By: Diane Benjamin
WGLT posted a story about Connect Transit a few days ago. The author listed is a student along with Charlie Schlenker.
See it here: http://wglt.org/post/connect-transit-eyes-locations-downtown-transfer-center
Connect still looking for places to build a downtown transfer station. Isaac Thorne wants a place for 10 buses to park at the same time! He claims the current site in front of the Law and Justice Center serves 1500 people a day.
Is that 1500 actual people, or 1500 boardings? I’m thinking boardings since close to empty buses are still visible all over town.
1500 boardings could be as few as 375 people a day since getting off a bus and getting on another one is counted as two. Then there is another two for the return trip. The most people I’ve ever seen waiting for a bus is maybe 15. Thorne wants to spend between $10 million to $14 million for their comfort.
It gets worse however. Thorne made this claim:
Local media needs to learn that EVERYTHING uttered by anybody in government MUST be fact checked.
This claim is easy – Connect publishes financial statements every month, including the cash in their capital account:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ai9Bj6TexWg2fFnZTCVlP8ZICxZ6MB3H/view
They don’t have $6 million dollars sitting in the bank. They have $1 million and money owed from operations of almost $3 million. 1 + 3 is 4, not $6!
Operations is never going to generate enough money to pay back the capital account, so they have $1,000,000 in capital reserves. (SAVINGS)
They did have the cash in February to pay back the loans:
When the March financials are posted in about a week, we will know if they used that cash to pay back the loans. I’m thinking every cent is needed for operations, so the answer will be no.
Even if they did pay back savings, there isn’t $6 million in that fund.
The story does have some GREAT NEWS:
Why doesn’t WGLT’s McCurdy already realize this? When they can’t report or fact check something simple like this one needs to question every single thing the report!
They probably do realize the misgivings but if they admit it in public they’ll probably lose their jobs. Everyone is duly concerned about putting bread on their own table as for what America has become (high unemployment) people give in and take less than admirable jobs and become less than admirable people. It’s simple math of another sort. The American middle class must be destroyed financially and morally, coupled with invasive immigration for the completion of citizen globalization.
BUT wglt radio free babble claims that they REPORT the NEWS and are the ONLY source of your local news, and what they don’t tell you , is that it leans SO FAR that it can’t stand on it’s own!
I WISH they’d go back to Blues and Jazz and leave the NEWS alone, as they REALLY stink at it. And when they DO tell a story, it’s THEIR slant, just like the local firestarter. When Connect Transit makes money, it WILL be privately owned.
WHY do buses run north on ROPP ROAD? People going to the Rader corn maze? Farmers need a ride to the tractor parts store? BS!
Which bus are you seeing on Ropp? None of the scheduled routes run out there. Is it the Connect Mobility? It might be out there if one of their users lives out there.
I have a dream…. that one day Connect Transit will charge their riders the actual cost of doing business and the vast, vast majority of citizen will never have to fork over anther dime to the government liars and cheats.
NormalOne. There are actually TWO busses that run that area. One runs EAST on the YUTON road and the other runs NORTH on ROPP ROAD and one turns and the other goes forward on RAAB toward Heartland. But there HAS to be a BETTER way of running that route. NO NEED for CITY busses to be running in the country!
So that’s another strike against Connect Transit – their route maps online are wrong. They don’t show any busses running on Ropp or Yuton. Just the yellow using part of Raab to get to Heartland.
CT started a route to Eastview Church.
Fuzzy math? I think this boondoggle is well beyond fuzzy math…
Boondoggle+Fuzzy Math= Government run and funded by YOUR tax dollars!
In MILITARY terms aka SNAFU!
I’m LOVIN’ this math class!
Please investigate city buses running in rural areas. I’m waiting.
New route to Eastview Church
A route to Eastview doesn’t explain why someone is seeing buses out on Yuton or Ropp. Eastview is on the other side of town.
I don’t know those streets and I don’t have time to investigate. Somebody should file a FOIA or call them!
you read comments by others you would know that.