Carson City RTC chooses leaders, hears reports

Carson City’s Regional Transportation Commission elected 2015 leadership Tuesday and heard a report on expanded Jump Around Carson (JAC) bus service.

The commission chose Supervisor Brad Bonkowski as the RTC chairman and Commissioner Jim Smolenski as vice chairman, respectively, without dissent and with no other nominees for either spot. Two members of the Board of Supervisors have seats on the commission. The other this year is Mayor Robert Crowell.

Graham Dollarhide, city transit coordinator, delivered the report on evening hours JAC bus service, which began last year. He said ridership on regular routes is up 4 percent due to the changes. He said a JAC link to Western Nevada College’s campus was used until Dec. 12, when classes were out for the holiday season, and there has been early evening hours para-transit usage. Regarding WNC students, he predicted more use this year.

Dollarhide said the evening service at WNC started in September and students had already registered. In the future potential JAC users among the student body can plan better and take evening course work knowing the bus will run until 10 p.m. “We do expect to see a jump in ridership,” he said.

Transportation Manager Patrick Pittenger added monitoring would keep being done to determine if WNC ridership merits continuation of night service there.

In addition, the commission heard from Public Works Director Darren Schulz a recap of traffic closure on Saliman Road south of William Street next week. A water main project that eventually will go through Mills Park is resulting in the closure of Saliman from the park entry at Seely Loop south to and including the intersection of Saliman and Robinson Street on Monday.

The rest of the week the intersection will be open, Saliman’s southbound lanes will be closed, but one northbound lane will be open in front of Carson High School. Carson High is off Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The commission also voted without dissent to make a final payment of $19,000 for a Safe Route to Schools project of 12,500 square feet of sidewalk and 1,500 feet of curb and gutter, asphalt paving and patch work along Hells Bells Road. The work was accepted as done. Payment will go to the contractor, Coons Construction, LLC.