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RVTD faces service cuts But district won't make decision for 2-3 months By JIM DAVIS The cuts are coming, but where they'll hit is anybody's guess. Rogue Valley Transit District officials won't decide for at least two to three months how to cut service to make up the loss of more than a third of the district's operating budget, said Sherrin Coleman, RVTD manager. "We will lose some service," Coleman said. "What that is, I don't know." Voters last week rejected RVTD's request for a five-year, $1.25 million-a-year operating levy. It would have cost $17 a year for a owners of a house valued at $100,000. It was the seventh time in a row that voters failed to support the district. The levy, which amounted to about a third of RVTD's operating budget, would have replaced a $1.5 million federal grant that ends in August and has paid for five of 12 RVTD routes. It also would have helped pay for several new buses. Rogue Valley residents will give RVTD more money when traffic problems force them to, said Monte Grove, the area manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation. "The reality is in the Medford area people can still get in their car and get pretty much anywhere they want to go," Grove said. "Pretty soon, that's not going to be the case." The routes funded by the federal grant from the Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality program have given more than 120,000 rides in the grant's first year -- about 329 per day. The routes financed by the grant serve the South Gateway Center, Rogue Valley Mall, Rogue Valley Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical Center. However, Coleman said the popularity of those routes may mean the district will cut elsewhere. Coleman said she hasn't had any feedback on why the request failed. No organized groups opposed the measure. "I think it failed just like the others because there were so many money measures on the ballot," Coleman said. "People were very careful about where they spent their dollars and they weren't very generous with them." She said she doesn't think RVTD was haunted by image problems. The agency came under criticism two years ago, when its general manager was fired; it had seven managers, but only nine drivers. Coleman took over RVTD, and the agency and Coleman last month were honored as the top transit system and top manager in the state by a transit association. Dan Moore, the traffic program manager for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, said that he "was not greatly surprised, but disappointed" by the lack of support for the levy request. Moore said voters will start paying for the service when they start using it because of traffic congestion and air quality. He said that when transit is easier than driving a car, then RVTD will get its support. For now, Coleman is just worried about the people who rely on RVTD every day. "I'm really concerned about our ridership," Coleman said. "They depend on us to go to work to go to school and to go to the doctor." RVTD may get grants today The Rogue Valley Transit District failed to get money last week from voters, but it may get some today from the state. RVTD is applying for $1.2 million in grants to build a transfer station in south Medford and to add park-and-ride areas in Central Point, Talent and Ashland. The request will be heard today at a meeting of the Rogue Valley Area Commission on Transportation, said Monte Grove, area manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation. "If it gets approved (locally), it's pretty much a sure-fire thing," Grove said. The grant would pay for improvements across the district from 2000 to 2003. The majority would pay to build the park-and-ride areas. The largest chunk of the money -- about $295,000 -- would pay for a transfer station near the South Gateway Center's ice-skating rink. The station would have bicycle lockers, parking spaces and an attendant. "It would act as a central location for bicycle, car pool and vanpool and transit connection," said RVTD Manager Sherrin Coleman. The transfer facility would serve Talent, Phoenix and south Medford. It would be the second transfer station in the district. The first is in downtown Medford on Front Street. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA