RDA offer doesn't require GPTC to shut down

A final offer on merging Gary's bus service with a regional system does not require Gary Public Transportation Corp. to go out of business, but calls for an outside consultant to work out the "nitty-gritty" of consolidation.

The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority forwarded its "last offer" to GPTC Wednesday, according to RDA Executive Director Bill Hanna.

"The goal is to take the best of all the systems and combine them so that riders and payers will benefit," Hanna said.

Despite the lack of any firm requirement that GPTC go out of business, a two-page memorandum of understanding prepared by the RDA calls for terms for one unified transit system to be in place by April of next year. Under the memo's terms, the RDA will select a consultant to work out details of GPTC's consolidation with the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority.

A committee made up of representatives from the GPTC, RBA and RDA will then implement the consolidation.

The next GPTC board of directors meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Oct. 7, at the Adam Benjamin Metro Center. The board of directors has twice before rejected proposed consolidation memorandums from the RDA.

GPTC General Manager Daryl Lampkins was not available for comment Wednesday.

The RDA continues to offer GPTC the immediate carrot of $950,000 in funding this year and $900,000 next year if it signs the memorandum. The RDA funds will flow to the Gary bus agency through the RBA.

Earlier this month, GPTC drastically cut service on some routes in response to an ongoing budget crisis at the agency. A severe drop-off in tax revenues from $2.6 million collected just three years ago to $700,000 now is the largest factor behind the bus system's current crisis.

The RDA is hustling to get a consolidation memorandum signed and the merger process started before the Indiana General Assembly convenes in January. It hopes to work with all region bus agencies and Indianapolis' IndyGo bus service to secure an added source of operational funding for bus services statewide during the session, Hanna said.