Transit- Meeting Agenda (12/18/1997)

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SAMTD Board of Directors December 18, 1997 Page 2 3. Ridership...You will be receiving a complete November ridership report so I won't repeat the information here, other than to say that the upward trend is continuing, as we had an 18.7% increase in ridership over November 1996 and revenue was up 11.4°/a. The most drama±ic increase came on Saturday November 29, the first of our holiday fare-free Saturdays, where we realized a 69.7% increase in ridership over the same day las# year. 4. Fuel Update...Another one of those "who knows why" price quotes came in for the week of December 8~' with our diesel fuel bid coming at a seasonal low of 67.5~ per gallon. ThaYs a price we would love to see continue. 5. Courthouse Square Update...Due to the reassignment of duties on the Courthouse Square project I will no longer have an update as part of my monthly Board report. John Whittington, however, has been requested to provide the Board with weekly updates. 6. Employee 401a and 457 Investment Seminars...ln accordance with Federal Law and the provisions adopted by the Board when established the employees retirement/deferred comp. Trust, all employees are undergoing informational seminars in order to self-direct the investment of their funds. Each employee is also given the opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with the ICMA representatives regarding questions specific to the individuals retirement program. 7. State Fare-free Employee Bus Pass Program...The District is currently conducting an in-depth analysis of State employee transit needs and matching that with Cherriots capacity studies to determine the most efficient and cost- effective service needs, to be able to enter a partnership with the State to provide fare-free employee service. The program is anticipated to be underwritten by the State as a way to provide transportation altematives to its employees in Salem and to reduce the need for additional state parking facilities. Clarence Pugh is taking the leadership on negotiations with the State and John Whittington and his staff are doing the service analysis. We expect to have a proposal ready for Board review and submittal to the State by spring. 8. Shelters...The bids for purchase of new bus shelters will be received on Friday, December 12 and were scheduled to be on your agenda for this meeting. However, in order to give staff sufficient time to closely review all the bids we have delayed bringing the contract award to you until January. We currently have no shelters available for installation due to loss of our past supplier (he went out of business) and demand is increasing, so we hope to move as quickly as possible to have shelters manufactured and installed. 9. Strategic Planning...Due to the reassignment of Courthouse Square leadership there has been a significant increase in the workload being handled by the Planning and Marketing Division, as John Whittington shifts some of his 150