North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O'Grady speaks at an Aug. 4 public hearing on RTA's proposal to cut services and raise fares to balance its budget. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

City formally opposes RTA’s proposed cuts
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Aug. 13, 2008

City officials want people to get on the bus when it comes to fighting the proposed reductions in service to North Olmsted and other Westshore cities by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.

RTA has proposed ending direct service to downtown Cleveland via the 75X route, which will stop at the Triskett Rapid Station under the transit agency's proposal.

City Council Monday passed a resolution at a special meeting opposing RTA’s proposal to eliminate the number 96F and 87F flyer routes and modifying the number 75X route to cancel all weekday direct service to downtown Cleveland and making it a feeder to the Triskett Rapid Station.

Michael Gareau Jr., the finance committee chairman, proposed the legislation during council’s regular session Aug. 5.

“We have enough resolutions about other items that quite frankly don’t matter as much to city residents as this does,” said Gareau. “We need to make our voices heard on this one to people.”

Nicole Dailey Jones, chairwoman of council’s Streets and Transportation Committee, said moving quickly is essential in this matter.

“We need to get that resolution in before all the public hearings on the matter are finished,” she said. “RTA has only scheduled hearings in August.” Jones, who attended a Aug. 4 public hearing in Rocky River about the proposed cuts along with Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker and Mayor Thomas O’Grady, said people throughout the area are upset.

“It’s not just North Olmsted,” she said. “This is affecting a large number of people throughout the area. Many seniors rely on it for transportation to needed services, and other people count on it for work.”

Barker said eliminating or cutting the routes would take a heavy toll on residents in his ward and throughout the area.

“We have people in my ward who bought their homes because they could catch these buses easily in this area,” Barker said.

He cited the long history of the 75 flyer route for North Olmsted and the rest of the Westshore.

“It’s been in existence since 1931, either for NOMBL (the old North Olmsted Municipal Bus Line which was absorbed by RTA three years ago) or RTA, and it serves a lot of people,” Barker said. “Cutting it back to feeding riders to a rapid line would cause a lot of problems.”

Ward 1 Councilman Dan Ryan, a former assistant law director and prosecutor for the city, said the city should look into specific provisions requiring RTA to make sure North Olmsted has service. He said perhaps a legal challenge to RTA’s proposed cuts could be mounted because of those provisions.

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said he would support any resolution or action by council opposing the cuts. O’Grady, who spoke against the cuts at the Rocky River hearing, said he would also continue his administration’s efforts to stop them.

On the Web:

• Regional Transit Authority
• RTA's press release on proposed cuts

Past West Life articles on proposed RTA cuts:

• RTA riders ask for alternatives to cuts in bus service (Aug. 6, 2008)
• Clough: RTA owes service to Westshore suburbs (July 30, 2008)
• Proposed RTA cuts to impact Westshore (July 23, 2008)