
In other business, council:
Introduced an ordinance that would raise the County’s gross receipt tax by half percent. If approved, the raise would go into effect July 1. A second ordinance also was introduced that proposes raising the gross receipt tax by another half percent, which would go into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
Introduced an ordinance to amend Chapter 31 of the County Code, which addresses procurement. The amendment would increase the threshold amounts for certain approval authority. The ordinance also proposed amending Chapter 40 of the Code, which deals with utilities, to remove an incorrect reference to the state procurement code.
