AGENDA #5g
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Request for $15,000 for Community Bicycle Loan Program
DATE: September 11, 2006
PURPOSE
This memorandum responds to a request for funds to set up and operate a community bicycle loan program. We recommend no action.
If the Town Council decides to approve the request for funds, adoption of the attached resolution would require that the petitioners enter into a performance agreement with the Town for the provision of this service. The resolution would direct the Town Manager to begin discussions with the petitioners to prepare a performance agreement requiring acceptable records and regular reports to the Town Council. We would prepare a performance agreement for the Town Council’s consideration as a follow-up to this report. We recommend that any requests for funding be for joint funding from the Town of Carrboro and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Further, we recommend that this be considered a pilot project, which would be evaluated during the upcoming budget cycle.
On June 7, 2006 at the Public Hearing on the Recommended Budget for 2006-2007, the Council received a request for funds from Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Operations Manager of Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), concerning a proposed Community Bike-Loan Program. A complete description of the program, its goals, costs and revenues is presented in a copy of the petition in Attachment 1.
The proposal is to provide an alternative service of transportation for citizens, commuters and visitors to Chapel Hill, using a “hub” program where users check out a bicycle from an attendant at a hub. The proposed hubs are to be at businesses, in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and on the University Campus. Ten loaner bicycles (30 bikes total) would be available. Users would register for a fee and get a program identification card, and then visit any of the designated hubs around the community to sign out a bicycle. These programs work like a lending library for bikes. Please see Attachment 2 which describes several community bike loan models that have been tried in the United States and overseas.
The June 7 request was for a total of $15,000: $5,000 in start up costs and $10,000 annually for operations. The program is also seeking $4,000 in start up costs and $9,000 annually for operations from the Town of Carrboro. The program is scheduled to begin in mid-September, 2006. For $10 a year, program members can borrow a bicycle for up to 24 hours.
Attachment 3 is a Budget Working paper dated June 7, 2006 from the Finance Director to the Town Manager. It advises that the Town has no way of estimating the likelihood of the program’s success, nor the appropriateness of the requested funding for the program, and did not recommend funding the program at that time.
The Budget Working paper recommended that the request for funding be referred to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board for consideration and a recommendation to the Council. It advised that if the Council ultimately decided to fund the request, the Council’s contingency account would be available.
On June 27, 2006, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board received a presentation of the proposed program including business and financial plans from Dennis Markatos-Soriano of SURGE and Chris Richmond of the “ReCYCLEry". The ReCYCLEry is an association of volunteers that receive donated and abandoned bicycles and parts, and work with members of the community that want a bicycle to repair them.
The Board endorsed the goals of the program and supported the request for funds to start up and operate the program. Please see Attachment 4.
DISCUSSION
A theme of the Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan is to work toward a balanced transportation system. The plan seeks to shift the emphasis from the automobile to other means of travel, such as walking, biking, transit and park and ride to achieve a multi-modal transportation system. The plan seeks increased use by non-automobile forms of transportation. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan adopted by the Town as part of the Comprehensive Plan in October 2004 also includes goals to encourage greater bicycle use in the community.
Since the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in May 2000, the citizens and the Council have pursued initiatives to protect environmental resources with an interest in identifying actions to reduce carbon emissions. On June 27, 2005, the Town Council pledged to enter a Carbon Reduction program and agreed to commit to a preliminary goal of a 60 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
The petitioners believe that the proposed Community Bicycle Loan Program is consistent with these themes and recent Council actions.
KEY ISSUES
The primary consideration of this request for funding concerns the appropriate use of public funds for this service. North Carolina law provides that Chapel Hill resources be used for the benefit of Chapel Hill citizens and to pursue the adopted goals of the Town. While the proposed service would operate in Chapel Hill, it would also provide bicycles from locations in Carrboro and at the University. We believe that the beneficiaries of the service would include the students and faculty at the University and the citizens of Carrboro. We believe it would be appropriate for the Town to contribute for services benefiting Chapel Hill citizens.
The Town generally does not provide grants to community organizations, it provides funding dependent upon community organizations entering into performance agreements with the Town. The agreements allow monitoring and require acceptable records and regular reports to the Town Council.
Secondary considerations of this request for funding concern the likelihood of success of the proposed operation. Of the community bike loan models described in Attachment 1, the hub program would appear to have a better chance for success in the Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and UNC community. There are several challenges to creating a successful hub program. The following section outlines the issues concerning program operation and describes how the program intends to address them:
Comment: SURGE in partnership with the ReCYCLEry will run the Community Bicycle Loan Program. SURGE is a tax exempt not for profit organization, and the ReCYCLEry is affiliated with SURGE. SURGE was established in 1998 and is a network led by students, but not limited to students, dedicated to achieving social, economic, political, and environmental justice through collective education and action. The ReCYCLEry is a completely volunteer, community organization based in Carrboro that teaches community members to fix their own bikes, rebuild bicycles from donated bikes, and maintain their equipment. Since its founding in 2000, the organization has rebuilt more than 500 donated bicycles.
Staff of SURGE will administer and promote the Community Bicycle Loan Program. We understand SURGE will provide 10 hours per month for nine months at $10 per hour ($900). Staff of the ReCYCLEry will provide and service the bicycles. The ReCYCLEry will provide 15 hours per month for nine months at $15 per hour ($2,025). Attachment 1 provides details of the program’s projected costs and revenues.
The proposal is for staff at the hubs to be paid to check bikes out, assuming on average five bikes per day for $10 per day.
Comment: We understand the program will locate hubs in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and at the University. Locations for the hubs are currently being sought; we understand one is set at the Skylight Exchange on West Rosemary Street, a second location is anticipated at the Three Cups also in Chapel Hill and there are currently several options for a campus location. We understand that the businesses and the Carolina Environmental Program directed by Professor Douglas Crawford Brown are willing to participate and bicycle storage facilities will be provided at all three locations.
Comment: We understand bikes will be obtained and returned to the hubs. Bikes will be maintained with a monthly tune up. For nine months, 30 bikes at $40 a tune up ($10,800). Maintenance will be at be performed by staff from the ReCYCLEry visiting the hubs. The program will be administered from the SURGE office and memberships will be available from the SURGE office at 105 West Main Street, Carrboro, the ReCYCLEry at the intersection of Daffodil Lane and Old Pittsboro Road and at the hubs.
Comment: We understand the petitioners are presently seeking liability insurance. Safety education flyers and riding tips will be provided with the bicycles. We understand that helmets will be available with the bicycles and riders will be encouraged to wear a helmet.
Comment: The petitioners advised that funding is essential to the program for labor, equipment, liability insurance and administration. In addition to the request to the Town of Chapel Hill for $5,000 in start up costs and $10,000 annually for operations; the program is also seeking $4,000 in start up costs and $9,000 annually for operation from the Town of Carrboro. Unfortunately, the request for funds came late in the FY 2006-2007 budget preparation process. Although, funding would be available from the Council’s contingency account if the Council decides to fund the request for 2006-2007. At present the Carrboro Board of Alderman has not received a formal request for funds. The petitioners advise that they could run a program in 2006-2007 by limiting costs to maintaining the bicycles and paying for liability insurance if funding can only be obtained from the Town of Chapel Hill. The petitioners are currently also seeking grant assistance from other parties for the program.
We believe that the proposed Community Bicycle Loan Program is consistent with the alternate transportation theme of the Comprehensive Plan and the Town’s pledge to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas.
As with other requests for funds from other community organizations, we believe that if the Town Council decides to approve the request for funding, the benefit should be for Town citizens and the funding should be based on the expectation that the operators can institute the program proposed. Funding should be dependent on the petitioners entering a performance agreement with the Town. The agreement would require evidence that the Town citizenry will benefit and require acceptable records, monitoring and regular reports to the Town Council. We believe that any funding should be limited to the request for 2006-2007 and evaluated during the upcoming budget cycle. For funding beyond 2006-2007, it would be for the petitioners to prove the success of the initial program, and the Council to agree.
We also believe that if the program is to be successful in the long-term, with the benefits to be shared by the wider community, similar to Chapel Hill Transit, funding must be provided by both the University and the Town of Carrboro.
We understand that if only Chapel Hill funds the program in 2006-2007, it could proceed, but would be more reliant on the goodwill of the hub businesses and the staff of SURGE and the ReCYCLEry.
RECOMMENDATION
Manager’s Recommendation: We recommend no action at this time because of the uncertainty estimating the likelihood of the program’s success, and because of the use of Town funds for a service that extends beyond Town limits.
If the Town Council decides to further investigate contributing to the bicycle loan program, we recommend that the operators enter into a performance agreement identifying the benefit to Chapel Hill citizens and requiring acceptable records and regular reports to the Council. The details of a performance agreement could then be provided as a follow-up report for the Council’s consideration. Further, we recommend that any request for funding should be for joint funding from the Town of Carrboro and the University.
Adoption of the attached resolution would direct the Town Manager to begin discussion of a performance agreement and encourage SURGE to pursue University and Town of Carrboro funding
ATTACHMENTS