briefs rural transportation authority

More summer flights
There will be a couple more flights offered between the Gunnison/Crested Butte Regional Airport and the Denver International Airport this summer.  Starting June 4 there will be four daily flights on United Airlines heading in each direction.

Last summer only two daily flights were offered.  
Between March 30 and May 30, 2009 there will be two daily flights. Between May 31 and June 3 there will be three flights a day, and between June 4 and August 31 there will be four daily flights.  The flight schedule is still subject to change.
Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority airline consultant Kent Myers says the RTA has asked United Airlines to consider running four daily flights until September 7, the Tuesday after Labor Day. That deal has not been finalized.  
But the RTA doesn’t necessarily offer the airline a financial incentive for the summer air program, such as the financial guarantees they provide airlines for jet service in the winter. The RTA and Crested Butte Mountain Resort are expecting to split $1.4 million in funding guarantees to airlines that provided jet service this winter—the full amount that was offered.  
Although the RTA encourages the airline to provide a strong summer service program, RTA director Scott Truex says the RTA has never made a financial guarantee for a propeller flight.   
The flights are being offered on Dash-8 regional propeller planes that have a capacity of 37.  
“We’re definitely pleased with the fact they’re brining four daily flights,“ says RTA board chairman Jim Starr. “I think they realize as hard hit as a lot of recreation tourism areas are, we’re holding our own.”
Negotiations for air service next winter are ongoing, but Myers says the service should be similar to what was offered this past winter, albeit some changes in the frequency of flights and the types of aircraft. “We will be able to maintain the nonstop service to all the existing cities,” Myers says. During the 2008-09 season direct flights were offered from Gunnison to Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.  
RTA and ORE discuss energy planning
Many of the ideas to reduce transportation pollution being developed in the ongoing Gunnison Valley Energy Planning Process have already been considered by the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority.  Members of the Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) got together with the RTA board two weeks ago as part of ORE’s outreach to other valley entities to update them on the Energy Planning Process.
 Last fall, the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, the city of Gunnison and the Gunnison County government embarked on a quest to develop individual energy action plans that will guide the Gunnison Valley community toward reducing pollution and energy use.  While the four government entities continue to fine-tune their respective energy action plans, ORE has been meeting with other valley groups like the RTA, the Rotary Clubs and the local Chambers of Commerce to update them on the energy planning process.  
RTA director Scott Truex says ORE wasn’t looking for the RTA to specifically sign on to an energy action plan, but just to have some general dialogue about the energy planning process.  
ORE’s energy planning process coordinator Maya Silver says, “We hadn’t really talked with [the RTA] beforehand with all the things we are thinking about.” Silver says she brought up some of the ideas being developed in the energy planning efforts, specifically the ideas presented by the Gunnison County energy action plan taskforce.  
Transportation (i.e., personal vehicles, snowmobiles, dirt bikes, delivery trucks and airplanes) was rated as the highest contributor of pollution on the countywide scale, and therefore the Gunnison County taskforce focused on ideas to curb transportation pollution. Some of those ideas included additional circulator buses for isolated areas of the valley or a separate recreation bus for skiers and tourists complete with additional ski and bike racks.   
Truex says the RTA has already considered a lot of the ideas being developed in the planning process.  
Silver agrees, but says to implement some of the ideas, “It all comes down to money.  If we can find grants and sources of revenue we could do some of these things… It was a good meeting. They seem open to ideas.”  
The four government entities are expected to have their respective energy action plans completed by the end of May.  To learn more about the energy planning process visit resourceefficency.org —the information is at the bottom of the home page.  

Ohio Creek Park and Ride may get delayed
A Park and Ride public transit facility the RTA was planning to build at the intersection of Ohio Creek and Highway 135 may get delayed until next summer. Originally the RTA was planning to construct the Park and Ride concurrent with Gunnison County’s planned re-alignment of the Ohio Creek intersection this spring. “I think we’re going to go ahead with it. It’s just a matter of the timing,” says RTA director Scott Truex.
The RTA is using grant funds from the Federal Transportation Authority (FTA) to construct the Park and Ride. When granting funds to various transportation projects, the FTA considers the projects under a range of environmental classifications.
Truex says he originally anticipated that the FTA would consider the Park and Ride a “documented categorical exclusion,” which would allow the project to begin at the same time as the county’s re-alignment.  But, he says, there may be some unforeseen environmental issues such as wetlands impacts that could require further review.  
Truex says the Park and Ride may still be considered a categorical exclusion, but he’s waiting to hear back from CDOT to see what sort of environmental analyses have been done in the past for the intersection.  Sometime in the 1990s, Truex says, CDOT widened the highway near the intersection and may have completed a thorough environmental analysis at the time.  Truex says he’s expecting to hear back from CDOT and get a firmer schedule for the project next week.
Although the Park and Ride will no longer be built at the same time as the county’s road realignment, Truex says it won’t necessarily cost the RTA any more money to build the facility.