2011-09-08-TAC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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by Lexpress. This person will report to the Town Manager but will be physically in the Planning Department suite. Peter Levy noted the incremental increase in staff time; Carl Valente commented that transportation is a high priority for the Selectmen. Peter was also interested in seeing the reallocation of the current Transportation Coordinator tasks that were identified by Carl and Linda last June. Peter had additional questions about the merging of budgets (Lexpress and taxi program) and the merging of transportation contracts (Lexpress and school bus, similar to the successful merge of town and school facilities' maintenance) and how the Lexpress office will be covered when neither the transportation coordinator nor the transportation clerk is in the office (it was his understanding that DPW was currently providing that coverage). Charlotte explained that the taxi program can't be merged with other budgets because it is a pilot and is being funded by donations. Staff reported that merging Lexpress and school bus contracts would be extremely complex and not necessarily financially advantageous. Carl noted that maintaining a facility is basically the same whether it is a school building or a town office building. By contrast school bus service and Lexpress are totally different. Linda expressed an understanding of the need for office coverage between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and said that this needs to be worked out. Elaine Dratch expressed concern that the taxi voucher program may need more supervision than is anticipated. Customer service issues are also likely to surface. She also commented that TAC is interested in more than just the operation of Lexpress, and she asked how TAC can be kept involved in the planning aspects of transportation. Linda said that this falls under governance, which is still being refined; she appreciated this input. Sara Arnold suggested that some of the functions in the Lexpress office could be handled more efficiently by using more advanced computer resources, such as Access. This might help reduce the hours required to do some tasks. TAC members identified comments that they would like Bill to make at the Selectmen's meeting Monday night, as follows: ➢ Coordination among those who are working on transportation issues will be critical, and this means inter - departmental interaction (between Human Services, Planning and DPW in particular, and eventually with the Economic Development person). ➢ Continued interaction with DPW is critical to ensure the Transportation Coordinator knows about road closures /repairs etc. ➢ TAC is interested in having interaction with the planning aspects of transportation, not just Lexpress; it would be valuable to have the transportation planner meet with TAC periodically. ➢ TAC would like to have an opportunity to review the Transportation Coordinator job description to improve TAC's understanding of the tasks that will be assigned to this position and to perhaps make comments. ➢ TAC is concerned about 28 hours a week being enough for supervising and marketing Lexpress and the taxi voucher program, and maintaining new, improved services such the senior center point -to -point service and the school - Lexpress Flexpass. ➢ TAC strongly supports revisiting the restructuring plan in the spring to review its success.