Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Greg Gates shares updates from Reagan Mass Transit District

Transcript

Talk Line: Greg Gates shares updates from Reagan Mass Transit District · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sog Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: w I XN. It's eight sixteen on your Wednesday morning,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and that means it's time for talk line and I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: joined in the booth once again by our good friends
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: from the Reagan Mass Transit District, Greg and Marcus. Gentlemen,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: how are.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: You good sir?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: How are you fantastic? We were talking about the weather
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and trying not to jinx it too much, so get
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: out and enjoy the enjoy the eighties this week, you know.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: And speaking of which, there's there's always things moving along,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: getting brighter, and you've got some some bride updates on
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the addition of the White Side District, you know, counting
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to Reagan Mass Transit District, which is something we've been
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: talking about but been really excited to see this start
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to unfold.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You continue to see those sands, those granules of
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: sand to go through the hourglass and it's like, well,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: it's it's coming fast because obviously July first is not
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that far away. I think it's probably within thirty to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: forty days out, and so that means that we have
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: some stuff to still get done. We're working with Whiteside
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: County government in terms of the final agreement in terms
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: of the transition of not only personnel, but some of
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the other items that would be attached to that transit
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: program in Whiteside County. And so that is a lot
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: of focus right now. And we actually have a meeting
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: later this morning with not only the white Side County
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: officials but also I DOT officials, so State DOT, just
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: to give them an update as to where we're at.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But come July first, and I know that's a Wednesday.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I think of that week leading up to July fourth.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: July first is when the switchover actually occurs and phone
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: calls will start flowing over to us at two to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: ten Progress East Progress Drive here in Dixon, and the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: buses will be run by new drivers associated with currently
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the Whiteside County Public Transportation but now with Reagane Mass
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: trendsit District, plus dispatchers who will also be on site
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: enter two ten East Progress Drive helping us coordinate rides
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and not just Lee and Olgill, but now Whiteside County.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So it's becoming very real, very quickly. And I know
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: that Marcus is in the midst of that. He can
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: add his two cents as well about that transition. But
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: it's been going pretty smoothly as.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Of Yeah, yeah, I think it is going very well.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Like Greg said, we're closing in on just less than
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: or a little excuse me, a little over a month
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: before that's ready to go. Greg hit on a lot
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: of the key points. I think the most. You know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: one of the exciting pieces is that given the proximity
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: of Dixon and Sterling to one another, I think this
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: kind of opens up a little bit more direct accessibility
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: for both counties, and not only between Dixon and Stirling,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: but anywhere between Whiteside and Lee and Ogle County.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So we're really.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Excited for that. I'd be remiss if I didn't jump
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: in and say right that give in this growth of
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the district. We are also actively hiring for both, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: for a few positions mechanic drivers, et cetera.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So if anyone is.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Looking for rather a part time or full time role,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: we do have those employment opportunities on our website.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I know there's I'm sure there's people out
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: there who are in search of jobs, so that's really good.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: News right there. And I mean public transportation expanding, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: from Regan Mass Transit into Whiteside County is absolutely huge.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: We've talked about this many times before that you know
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of people may initially kind of associate public
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: transportation with larger cities and the need for it, but
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that's just not true. Anybody who's you know, has a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: single car even too. And you know, in this economy,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, unless you're kind of really well off,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: it can it can put you back, and it can
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: throw your whole world off. Excuse me if you know
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: one of your your vehicles going down and knowing that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you have that option, that's big.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And in fact, I would guess these days that
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: people are scratching their head a little more when they
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: pull up to the pump and they see four or
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: five dollars for a charge for a gallon of fuel,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: and if you're running a diesel even more. And one
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of the things that I would highly recommend for people
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to do is, I guess a couple of things. Either
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: give us a call and just talk about what our
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: services look like and what that process sort of would
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: entail in terms of scheduling rides with us. I think
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: it's far easier Marcus can jump in on this one.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: But I think it is a resource that's probably becoming
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: a little more valuable given the current economy, and I
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: hope that. I think. I read one story yesterday that
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: said the gasoline fixing of the pricing will probably not
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: get better until twenty thirty two, which is, you know,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: a little dot hunting as it's like, whoa, that's about
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: six years from now. Yeah, And you know, one thing
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: that an easy reach out for people as well. We're
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: going to be at City Market throughout the entire summer.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I don't think we're going to be there every week,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: but I think we're going to be there at least
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: eight to ten weeks. And if people want to come
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: up to the City Market booth here and Dixon on
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: those Wednesday nights and have a conversation or at some
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of the other public events that we're going to be
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: at and simply start a conversation about how do you
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: get involved and how do you get schedule rides for
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: either themselves or a loved one whoever, it might be
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: at least start the conversation and you know, gain a
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: little better perspective because like we've talked about Brandon in
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the past, is maybe somebody wants to eliminate one vehicle
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: from their household because of either they don't want to
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: repair it, or it's just becoming too costly and they'd
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: much rather find it probably a cheaper solution and more
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: timely with public transit. Yeah.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, you'll find examples of that everywhere, and it
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: makes sense here in our community too. I had a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: buddy when he moved to San Francisco for a job
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and started doing really well there. They wanted to offer
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: him a promotion, but they needed him to travel around,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and so they even offered to give him a company car,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and he said no. He said, I'm going to have
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to pay for parking, I'm going to have to pay
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: for repairs, for insurance, for gas and all of this
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: just because you want me to drive around to a
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: few extra places. He's like, in the public transportation, it's awesome.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: He's like, why would I do that? Yeah, it doesn't
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: make sense, and it's becoming again a solution. Public transportation
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: in this area is now it's a viable solution. You know,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: it's not just I mean when I was a kid,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: maybe I don't know as much about Reagan mass in
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: its history, so you can correct me because I was
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: just a kid, but I would just remember the what
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: was it twin city cab that was, you know, what
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I knew of public transportation and as a teenager. So
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: what this what we have now is I mean we're
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: on par with major cities.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think, as we also have discussed in
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the past, is what does that future look like for
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: public transit here in rural America? Certainly twin city cap
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: that model is like not a dying breed, but it's
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: mutating itself. Yeah, with the introduction of Uber and Lyft
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: and others like that even in rural America. And also
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: talk of even public transit doing either fixed routes or
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: you know, micro transit, which is very close and a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: very similar twin to the lift and the Ubers of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: the world. So is the model growing in rural America
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: for public transportation? Yeah, it's it's took on a completely
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: different facade I think than what we saw twenty or
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: thirty years ago.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But one that's been sorely needed.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's jump into into something fun time. We're
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: talking about swinging wrenches here even though I'm no Tiger Woods,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: your guys is golf outing. Yeah, So we have our.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Annual RMTD four wheeled golf outing that is coming up
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: on Friday, June nineteenth. So we have all types of
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: information about that event going on right now. So on
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: our website you can go on there look up we're
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: looking for We're still in need of some sponsors. So
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: if there's any uh, you know, organizations, businesses, individuals that
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: may be interested in sponsoring the event. That information is
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: on the website. You can also contact us at our
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: office eight one five two eight eight two one one seven.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: I know Greg mentioned a moment ago that we will
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: or a few of us will be down at the
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: City Market this evening. We'll have some flyers, brochures, et
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: cetera associated with that golf outing at the table there.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: So if anyone has questions, I mean, by all all,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: getting out and enjoying golf on a Friday afternoon is
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: never a bad thing, assuming the weather holds up. But
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: even if not, we can still go out and drive
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the carts around.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. I know my wife's like, you
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: don't even golf, why would you want to go and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I want to blast some good tunes, get
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: on the golf cart and just whack it like Happy Gilmore.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't care about anything else.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I know that one subject that people may or one
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: question people might have is what is the fundraising going towards.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And obviously periodically we'll have a need for different writers
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: who can't simply afford some of their regular transportation. We
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: like not being able to turn those people away. We'd
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: like to get them to those community resources to help
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: at least partially fund some of those rites and cover
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: those costs. And obviously, given the current economy, we're probably
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: going to face an uptick inn even more ridership in
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the coming year. And so those funds that are raised
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: last year, we were very fortunate to raise about twelve
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars that went back into that funding to be
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: able to support those writers. And again, as we've talked
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: about previously, transit deserts, you know, very real here in
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Leonogo County, Whiteside County. Not surprising either that there's those
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: pockets where there's a definite need because of one or
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: none vehicles in certain households or areas, and they rely
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: on public transportation or you know, the kindness of family
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: and friends to actually get them to and fro different
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: community resources.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is fantastic as if you have it, but
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: is you know, not as common a thing, and it's
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: not the same as knowing you have a dedicated mode
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of transportation. Also, so there you go. If any of
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you just needed an excuse to get out and hit
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the links, right, but you know you did at the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: last couple of weekends and just tell your wife, honey,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I'm helping people out.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: We've got make it a long weekend because June nineteenth
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: is a holiday, and it's like.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Wow, there you go. We've only got a couple of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: minutes left, guys, But I want to get these updates
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: on the Oregon Office construction.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: We are currently working through the process submitting I DOT
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: what we would say or what they would say is
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the pre award concurrence package. So effectively we've gone through
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: the process, the bidding process for general contractors with our
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: architect and engineering firm, and effectively we've chose the lowest
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: bidder who we have deemed to be eligible, and now
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: effectively that pre award concurrence package goes to dot To
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: say effectively, yes, we agree that the chosen general contractor
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: who's who, we would also recommend. So once they give
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: us the blessing, we will move forward with groundbreaking and
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: we'll start construction hopefully fingers crossed, and they're not so
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: distant summer months of this year, which we'll be very
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: excited to make happen.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely we'll be looking forward to that and further updates
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: on that. So Greg Marcus, thank you both so much
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: for coming in and the work that you're doing expanding
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: public transportation across the Sauk Valley. It's going to be
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: a beautiful thing. When we'd come back ten years after
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: these conversations to see what has been built, it's going
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to be insane. It will absolutely thank you guys,