WRTA reaches golden year
YOUNGSTOWN — For decades, the Western Reserve Transit Authority has made it easier for many Mahoning Valley residents to get to and from, but that priority will be expanding a short distance down the road.
“We got a state of Ohio grant to run six (additional fixed) routes in Warren,” Dean Harris, WRTA’s executive director, noted.
He was referring to a $560,000 Ohio Department of Transportation grant that will return temporary fixed-route service in Warren beginning Dec. 6 and take riders along Parkman Road, Mahoning Avenue, Elm Road and other major corridors in the city. Those will run through November 2022.
The grant also will fund routes to North Jackson and Lordstown. Specifically, the latter will provide service to the TJX HomeGoods Regional Distribution Center and the Ultium Cells LLC battery manufacturing plant, Harris explained.
He was among the officials who took part in a special event Friday morning at Federal Station, 340 W. Federal St., downtown, to celebrate WRTA’s 50th anniversary.
In August, four large-bus Warren routes had to be discontinued because previous grant money that funded those operations expired.
WRTA buses make about 1.5 million trips annually. The vast majority of users travel to and from work as well as to medical and other important appointments, officials said.
WRTA also has been a vital force in aiding economic-development investment and capital projects over the years, Sarah Boyarko, the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber’s chief operating officer, said. Along those lines, the chamber has worked with the bus company to serve the North Jackson business community, she noted.
The transit authority also has partnered with the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments on a variety of such projects, Mirta Reyes-Chapman, ERCG’s chief operating officer, noted.
Harris recalled that in the 1970s, property taxes were a key funding source after the state had passed laws allowing for the creation of regional transit authorities, and Youngstown approved a resolution to form the WRTA.
More recently, the WRTA received local funding, courtesy of a 0.25 percent sales tax Mahoning County voters approved in November 2008, Harris noted. The tax now generates about $8.5 million per year, he said.
Also, WRTA officials are working on a Market Street Transit Oriented Development plan, which is a collaborative effort among the company, the city and Boardman Township. The TOD is examining transportation and community needs along the corridor as a means to attract additional new investment and development in the corridor, including high-density housing and retail space, Harris explained.
The study also could justify securing grant money to build improved shelter areas at bus stops, he continued.
Harris added that before the COVID-19 pandemic, WRTA was offering about 7,000 trips per day from Youngstown. Today, that figure is about 4,500 daily trips.
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