Durango Transportation Director Sarah Hill said the city is aware of the high demand for late night transportation.
So what is the game plan?
Hill said the city has launched a public process to expand the city’s transit service.
“We received a significant amount of COVID relief funding to maintain and operate transit,” she said. “We’re in an exciting period of being able to imagine what expanded transit will look like in Durango and hear the updated needs of the community.”
The biggest barrier to expanding current service circles has to do with the worker shortage.
In December, Durango Transit launched a recruitment and retention program for transit drivers using COVID-19 relief funding for transit, Hill said.
It is offering sign-on bonuses of $5,000 ($2,500 paid at 90 days and $2,500 paid at the one-year anniversary) to full-time drivers who sign up by Jan. 31, 2022.
“Existing full-time drivers who commit to staying with Durango Transit for a full year will receive a $5,000 cash incentive,” Hill said.
Part-time transit employees also qualify for a $350 per-month incentive for each month they are scheduled or available to work 10 days a month, up to 12 months.
The city is paying for new drivers’ commercial driver’s license training.
Four positions are open and need to be filled before transit services can expand, Hill said.
The Transportation Department is updating its multimodal transportation plan as well. That was last updated in 2016, before the Buzz Bus toured its last route.
The department put out an online survey to collect resident feedback and will keep collecting public comments until 2022; the next step is to hire a consultant to help Durango Transit compile the information. The goal is to create an updated multimodal transportation plan by the end of 2022, Hill said.
She said Durango is a “very engaged community,” and the process of gathering public sentiment, suggestions and concerns has gone well.
“We recognized that there are some barriers to transportation, that there is need, and we are excited to be in a position to be able to start addressing some of that with the COVID-relief funding that we have,” she said.
The lodgers tax that was increased in spring is also contributing to the transit department’s funding. The Transportation Department receives 20% of the lodgers tax, adding up to about $500,000 annually, Hill said.
Durango Transit received CARES Act funding from 2020 and 2021 to the tune of just over $800,000. It also received a CRISPA Award of $1.4 million that will be put to use in 2022.
cburney@durangoherald.com
