Gary, Hammond, East Chicago bus companies may merge by July

BY SUSAN BROWN, Times of Northwest Indiana 
sbrown@nwitimes.com

HAMMOND | The Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority will meet next week with Hammond officials on a transition plan to consolidate the Gary, Hammond and East Chicago transit services as instructed by the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

RBA Executive Director Tim Brown said while he and Hammond officials have had some preliminary discussions, they will hold their first formal meeting on Wednesday.

Expected to participate are representatives of Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., the City Council, Hammond Transit System and its contracted bus provider, First Transit.

Brown said a transition plan involves multiple issues. Each transit service's property assets, personnel and contractual obligations need to be determined as part of the consolidation, he said.

Brown said he already has met with Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, only part of the board of the Gary Public Transportation Corp. and a financial consultant.

"The mayor himself does not control the board," Brown said. "They are a separate entity."

The board members present at the meeting had many questions and left the meeting saying they would get back with him, Brown said.

Hammond Transit Director Keith Matasovsky said the consolidation plan differs from that presented to the City Council last year where the RBA proposed taking over the bus systems gradually over a three- or four-year period.

Since then, Hammond Transit lost its bid to be funded through 2009. Service in Hammond has been reduced and is set to end entirely by July 1. "We're (now) wanting to do it before Hammond goes out of business," Matasovsky said.

In not funding bus service with tax dollars this year, McDermott and the council had agreed to support it with gaming dollars through June in anticipation of the RBA receiving funding to regionalize bus transportation.

Most recently, at the council's first meeting Jan. 12, a motion to adopt a resolution sponsored by 2nd District Councilman Al Salinas in support of a food and beverage tax to support bus service failed to even receive a second.

"I was dumbfounded," Matasovsky said. "I have no clue why that didn't pass."

When Northwest Indiana Community Action Corp. shut down its on-demand service last week, the first of the area's bus services to fold, Matasovsky registered dismay. "It's looking more discouraging that it has looked to me for a while," he said.

He questioned why the RDA's millions hadn't been specifically allocated toward its four-fold mission, which included the Gary airport, South Shore rail, busing and the Marquette Greenway project.

"Then there would be no need to pass new taxes," he said of the funding quagmire the RBA is facing.