| River Valley Transit Authority |
Meeting Minutes
Members Present: Noah Bower, Max Moore, Chuck Crews Richard Staiman and Trisha Marty.
Administration Present: Adam Winder, Todd Wright, Nicole Farr, Bethany Jones, Josh Warfel, Gary Phillips and Renee Smith.
Others: Jill Nagy with Summers Nagy Law Firm (via Zoom), Ray Johnson and Dwayne Forrest.
Mr. Bower called the meeting to order at 5:32
Item # 1: Approval of June 8, 2022 meeting minutes:
Mrs. Marty made a motion to accept the minutes as presented, seconded by Mr. Moore, with all ayes the motion carried.
Item # 2: Resolution #2022-029 – Accepting the following properties from the City of Williamsport to River Valley Transit Authority:
- 1500 West Third Street – RVTA Main Office & Garage Facility
- 11 West Church Street – Parking garage
- 100 West Third Street – TTC I
- 144 West Third Street – TTC II
- 127 West Fourth Street – Laurel Street
Mr. Winder stated that this is a transfer of properties from the City of Williamsport to River Valley Transit Authority. These properties need to be transferred back to us (RVTA) because of the State and Federal interest in the buildings. This is a requirement by the state and federal government that they be transferred back to RVTA.
Mrs. Marty asked why is it only one parking garage? Mr. Winder explained that the other parking garage is operated by WPA (Williamsport Parking Authority). Mr. Crews asked if the city would give any pushback on this matter? Mr. Winder indicated that there should not be any issues with this and Ms. Nagy is working hard to clarify all of the deeds and title work.
Mrs. Marty made a positive motion to approve this resolution, seconded by Mr. Staiman, with all ayes the motion carried.
Item # 3: RVTA Financial Report:
Mrs. Farr gave the board a comprehensive breakdown of all finances and reviewed each status accordingly with the board.
Mrs. Farr stated that we have drawdown approximately $679,000 from the line of credit to cover payroll and insurance costs. The state should be reimbursing us $458,000 in late September.
We are going to be applying for 2020 apportionment to apply for but we needed to wait until everything had been transferred from the city to RVTA. Once everything is completed, we will be applying for this and that should amount to approximately $2.5 million. When we go to drawn down our funds, the federal government (due to how things have been in the past) they are requiring that RVTA submit invoices prior to getting the funds released. Basically, we are on a “probationary status” with the federal government.
Mrs. Far stated that our state allocation is $5.4 million what we receive on a monthly basis. Normally we get July, August and September in the month of September.
This fiscal year (July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023) each department was given a budget. Mr. Crews asked how many different departments are there? Mrs. Farr stated that there are twenty (20), however some of them are non-transit. Non-transit expenses are TTC leases (Uptown and CTL), the fueling station, CNG public fueling station, Church Street parking garage etc.
Mrs. Marty asked if we had started the 2022-2023 Local Match’s with the surrounding municipalities? Mr. Wright stated that we should be starting this process in September, after Little League.
Mr. Crews asked if the audit has been completed? Mrs. Farr stated that she is still working on this and should be submitted soon.
Mr. Crews made a positive motion to accept the financial report as submitted, seconded by Mr. Moore, with all ayes the motion carried.
Item # 4: New Business:
- RVTA Board Training Workshop – August 23rd (Lunch starting at 12:30pm) & Training from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.
Mr. Winder and Mrs. Smith reviewed with the board about the upcoming training and that this will be done by Jill Nagy and Michael Noel.
Item # 5: Old Business:
- Update on Pension/Empower Information
- Update on Health Equity
Mr. Winder indicated that starting September 1, 2022 the pension should be all set and ready to have transfers made to get us up and running. We have been meeting with Empower on a weekly basis to make sure that we have everything covered. All existing employees with pension still with the city will have their pension calculations in September for review and then those will go to the O&E Pension board.
Mr. Winder also stated that Health Equity should be ready to go by the end of the week. I just spoke them right before the meeting and they told me that cards and information should be going out to each employee by week end. Everything from Prime Pay has been transferred over the Health Equity.
Mr. Wright reviewed the Ridership report with the board and have an overview of ridership from 2019-2022. You can see the trend due to COVID and we are starting to bounce back, but some programs have not returned. We report to PennDot Quartey on our ridership. Mr. Wright asked Ms. Nagy if our senior ridership counts toward our 1513 allocation? Ms. Nagy stated that yes it does.
We will bring before the board at the next meeting a new agreement with RVTA and Step, Inc for ADA ridership.
Mr. Wright stated that after little league RVTA will be rolling out a new program called Token Transit, which is a mobile app that riders will be able to purchase their passes to ride and then show it to the bus drivers. As far as the cost for this RVTA will consume the initial costs and then we can re-evaluate after we have seen some data to determine the best way to move forward. Token Transit will get 5% of the total sales for this program.
Item # 6: Public Comments:
Mr. Forrest asked about the DROP allocations and if the employees are able to roll that money over into the new RVTA pension plan? Mr. Winder indicated that he is still awaiting on that answer. Ms. Nagy stated that they had discussed this but, have not heard anything back as of yet.
Mr. Bower thanked RVTA for inviting them to the RVTA Picnic and also for including them in the Grand Slam Parade. This was a great time. The new bus is sweet and judging by the look on people faces they loved it, lots of pictures being taken.
Mr. Moore made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Mrs. Marty. The meeting adjourned at 6:05pm.