VALPARAISO | It now appears the city will not be ready to roll out its express commuter service to Chicago's Loop until late 2008 at the earliest.
Stuart Summers, executive director of the city's Redevelopment Commission, told the commission Thursday that plans to start the service in the spring by acquiring used buses that would have to be retrofitted to meet requirements for handicapped accessibility would cost more than buying new buses.
The trouble is, the city can't have new buses delivered until the end of 2008. The city also is going to have to seek another funding source to pay for the buses. It's application for federal transportation funds was rejected because the money was given to Minnesota for replacing the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed recently in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Summers said the commission's grants consultant Janet Cypra suggested the city ask the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority for the funds to buy the buses.
Knowing the service can't start for more than a year has some benefits. Instead of having a temporary bus station built by developer Jake Wagner's JET LLC at the southwest quadrant of Lincolnway and Campbell Street, the commission and Wagner can concentrate on a permanent structure and the necessary parking lot.
The city will be able to use the lot through the end of 2009, at which time it would have to find an alternative site for the 100 spaces. Wagner is planning to build a combination commercial/residential development between Lincolnway and the railroad tracks from Campbell to Joliet Road.
Finding a site for the parking is a problem despite an expected $1.1 million in federal congestion mitigation and air quality funds the city is seeking. A hearing on those funds is to be held in October. Originally intended for the extension of Campbell through to U.S. 30, the city now plans to use them for parking and lighting improvements around the bus station, a project the city believes is more acceptable to the Federal Transportation Administration.
In the meantime, the commission plans to hold a public hearing at its Oct. 11 meeting to discuss expanding the tax increment financing district to include the transit oriented development district it hopes to create around the new station.
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