AGENDA #4f

MEMORANDUM

TO:	Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
FROM:	K. Stephen Spade, Transit Director Ken Pennoyer, Business Management Director
SUBJECT:	Authorization to Apply for Federal and State Grants for Public Transportation
DATE:	May 19, 2008

The attached resolution would authorize grant applications for federal and State transportation operating assistance, capital and planning funds for 2008-09.

BACKGROUND

The Town has applied for and received federal and State transportation grants since 1974. These funds have been used for capital, operating, and planning programs for the public transit system.

The Town of Carrboro and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also provide financial support for transit services through annual service contracts with the Town.

Service contracts provide the foundation for cooperation, describe the role of each partner, pledge continued support for transit services, set the level of service each year, and assign proportional costs to each jurisdiction.

The Transit Department applies for federal and State grants to offset operating costs each year.

The Transit Department and the City of Durham annually re-negotiate the allocation formula used to distribute the federal funds received by the urban area based on passenger miles, ridership and population. The current formula uses the demographic statistics for each city to calculate the appropriation for this operating funding.

DISCUSSION

State and Federal Operating Assistance

The Federal Transit Administration provides Section 5307 funds for operating, planning and capital activities. The funds are allocated annually through a distribution formula based on community size and various system performance measures.

The State provides operating assistance from its State Maintenance Assistance Program which is a portion of the highway use tax allocation. Distribution is determined based on the amount collected by the State and is then distributed to transit systems based on performance.

The chart below summarizes operating funds anticipated for FY2008/09.

Funding Source	Funding Type	Amount
Section 5307 Formula Funds	Operating	$1,900,000
State Maintenance Assistance Program Funds	Operating	$3,545,000

State and Federal Planning Funds

The Federal Transit Administration and North Carolina Department of Transportation makes available certain sources of grant funding for planning tasks each year. The tasks will be undertaken by either transit or planning staff. These tasks will support the following activities:

monitoring of special services;
monitoring, evaluation and annual assessment of current services;
annual update of the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program; and
to collect data on the operation and ridership of the Chapel Hill Transit system
to update the Chapel Hill Transit Short Range Transit Plan,
to develop the Chapel Hill Transit Capital Improvement Program
to participate in the revision to the Triangle Regional Model (designed to capture the regional travel patterns for trips made in the Triangle) and further refinement of the mode split procedures and transit element,
to collect data on travel behavior of transit riders,
to revise the 2030 transit plan as part of the development of the 2035 Long Range Plan,
to administer the development of the Chapel Hill Long Range Transit Plan,
to participate in implementation of the recommendations of the regional Special Transit Advisory Commission,
to develop and monitor the annual planning work program,
to prepare materials for the development of the 2011-2017 TIP and monitor implementation of the 2009-2015 TIP,
to prepare analysis of feasibility of projects for inclusion in the TIP,
targeted marketing through collaborative efforts with the University of North Carolina and Triangle Transit,
development of a customer satisfaction survey,
website improvement,
coordination of routing and scheduling with Orange County Public Transportation, and
participation in and support of regional promotions.

Funding Source	Funding Type	Amount
Section 5307	Planning	$88,024
Transportation Demand Management	Planning	$80,000
Surface Transportation Program	Planning	$200,000
Section 5303	Planning	$111,092

Capital Funds

Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality and Surface Transportation funds will be used for capital activities in FY2008/09. We anticipate that eleven buses can be purchased with these funds. The federal government will provide 83 percent ($4,125,869), the State will provide 8 percent ($397,674) and the local matching share of 9 percent ($447,383) will is available in the Transit Department’s Capital Reserve Fund.

The chart below summarizes the projects that have been approved for funding:

Funding Source	Descrpition	Amount
Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality	Purchase 2 Hybrid Artics	$1,360,000
Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality	Purchase 9 40 ft Diesel	$2,296,000
Surface Transportation Program	Misc. Capital	$400,000

Section 5307 capital funds will be received for land acquisition and design of a park/ride lot in the 15-501 North corridor. The federal government will provide 80 percent ($326,040), the State will provide 10 percent ($32,604), and the local matching share of 10 percent ($32,604) will be budgeted in the Transit Department’s Capital Reserve Fund.

The amount of grant funds to be requested for capital projects in FY2008-2009 is $4,056,000.

RECOMMENDATION

That the Council adopt the attached resolution authorizing the Manager to apply for and execute contracts for transportation grants.