[milwaukee-electric] Streetcar crisis: (today's Kenosha News)

[LouRugani]

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City seeks comment on proposed cuts in bus and streetcar service
BY MATTHEW OLSON

molsonATkenoshanews.com

Some city bus routes and streetcar service may be axed as the city looks for ways to save money.

The city's Transit Commission will meet at 4 p.m. Friday at the Municipal Building, 625 52nd St., to discuss the 2010 transit budget.

At the meeting, the commission is seeking public comment on four proposed cuts:

— Discontinuing bus route No. 36, which stops at Southport Plaza, White Caps, Indian Trail Academy and Kenosha's industrial parks.

— Reducing route No. 6, which goes from downtown to Indian Trail, to a morning and afternoon, school-days-only route.

The respective elimination and reduction of these routes is estimated to save $263,422 in labor, fuel and tire costs.

Route No. 36 saw 4,920 passengers in 2008, an average of 5.6 passengers an hour. Route No. 6 saw 71,614 passengers in 2008, 42,979 of which used student passes.

— Shutting down the electric streetcars in January, February and March.

— Discontinuing all transit activities on Mondays from July 26 to Aug 23 as part of proposed furloughs for next year.

The No. 36 bus was fairly quiet on Wednesday afternoon, with several students and industrial park employees riding.

Patrick Smith and Rebecca Taylor both work at EMCO Chemical Distributors, 9114 58th Place, and have used this bus to get home for the last few years.

Smith said not having the bus route could mean riding a bicycle to work year-round.

"Obviously, that would be really difficult in the winter," Smith said.

Smith said he would be willing to pay a higher fare if that meant sustaining this route.

Ami Miljkovich, a student at Indian Trail, said she has relied on the route since the school year began.

"This is the only bus that goes from ITA to where I kind of live," Miljkovich said. "If it weren't for this bus, I wouldn't have been able to get home the whole year."

Streetcar shutdown 

Alderman Don Holland, chairman of the Transit Commission, said completely shutting down the streetcars for an extended period of time could have maintenance consequences.

"To stop completely would cost us money to bring the streetcars back into service," Holland said. "Electrical systems in streetcars like that don't do well when they're idled, and there's some buildup of corrosion."

The city estimates the shutdown would save about $65,000 in labor and energy costs.

About 4,600 rides on the city's streetcar system were taken January through March this year, 2,577 of those rides in March.

Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman said the proposed furlough cuts are part of mandatory citywide furloughs.

"We spread the budget solution over all of the departments because we did not want to affect one department so much that services would be drastically cut," Bosman said. "We tried to balance the budget with an avoidance of cuts for protective services, which I think we have succeeded in doing."

The transit budget will be reviewed as part of the city's complete operating budget by the Finance Committee at 5 p.m. Monday.

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