Chelan City Council approves funding for summer shuttle marketing program

CHELAN - Chelan will have a summer shuttle rolling through the streets of Lakeside Park up to Appleblossom Drive starting Fourth of July weekend and wrapping up in September. Link Transit’s board approved $38,500 to fund the shuttle in this month’s meeting, in hopes of giving locals and tourists another option to move from place to place. Link Transit’s funds will help fund the shuttle for this calendar year only. In order to continue with the program, Chelan council member Ray Dobbs explained that Link Transit would like to see “a minimum ridership of 5 people per hour.”

The shuttle concept would be a great addition to Lakeside Park and its parking issue. Last year, Chelan Parks and Recreation Department applied for an RCO Grant from the State that would fund improvements over at Lakeside. Unfortunately, the Parks Department was unable to get it. “We have been in contact with RCO and they have been kind enough to give us some feedback ... they feel that there was not enough parking and it is very difficult to have parking. If we can help make the shuttle successful we can put that on our application,” said City administrator Mike Jackson. He mentioned that they are already working on the RCO Grant application for 2020.  

Dobbs wants the program to be successful and for the shuttle to exceed the minimum ridership. “It’s a free shuttle, we have no money invested in the shuttle ourselves ... I would like for the council to approve $2,000 or $3,000 for this summer for marketing and advertising to encourage people to ride the bus,” said Dobbs to the council. He then went ahead and made a motion for council to approve $2,500 for the program from the existing budget, which unanimously passed. The marketing portion of the project will include making signage for the shuttle stops, the locations of which are not yet determined.

City Council heard from Port of Douglas County Executive Director, Lisa Parks, on the possible functional consolidation with the Port of Chelan County. “We have ben trying to reaching out to the small communities in both counties ... we are wanting to explain what’s going and hear concerns from our constituents before moving on,” said Parks. Parks explained where the idea of  consolidating the Ports came about and how it will work. “Both County Port Districts will remain, port county commissioners will be elected by their independent constituency. Once a year, they will meet and establish their individual tax levies  and once a year they will approve a budget,” Parks told the council. The consolidation will save the Ports $500,000 by combining all operations into one. Changes that will help saving costs will include shortage in staff. Parks position will be eliminated by the end of years, as she willingly stepped down.

A decision making body will be formed and will include three members from Port of Chelan in addition to three from Port of Douglas. “Any positive action will need to be voted by a four-to-two vote and the four positive will need to be made of two commissioners from Port of Chelan and two commissioners from the Port of Douglas,” said Parks. Jim Kuntz will be Executive Director and a single staff will run the Ports. “We felt that it was a really good first step in terms of savings costs,” said Parks.

The consolidation has not been voted in yet. Later this month both Ports will meet during their regular meeting and vote on the item. If approved, the functional consolidation between the two Ports will go into effect next January.