Manitou Springs City Council members agreed during a work session on Tuesday, April 26, to postpone a decision on a shuttle purchase program with Gray Line until they can review a contract regarding the process.
Dole Grebenik, Manitou Springs city engineer, hopes to provide an electric shuttle service for transportation needs such as for the Incline, shopping, dining and the Cog Railway.
Grebenik also said the shuttle would “meet many needs of the community in residents, employees and tourists.”
The shuttle would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and hold approximately 28 passengers.
Currently, Manitou’s free shuttles can hold around 40 passengers for short jaunts through the city.
“If we want to have this mobility be effective, it needs to be easy,” Grebenik said. “It needs to make sense. … it needs to be an obvious Manitou transit vehicle, it needs to be a good experience. … It’s encouraging because we can control the experience.”
Grebenik also spoke about the reliability of electric vehicles, noting their low maintenance.
“They last for 300,000 miles … they’re a low cost to own and operate,” he said.
Grebenik did not have the project’s exact costs and said he hopes Gray Line, the potential provider of the vehicles, will have the contracts soon.
“We would like to go ahead and sign a contract with Gray Line if the pricing works and the terms work,” Grebenik said. “Then we’d run one of (the electric vehicles and) potentially a second one. …We would like to do it sooner rather than later before we get busy, so we would have time to vet it, understand it, tweak and modify and get reliable route data.”
Councilor Julie Wolfe asked how Gray Line services would be paid for this summer.
City Administrator Denise Howell said the money for the vehicles would come from the city’s General Fund.
“Once we get the proposal, I’m sure we’ll have to come back to you,” Howell said. “I’m going to assume it’s over the amount I’m allowed to sign for.
“We would come to (council), say this is the amount (Gray Line is) doing for the contract and at the end of the year the budget is amended. … It will be in the amended budget at the end of the year.”
Council must approve any purchase that costs more than $50,000.
Councilor Nancy Fortuin said she liked the idea of a test run for the Gray Line vehicles.
“I’m a huge proponent of pilot (programs). … We’re not going to get the other vehicles in the time period that we need them, even if we put the order in today,” Fortuin said.
“You’re implying the cost will be within our means at this point in time. So, I would be supportive of piloting with one to two of the Gray Line.”
Mayor John Graham also supports a pilot program.
“I think, given a chance to test and collect data without making a huge capital investment, it would be a smart thing to do,” Graham said.
“It’s not like we have a lot of choice in buying new ones. We’re a little more than a month away from Memorial Day. Going the Gray Line route would be a smart way for us to exercise this pilot program.”
Howell said she felt it was too early to make an electric vehicle purchase and also recommended a test run.
“I did a shuttle along Garden of the Gods at one point, trying to manage the traffic and you don’t know until you do a test pilot,” Howell said. “$500,000 is a substantial amount. If you look at the numbers, it’s about $2,400 for five months. …
“By next year, who knows what’s going to happen with electric vehicles. They’re progressing quickly and the EV charger might be at Hiawatha (Gardens) if everything works.
“It allows us, at the end of summer, to bring back that data and say, ‘Yes, we believe we need to purchase and get it by next summer.’ That would be my recommendation.”
During the session, council members also fielded a presentation about a budget amendment to the Mobility and Parking Enterprise Fund, which will help pay expenses for potential shuttle services.
Finance Director Rebecca Davis presented the information ahead of a May 3 meeting with council to provide background on the budget.
“With the creation of the new Mobility and Parking Enterprise Fund, staff felt that providing information during a work session would give City Council a better opportunity to ask questions than just presenting it at first reading of the ordinance.”
Per a memorandum in Davis’ presentation, some of the budget amendments include:
• Creating the new Mobility and Parking Enterprise Fund that City Council approved at the end of 2021 (this includes moving the assigned Barr Trail parking lot into it);
• Including the increased sales tax revenue for the sales tax increase City Council approved before year-end 2021; and
• Moving $54,764 from the Metro District administration revenue account line to the mobility and parking enterprise fund for parking enforcement.
Davis said the purpose of the amended budget was for what’s known as an enterprise fund.
“The expenses are not paid with taxes, but rather with fees,” Davis said. “Because no taxes are involved in this fund, it is called an enterprise fund.”