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Show Main Street Trolley or Silver Lake bus service: something's got to give by Christopher Smart Somehow, somewhere, something some-thing got to give. That was the message given to Main Street merchants by Park City Transportation Director Kae Draper Tuesday evening. The merchants have been lobbying the city council for a trolley which would run up Main Street from the future site of the Old Town lift. The trolley would also serve proposed parking facilities in Swede Alley. The council is now preparing its annual Capital Improvements Bud- get. But Draper told the group at the monthly meeting of the Historic Main Street Association that proposed propos-ed expenditures for transportation service now outweigh revenues by $353,000. A diesel-powered trolly-like vehicle ve-hicle running on conventional tires would cost about $130,000. Annual operation and maintenance of the trolley would cost an estimated $10,000. Draper said. Other requests for capital expedi-tures expedi-tures in the .city's mass transit division include new bus routes into the Silver Lake region of Deer Valley and the addition of eight year-round bus drivers. Presently the city council is being pressured by Deer Valley interests who want Silver Lake bus service next season. As outlined to the merchants, such service would cost $170,000 for the 1985 fiscal year which runs from July 1 of this year to June 30, 1986. Draper's outline included $90,000 for the purchase of two four-wheel-drive buses which must be able to negotiate the steep and winding curves on Royal Street. She characterized the road as hazardous. Annual operating costs for those vehicles would be about $33,000. Also proposed under capital improvements was the addition of eight full-time bus drivers. The city now employs only two full-time drivers with the balance of the bus fleet operated by seasonal employees. employ-ees. Draper said she wanted full-time, full-time, year-round employees because it is difficult to retain good drivers on a seasonal basis. The additional man hours and employee benefits would mean expenditures of $60,000 in the 1985 fiscal budget. Together, the proposals for the trolley. Silver Lake bus service and additional manpower total $969,000. On the other hand, revenues from sales tax earmarked for mass transit, business license fees and allocations from the general fund come to only $616,000. Draper told the group something had to go. Not included in Draper's budget were possible federal grants for mass transit. She explained that the city will not know until October whether funds will be granted to Park City. The federal government is cutting such grants by 73 percent, . this year, she added. City Councilman Bill Coleman urged the merchants to continue lobbying efforts for the trolley by attending the public hearing on the Capital Improvements Budget to be held April 11 at 5 p.m. in the Marsac Municipal Building. |
