Counc. Don Gullekson made a notice of motion to explore the idea of having an expanded bus service within the city of Lacombe.
The motion, which will be discussed and voted on at the next meeting of council, asks city administration to research how a potential intracommunity bus service in Lacombe would work and what the possible costs associated would be.
“BOLT was a regional bus system — this is the first step of taking a look at our Connex busses and expanding their service to provide something for our seniors and children within the community,” Gullekson said.
Gullekson made the motion after receiving feedback at Coffee with Council sessions over the course of the last five months. He said BOLT did not serve local transportation needs and used the example of the recent election day as an opportunity where local busing would have been helpful
“You want to have multiple people and when i was at the Lodge the other day doing Meals on Wheels, visiting with people as I waited, they would have loved to see a bus pull out up front that they could just get on,” he said.
An expansion of Connex would mean that the City would jointly run the new bus service with Lacombe FCSS as a city service that serves the entire public, rather than simply smaller groups
“It would be for everyone, not just certain people,” he said.
Gullekson said the city would use other similar municipalities as models and said Leduc and Cochrane have both implemented systems which work for their communities.
“It we have the right system, hopefully we will be flexible enough to adapt to what the needs of our community are,” he said.
Gullekson said this is just the beginning of a process and that it would not happen over night. All stakeholders would need to be involved in the process and external funding which would be required.
“There has been talks of transportation funding coming from the Federal government, so there may be grants out there,” he said.
Council will deliberate and vote on the motion at the Nov. 12 council meeting.
“My feelings after my discussions with citizens is that is it something that is needed and I would love to see it go forward. It can build as our community adapts and becomes used to this method of transportation,” he said.
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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