Perrysburg transit supporters to meet Monday

BLADE STAFF

Perrysburg transit supporters are meeting again Monday to plan the grassroots campaign for the Nov. 6 election.

The public is invited to attend the meeting at 7 p.m. at the Kingston Residence of Perrysburg, 333 E. Boundary St. The group also created a Facebook page called perrysburg4transit2012.

The city placed a 1.45-mill, five-year levy on the ballot to fund an independent Perrysburg system after voters approved leaving the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority in March.

The new tax is estimated to generate $824,476 in the first year, costing the homeowner of a $100,000 house about $44 annually. The levy would be spent on hiring a private transit company as well as creating a rainy-day fund to protect the city’s general fund.

This month, city officials chose Ride Right, a company from Lake St. Louis, Mo., to be the city’s new transit company, should voters approve the Nov. 6 levy.

Ride Right bid $530,936 to run the city’s transit services in the first year.

Perrysburg taxpayers paid about $1.5 million a year for TARTA service, which equaled about 74,000 passengers trips in 2011, according to TARTA ridership numbers.

Contact Gabrielle Russon at grusson@theblade.com or 419-351-0361 or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson.

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