Officials fear North Olmsted may lose buses
By Jeff Gallatin
Noth Olmsted
Published Nov. 17, 2004

City officials are saying the North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line may have won the battle to keep the 53 bus route but could still lose the war to retain its independence.

Mayor Norman T. Musial, council Streets and Transportation Committee Chairman George Nashar and Ward 4 Councilman Dean McKay all said they have heard that NOMBL could be forced to merge into the Regional Transit Authority when NOMBL's current five-year pact with RTA expires Dec. 31. The officials said that their understanding is that there may not be sufficient funds for NOMBL to allow it to enter into another pact

All of the city officials said they would not let NOMBL, which has been in existence since 1931, go without a fight.

"That would be very unfortunate," Musial said. "We've not had a clear-cut answer about this, but this is something we wouldn't let go through quietly. We are in the process of trying to meet with the appropriate officials about this situation."

RTA Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Joe Calabrese said Monday no decisions have been made, but added that RTA is continuing to try and contain costs for the transit system.

"Our customers are being forced to watch their budgets and spending, and we're doing the same thing," Calabrese said. "We're watching the budget, like not increasing our fares for 13 years and instituting cost-saving measures throughout the system."

RTA officials recently indicated that they were trying to cut costs, including in suburban areas. Calabrese said the situation has changed for both RTA and NOMBL since RTA was formed in 1975.

"When RTA was formed in 1975, there were 13 city or smaller bus service lines, and within a short time after that 11 of those 13 went into RTA," Calabrese said. "North Olmsted and Maple Heights continued.. In North Olmsted's case, they have signed five-year contracts to sub-contract service for RTA and the current one expires Dec. 31. We are in negotiations to see what happens beyond Dec. 31."

Nashar said he thinks Calabrese is more focused on other projects and costs for RTA and is not paying attention to NOMBL's track record.

"He's more concerned with getting his projects done and he's doing that by cutting funds to other areas like NOMBL," Nashar said. "He doesn't seem to be concerned that it would affect our community."

McKay said NOMBL has traditionally been successful.

"RTA needs to be looking at other areas that aren't as successful," McKay said. "NOMBL has been one of the areas which has been profitable and successful. Look at the Park-and-Ride lot on Great -Northern; it's full all the time."

Calabrese said the 53 bus route is being examined because it's not cost-effective.

"It is a very poor-performing route, so we were considering modifications to it," Calabrese said, "When we held public hearings on this, a number of the riders came out and asked that we retain it, so we agreed to continue to look at it through the first quarter of next year."

City and NOMBL officials asked RTA to consider making the line a community circulator that goes through several communities. NOMBL General Manager Tom Terbrack said making the route a community circulator would make it even more useful.

"It would provide a new service by going down Dover Center Road in the day and also hit several key stops for the area," Terbrack said. "We were hopeful that it would be considered by RTA, but right now they're just going to retain the route in its current form."

Calabrese said putting in a community circulator on the 53 route isn't likely.

"We're trying to control and cut costs," he said. "The circulator is an interesting idea, but it would add several hundred thousand in costs, which isn't a direction we want to go in."

Terbrack declined comment on the current negotiations between RTA and NOMBL for a new contract.

North Olmsted Law Director Jim Dubelko, who is on the city team negotiating with RTA, said negotiations have been going on since September and that there has been a long and productive partnership between NOMBL and RTA.

"Over the course of the past 29 years, the North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line, which is the oldest municipal bus line in Ohio, has developed into the jewel of the RTA system," Dubelko said. "In turn, financial assistance provided to the city from a county sales tax sponsored by RTA and approved by Cuyahoga County voters has enabled NOMBL to continue it's historic mission of providing A-1 bus line service to thousands of suburban residents living in the northwestern Greater Cleveland area."

Dubelko said city negotiators are aware of the talk about RTA and NOMBL but are focusing on the discussions.

While rumors are apparently now swirling about that RTA management is intent upon taking over the North Olmsted bus line - rumors perhaps in large part attributable to certain budget information recently released by RTA management to the news media - we on the North Olmsted negotiating team who have come to the negotiating table in good faith believe that we have a duty to neither confirm nor deny such rumors, but to instead state simply and publicly that we are negotiating with RTA in good faith," Dubelko said.

He said the negotiating team is looking out for North Olmsted.

'With the goals of continuing to provide quality bus line service to residents in the western suburbs, protecting the rights of our city bus drivers and other employees who provide that quality bus line service to the public, and doing everything reasonable and necessary to insure that the city of North Olmsted, which has lived up to all of its contract obligations to RTA over the past 29 years, is not now damaged as a result of any sudden changes in operating policy by RTA management."

Musial said RTA should also consider other factors such as the recent several million dollars of work at the North Olmsted bus garage and how much money the city of North Olmsted puts into RTA's coffers.

"We helped clear the way for that work at the garage and we also put millions of dollars into the sales tax receipts for RTA because North Olmsted has a very large and thriving retail community," Musial said.

Calabrese said RTA officials would continue to try and find ways to tighten up costs and find the best way of delivering service.

In discussing the possibility of NOMBL not getting a new contract, Calabrese said if that happened, RTA would make every effort to see that current NOMBL workers are able to get positions with RTA and retain their seniority.

Musial said he expects some kind of resolution relatively soon.

"We should have some land of idea what's going on by the RTA board meeting in December," Musial said.

Calabrese declined to speculate on a final outcome of the talks, only reiterating that negotiations are ongoing between RTA and NOMBL.