Pekin isn't quite ready to renew its annual intergovernmental agreement with CityLink to provide public bus service in the city.
After about a half-hour of discussion Monday with CityLink General Manager Kofi Kesseh and Director of Operations Ken Boddie, the Pekin City Council decided to table a vote on the agreement until Oct. 26.
That should provide enough time for the council's unanswered questions to be answered by CityLink.
"We have to polish things up in the agreement, to say the least," said Pekin Mayor Mary Burress.
The current agreement, which expired June 30, will continue until the late October council meeting and the city will make its quarterly payment of $52,500 toward the not-to-exceed $210,000 annual cost of the bus service.
One major point of contention between CityLink and Pekin is who's responsible for maintaining the bus stops in the city.
The current agreement says the city. But communication from CityLink to the city has repeatedly given the responsibility to the bus company.
"That's what we've been told because CityLink has all the parts for the shelters and things," said Pekin City Manager John Dossey.
Council member Rick Hilst said a CityLink shelter in front of the UAW Senior Center on South Parkway Drive is in terrible shape and has been that way for a while.
"That was brought to everyone's attention a year ago," he said. "[Most] of the panels are pretty much shattered out of it and it's still sitting that way."
Another of the council's major concerns with CityLink appears to have been addressed.
A council vote on the agreement was initially set for July 13, but members tabled the item because there were no CityLink representatives at the earlier meeting.
Oil on the road around the CityLink bus stop in front of the Tazewell County Courthouse was mentioned at the July 13 meeting by Burress and council members.
Burress said she informed CityLink about the problem a year earlier.
Kesseh said he watched the July 13 council meeting on video, listened to the criticisms about the oil, and took quick action.
"The next day, I issued a directive to my utilities facilities team to clean that up every two weeks," he said. "I told my team to be sure to lift what's being cleaned so it doesn't go down drains.
"The oil on the road is a result of our old fleet. Some of our buses are quite old. When they're running all the time, that can happen."
Council members Karen Hohimer and Dave Nutter asked if small buses could be used on routes within Pekin.
"I struggle to see a bus with room for 75 to 100 people driving by with four people in it," Hohimer said. "It seems like a waste of fuel and adds weight on the roads."
While Kesseh said the idea can be explored, Boddie said it's actually more fuel-efficient to use large buses in Pekin because small buses would have to return to Peoria to re-fuel often.
The proposed agreement between Pekin and CityLink requires the transit agency to continue providing bus service from 7:45 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. Monday through Friday. A Pekin-to-Peoria connector route runs 12 times daily. Two Pekin routes each run 11 times daily.
Complimentary ADA paratransit service will continue to be available anywhere within three-quarters of a mile of the three routes.
CityLink officials say the Pekin-to-Peoria route is on time 78% of the time, and the Pekin North and South routes are on time 90% of the time.
There are an estimated 100,000 rider trips annually in Pekin. Kesseh said that doesn't mean there are 100,000 riders annually. It refers to riders getting on and off the bus.
Pekin's $210,000 annual payment to CityLink funds only about 28% of the nearly $744,000 cost for the city's bus service. CityLink — officially the Greater Peoria Mass Transit District — fills in the annual shortfall of about $553,000 through other funding sources like grants and subsidies.
The cost to operate the Pekin bus service without federal funding and revenue from fares is about $2.2 million annually.
