MINUTES
Greater Waterbury Transit District
Thursday, July 24,
2003
11 A.M.
The Village at
East Farms
The
Lodge-Community Room
180 Scott Road
Waterbury, CT
06705
Present:
Robert DeZinno,
Cheshire; Doreen Pulisciano, Cheshire; JoAnn Cappelletti, Middlebury; Sally
Schilke, Naugatuck; Sheena Maynard Waterbury; Yvonne Denise Smith, M.D.,
Chairman, Waterbury; Richard Fusco, Secretary, Watertown. NET Staff: Marie Vaccarelli.
1.
Roll Call, Introductions, Public Participation
Chairman Yvonne Denise Smith opened the meeting at 11:22
a.m., called roll and introduced others.
A quorum was presented by municipalities and voting units. There were no public comments.
2.
Administrative Items
a. Minutes of June 20, 2003: On a motion by Richard Fusco, seconded by Doreen Pulisciano it was unanimously
VOTED: To approve the Minutes of the June 20, 2003 Meeting.
b. Financial Report: Treasurer Kim Hunt was absent. On motion
by Richard Fusco, seconded by Sheena Maynard it was unanimously
VOTED: To table the Financial Report of June 2003.
c. Ridership and Service Report: Smith reported on June
2003, there were 25 days of service, 21 weekdays/4weekend. There were 4,198 ADA Trips and 1,913 Non-ADA
Trips. Both decreased from May. The percentage of ADA to Non-ADA remains the
same, 70/30. Denied trips were 3 and
they were all Non-ADA tips. Missed
trips-0. Late Cancellations-8, a 50%
decrease from May. No Shows –86, 10% increase
from May. The decrease in Ridership for
June may be due to some DMR clients going to camp or vacation. The total trips provided for FY 2002/2003
was 74,806. ADA Trips-51, 391 and
Non-ADA Trips-23, 415.
d. Correspondence:
Letter sent to Councilman Stretton to
reconsider and pay membership dues to GWTD
Letter sent to Mr. Michael Milone
requesting letter of intent and informing him of the Sate statues and GWTD
Bylaws
Letter from Michael Milone Cheshire’s
Town Manager stating Cheshire will not pay their membership dues to GWTD and
would like to be a member of GWTD
Letter sent to COGCNV Chairman Clifford
Brammer about Cheshire’s not paying their membership dues.
Letter from IRS asking why GWTD did not
file Form 990 for three years
Fax from CACT about proposals for TEA
Reauthorization
Received APTA information about
conferences
Received the Transit Access Report
3. GWTD Report
Sent email to Senator Dodd, Senator Lieberman
and House Representative Johnson, to encourage them to support adequate funding
for SAFETEA. Thus email was sent
through APTA Transit Action website.
Still have vacancies on the board from
Naugatuck and Waterbury. Spoke to
Naugatuck and Waterbury about this issue on July 17, 2003.
The Connecticut State Budget is not
passed. Therefore the Connecticut
Department of Transportation budget is not set.
Letter from the IRS on July 17, 2003. This
letter was about not filing Form 990 for 1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002.
Spoke to IRS, Ms. Bauer, Mr. Dorpalen and Mr. Jeff Walsh the auditor. The years
2000-2001 and 2001-2002 do not requires filing Form 990. The FY 1999-2000 does
require a filing of Form 990 and was not done.
The auditor will be at COGCNV office next week to look into GWTD
records. I requested our records from
the IRS.
Linked Waterbury JobLinks new website on ours.
Place the GWTD Annual Meeting pictures on
website.
Linked board members picture to their name on
website.
Have a link to Thomaston’s new website.
Website had 3932 hits.
Have new web page with links to Resources
Will place information on Travel Training on
website soon.
The City of Waterbury will have a new website
and GWTD will be link to it.
Website still the same price at $274.45 and
was charged to credit card
Will pay for AOL for one year next month as
voted on to save money
Meetings
JobLinks Task Force Meeting on July 16, 2003,
plans to make a publication for persons with disabilities to learn about their
public transportation options and how to use the fixed route bus system. This will fulfill JobLinks requirement under
FTA for persons with disabilities. This
would help to move the disabled off of Paratransit and on to the fixed route
bus system. Southwestern Connecticut
has made this publication called Getting On Board. Ann LaPorta and Chairman Yvonne Denise Smith
will be on a subcommittee as well as the Task Force Committee.
4. Membership Dues
In response to Robert DeZinno question about Michael Milone letter not
to pay GWTD Membership dues, he wanted to know if Cheshire was going to
continue to not pay membership dues in the future and that the amount of money
is negligible. Doreen Pulisciano
responds that it was Bob Bohannon recommendation not to pay the dues. Other programs not based in Cheshire who
received stipends were eliminated from the budget. Next fiscal year I (Doreen Pulisciano) will be doing the budget
and will include the membership dues because they are dues. They will be place under the transportation
budget as dues and I will support them.
The letter from Michael Milone states that Cheshire would like to
continue being on the board of GWTD and knows that Cheshire can be expel for
not paying dues. Cheshire should pay
dues like it does to other group it belongs to in its town. GWTD is additive to the transportation
services that the town provides and not in competition. Richard Fusco discussed the benefits
belonging to GWTD. He also stated that
the Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley (COGCNV) voted to
pay these dues. It is one thing to
include it in the budget and have no money to pay it now but later. It is another thing not to include it in the
budget at all.
Chairman Smith stated that Cheshire would be billed for the membership
dues for the Financial Budget until it is paid.
The purpose of the Non-ADA Paratransit Service Membership Dues was for
the municipalities to help their residents pay for this costly service. The municipality would pay the extra cost
for their riders. On a motion by
Richard Fusco, seconded by JoAnn Cappelletti it was unanimously
VOTED: To approve that if a municipality does not pay its membership dues for Non-ADA Ridership Service, then the rider in that municipality will be responsible to pay his or her share of the membership dues for their trip.
The Cheshire riders would
pay $3.30 per trip and Middlebury riders would pay $2.50 per trip.
The Board of Directors
does no believe a Public Hearing is require for these two fares because the municipalities
are not subsidizing the fare. If there are any problems with the riders, North
East Transportation can refer the rider to their town respresentative.
On a motion by Doreen
Pulisciano, seconded by Sheena Maynard it was unanimously
VOTED: To table the adjustment of the Financial Budget to the next meeting.
5. Bylaw Update
In the meeting packages
are the November 20, 1997 Minutes and the Bylaw Updates Memorandum092497. Former Transit Director Kathleen Breen had
these changes to the bylaw approved but did not add them to the Bylaws. The Bylaws will be updated. You will receive a new copy once all the
updating is done. Memodrandum07242003
was missing from the package and the new updates were tabled to next meeting.
6. Non-ADA Ridership Report
For FY 2002/2003 ther
were 23,,415 Non-ADA trips. Non-ADA
Ridership Service Membership Dues for
FY 2002/2003 was $22,500. As for FY 2003/2004
the final amount to be disbursed is awaiting Watertown budget to be pass. No one had question on their Ridership
numbers.
7. North East Transportation Report
Marie Vaccarrelli stated
that the Kennedy Center will do Travel Training and Sensitivity Training for
empolyees in October. All new five
vehicle are on the road. North East Transportation
is asking homeowner and town to cut tree branches so not to scrath the top of
the van.
8. Old Business
None.
9. New Business
Letter will be sent to
Ms. Nicole Talbot for the nice accomadations.
10. Next Meeting
September 25, 2003. At 11
a.m. here at the Village at the East Farms.
11. Adjournment
On a motion by Sheena
Maynard, seconded by Sally Schilke it was unanimously
VOTED: To adjourn the GWTD Board of Directors Meeting at 12:48 p.m.
Submitted
By
Richard Fusco
Secretary
And
Yvonne Denise Smith, M.D.
Chairman