- Good afternoon.
- Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service.
- I'm Steve Wicks and I'm appalled to serve as your president this year.
- All right. Just checking to see who's listening.
- I'm actually honored to serve as your president this year.
- Please silence your electronic devices.
- Our moment in history.
- On this day in history in 1609,
- French explorer Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs in Ticonderoga, New York.
- These shootings led to 150 years of conflict between the French and the five Iroquois nations.
- Sarah Cochran will deliver our reflection this morning.
- Thank you, Steve.
- Good afternoon, everyone.
- So thank you.
- My students don't give me that kind of response, so I was not expecting it.
- So how many of you know someone who has been impacted by IDF?
- So I would imagine that it's probably a lot more of you than you may realize.
- In fact, you know me and you know Maisie.
- So this week, we celebrated World IVF Day.
- It's celebrated each year on July 25th because on that day in 1978, the first baby conceived by IVF
- was born.
- And this day gives us an opportunity to reflect on how far reproductive medicine has come and how
- many lives have been changed because of it.
- My sweet Maisie wouldn't be here if it weren't for this medical innovation.
- And my story is actually much more complicated, so we'll save that for another day.
- But just know that it definitely took an entrepreneurial mindset, much like that was that the
- scientists and innovators who developed IVF had.
- So in the 1960s, there were these scientists and they had this crazy idea.
- And they said, what if we took eggs and sperm out of the body and tried to create an embryo?
- At that time, that was like the craziest idea ever.
- It took them a while to refine it, obviously.
- But once they refined it, it has now led to 13 million babies being born worldwide thanks to this
- medical advance.
- So now nearly almost three percent of the births in the United States result from some form of
- assisted reproductive technologies.
- However, each try doesn't always work.
- It's reported that in the in the last recent years, every year in the United States,
- there are about four hundred thousand IVF cycles that result in under a hundred thousand live births.
- The average cost for one cycle of IVF is usually upwards of about twenty thousand dollars.
- And it's often not covered by insurance.
- Indiana is one of the many states in the U.S. that does not mandate fertility insurance to be
- covered.
- Infertility impacts one in six people worldwide.
- And IVF can, of course, help heterosexual couples who are experiencing infertility.
- But it also helps gay couples, single parents by choice and anyone who is using donor gay mates or
- surrogates to conceive their children.
- And while I've given you some some tough statistics about it not always working,
- there are still over five hundred thousand babies born worldwide every year from IVF.
- So IVF has turned what was once impossible into a reality for millions.
- So for World IVF Day, we celebrate the families that it has helped as well as the innovators and
- brilliant scientists and medical professionals who have made this possible.
- So the next time you see that family that it is impacted, tell them that you celebrated World IVF
- Day.
- Sarah brings a very important issue close to home.
- Dave Meyer will introduce our guest today.
- I'd like to start by saying welcome to our guests.
- If I read your name, if you would be so kind as to stand so that we may recognize you.
- So the first guest I have is Brian Fox-Paul Kowalski, who's a guest of John Pannell.
- Thank you.
- Next guest is Shiana Servil.
- Shaina, thank you.
- And that's a guest of Sally Gaskell.
- She's a guest of Sally Gaskell.
- Shelly Stramatistus, guest of John Pannell, and Perry Mall, a guest of Judy Schroeder.
- Lucy Deckard, guest of Trenton Kyla.
- That was pretty quick.
- Okay, Maisie Cochran, a guest of Sarah Cochran.
- Yeah, Maisie!
- Stand up on your own, Maisie.
- Okay.
- If any of you are interested in learning more about Rotary, please look to your left or
- your right, and I'm sure someone at your table would be glad to tell you more.
- Are there any guests online today?
- Yes, we have two.
- One is the first, it's Kathleen Hardy Hansen from IU's IIDC, and was invited by Yolanda
- Trevino, Shakur, and Katie, but wasn't able to come in person.
- And then Luis Enrique Becerra-Garcia is also a guest of Professor Jerome.
- Wonderful.
- Rodich.
- Excuse me.
- Sorry, I didn't see the full name.
- So Professor Rodich.
- Welcome guests.
- We have a few birthdays to celebrate this week.
- Amy Kendall on July 31st, Tracy Yovanovich on August 1st, and Bill Perkins on August
- 2nd.
- A couple of anniversaries to celebrate.
- On the 1st, Patrick Smith sitting there in the back will be four years with Rotary.
- And then Mike Baker also on the 1st celebrating 33 years of Rotary.
- Announcements, don't forget to buy your tickets for the Rotary Toast Friday, November 7th.
- You can see Natalie or you can go to RotaryToast.com to get your tickets.
- Give the date for the club holiday party, December 11th, at the Bloomington Country Club.
- We still need a roundabout reporter for the month of December.
- December is a great month to cover.
- You only have three meetings.
- Please see Marilyn Wood if you can help.
- Some of the club committees are still organizing while others are up and going.
- If you haven't done so already, please join a committee.
- See me if you need more information.
- We have a few committee chairs in the room.
- Can I ask them if they're able to just stand for a minute?
- So we have Joy Harder, who is co-chair of youth services.
- Dave Meyer and Michelle Cohen are co-chairs of community services.
- Andrea Murray is co-chair of Fun Family Fellowship, and I may have gotten that in the wrong order.
- And then Patrick Smith chairs our DEI committee.
- So if you have any interest in those committees, catch those individuals after the meeting.
- Youth Services Committee will meet via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 14th.
- See Joy Harder or Leanne Ratcliffe or me for more details on how to participate.
- Peace Building Committee met last week, and our book discussion group also met last week.
- We've already set the date for the next book discussion group, the Friday, October 5th.
- It'll include a dinner, a Buskirk Chumlee conversation with the author, and see Sally
- Gaskell over there for more details.
- And now I guess we call this a celebration of service.
- I'd like to go ahead and recap the Community Service Project Friday at Hoosier Hills Food
- Bank.
- So here are the individuals who participated, the Rotarians Jim Bright, Michelle Cohen,
- Liz Fiddle, Sally Gaskell, Jim Harvey, Rex Hillary, Liz Irwin, Dave Meyer, Cindy Neidhart,
- Tim Thrasher, Steve Wicks, Winston Schindell, and Marilyn Wood.
- And we also had friends of Rotary, Anne Bright, Sue Schindell, Marty Wood, and then Marty and
- Marilyn Wood's grandson Jacob.
- And here are a few pictures.
- So here's the volunteer coordinator at Hoosier Hills Food Bank instructing us on how we were
- supposed to pack the boxes.
- It was kind of rough at first, but we sort of got into a rhythm.
- As you can see, we're paying very close attention.
- You know, and there are three Rotarians looking at the box, wondering how all the food is
- going to fit in the box.
- And you'll notice these aren't pictures that have us smiling.
- We're all looking down because we're all working.
- Here's Cindy.
- Cindy was the cereal specialist putting two boxes into every box.
- Art and Tim, Tim was in charge of beans.
- I figured that he packed 400 cans of beans.
- I asked him what he thought about the nickname of beans thrasher.
- He said he'd get back to me.
- And here's the afternoon.
- We only have one picture of the afternoon crew, but here's the afternoon crew.
- I can tell you it was very warm working in the morning.
- I have so much respect for those Rotarians who worked in the afternoon.
- Special thanks to co-chairs, committee, Michelle Cohen and Dave Meyer.
- And then Liz Irwin wearing two hats, one her rotary hat and the other Duke Energy.
- And we worked alongside a number of Duke Energy employees.
- So thanks to those three for making that happen.
- Our shift packed 200 boxes, five pallets for each.
- So now we're ready for today's mystery Rotarian.
- So this Rotarian, now retired physician, practiced at the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children
- Home in Knightstown, Indiana for many years.
- If you know the answer, put up your hand, but don't shout it out.
- Those on Zoom, put up your electronic hand.
- This Rotarian has been a member of the Bloomington Rotary Club for over 20 years.
- You know who it is, put up your hand.
- Third clue, according to IU legend, this future Rotarian, as an underground, climbed several
- stories up the outside of Briscoe Quad during a panty raid.
- Okay, lots of people know this one.
- We're talking about Dr. Craig Spence.
- Lynn, you and Art and Jim Cryaway, I think, were the first in the room.
- Leslie, who was first online?
- Oh, well, might not have had any takers online.
- We did not.
- Okay.
- Craig, it's hard to find a picture of Craig.
- This is one that I found in the Rotary archives.
- Looks like he's up in front of the group making a presentation.
- Is that Sarah Cochran next to him?
- Sorry, Laughlin, I'm sorry, Sarah Laughlin.
- So talked about in practicing in Knightstown, the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's
- Home was founded in 1865 to provide care, education, and maintenance for the orphaned
- and destitute children of Civil War Union Army veterans.
- I don't think Craig was practicing at the founding, it was a few years after that.
- And then after nearly a century and a half, the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's
- Home closed in May of 2009.
- Knightstown loss was Bloomington's gain.
- After moving to Bloomington, Craig, Dr. Spence practiced for both IU Health and Monroe Hospital,
- eventually specializing in burn and wound care.
- So congratulations, Craig, Dr. Spence.
- And now the Rotary International Minute, Tyler, could you cue up the video?
- I was actually born in India and adopted when I was two and a half to Whitehorse, Yukon.
- Go back to India.
- What I witnessed was a polio survivor crawling and that's when I did research and was so
- excited to learn about Rotary and its commitment to a polio-free world.
- As a polio survivor, to be able to help a child not have to go through what I've gone
- through, it's incredible.
- When we cross over that end-polio finish line, we're telling the world anything's possible
- through continued commitment and daring to make a dream a reality.
- I just think that's an amazing testament of Rotary, the power of working together for
- a polio-free world.
- And if you look in the issue of the roundabout, most weeks the Rotary International Committee
- will put a little teaser in talking about different things being done by the Rotary
- International Foundation.
- Okay, we're ready for Happy Dollars.
- Is there anyone happy in the room or online?
- Well, I'm kind of opposite of happy, a very, very important member of the Chicago Cubs
- passed away yesterday from cancer.
- I had the honor of meeting him twice, and I am celebrating the greatest second baseman
- of all time, Ryan Sandberg.
- So I understand from my husband's cousin that his grandson, Andrew Fisher, is now playing
- for the Milwaukee Braves.
- I'm sorry, brewers, brewers, brewers.
- Yeah, I don't have it right.
- Yeah.
- Actually, Liz, in the 1950s, you would have been right.
- That's right.
- Okay, I am happy because on Friday, our good friends and former sponsored international
- refugee family, the Muhammadis, moved to their new apartment.
- They are now behind the post office on the east side in a bright and shiny new apartment.
- I'm happy because the fundraising event I'm planning for my organization, the Lake Monroe
- Water Fund, is called the Beach Bash, and unfortunately, you know, the beaches are under
- water right now, but the party will still go on.
- We have a lawn.
- We looked at it, it's perfect, so I'm happy we still can have our event.
- Well, I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor.
- And I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor.
- And I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
- and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
- Good afternoon, Rotarians. It is my pleasure to introduce today's speaker, a true leader
- in public transportation, and someone who continues to shape how our community moves
- forward literally and figuratively. And when Michael Shermas offered me the chance to do
- this introduction today in his place, I jumped at this in a second. John A. Connell brings
- more than 35 years of executive experience in the transit industry with a career rooted
- deeply in both innovation and service. He holds a master's of public administration from
- Indiana State University and a bachelor's degree in public administration with a concentration
- in transportation from Indiana University right here in Bloomington. John has served
- in key leadership roles across the state from Evansville to Lafayette and now serves as the
- general manager of our own Bloomington Transit. Since taking the helm in 2021, he's already
- made a significant impact. Under his leadership, Bloomington Transit has launched a battery
- electric bus transition plan and developed B-Link, an on-demand microtransit program
- expanding mobility options for all of our community. He's been at the forefront of
- sustainable transit, implementing Indiana's first soil diesel bus project, and managing
- the bus's, the system's transition from diesel to compressed natural gas. Certified in everything
- from ADA compliance to system security and transit technology, John brings not only experience
- but deep expertise to his work. And I would offer additionally, John has an amazing tact
- in the face of adversity and in the face of difficult situations of really rising to that
- moment in a community that doesn't always see change as the great opportunity, and he's
- tenacious in that, and I've always appreciated watching that up close. Rotarians, please
- join me in welcoming today's speaker, our tireless advocate for accessible, efficient
- forward-thinking public transportation, Mr. John Connell.
- Come around this way. Thank you, Trent.
- Thank you. John Connell, General Manager, Bloomington Transit. I graduated Indiana University
- in December of '87, December 18th. Started working in the industry on the 21st of December.
- I've never looked back. Started out in a metropolitan planning organization in northwest Indiana
- a year later. Moved to Evansville to run the system there. And next stop, Lafayette, and
- I'm back here in Bloomington to finalize my career in transit, and I'm just going to end
- where it all started. So thank you very much. Enough about me. I'd like to just talk about
- public transportation in general. So go ahead, Brian. So public transportation can be a lifeline
- for many individuals. It connects people to jobs, educational opportunities, services,
- cultural appointments, entertainment opportunities. It eases traffic congestion and promotes a
- cleaner environment. Home values, studies have shown home values on average increase
- approximately 24% when they're near public transportation opportunities. Every dollar
- invested in public transportation generates $5 in economic returns. There are over 100
- Indiana companies that provide supplies and services to the public transit industry. Bloomington
- Transit does business with many of those Indiana companies. So what exactly is Bloomington
- Transit? Bloomington Transit is not a department of the city. It is a standalone municipal
- corporation with property taxing authority. We also receive local income tax. It is guided
- by a five-member board. Those board members are appointed by the mayor, two appointees,
- and the city council, three appointees. And the board of directors are responsible for
- the policy and financial oversight of the corporation. So in 2023, the board of directors
- adopted a strategic plan. And that plan was entitled Transform BT. And as the name implies,
- the plan set forth a bold vision to transform the corporation. The plan calls for bold service
- expansion, introduction of new mobility options, and outlines a schedule for fleet and facility
- improvements. To date, consistent with this strategic plan, Bloomington Transit has accomplished
- the following. For the first time in history, we have expanded service outside of the city
- limits to serve the Park 48 area, which includes Ivy Tech and Cook Medical. That was a cooperative
- effort between the city, Bloomington Transit, and Monroe County. We've introduced zero-emission
- battery electric buses. We currently have 18 battery electric buses in the fleet with
- a goal of 100% emission-free by 2050. We are currently planning for the design and construction
- of a new administration, operations, and maintenance complex. So, a little bit about Bloomington
- Transit services. 16 fixed routes operate throughout the city, with one operating into
- the county that I mentioned. We operate on-demand ADA paratransit service, which is a curb-to-curve
- service for individuals who have a disability, and that disability prevents them from accessing
- the regular fixed routes. And then we have our BLINK program, and we're still trying
- to get the word out on the BLINK program. I'm going to talk about, well, what is BLINK?
- So there's three components to it. The first is our microtransit component, and if you
- look at the map on the left, you can see there's three shaded areas. Those are the zones. And
- if you're in that zone and you want to book an on-demand trip, you can do that through
- an app. And you can make trips within the zones or from one zone to the other zone.
- And you see the zone downtown is there for people to get to our transfer center so they'd
- have access to the complete fixed route network. So if you look and you say, well, how did
- you come up with those two zones on the north and the east? We looked at areas where there
- was a population that didn't have access to existing services. There may be a fixed route
- in the area, but it was simply too far to walk to use the service. So over 9,100 additional
- individuals now have access to some form of public transportation because of the microtransit
- program. The second component to our blink umbrella services is our BT late night program.
- This is available in the area C, pretty, pretty large area throughout the city, and it's only
- available from 9 p.m. to midnight. And we launched this service when we were struggling
- with a driver shortage. So we had, we looked at our ridership by hour. The 9 o'clock hour
- ridership really starts to dwindle. And we know early morning hours is when our peak
- demand is. Given the driver shortage, we had those precious resources, those human resources,
- those drivers work until midnight. And come the next morning when we needed extra drivers,
- they weren't available. So we thought, well, how can we right the ship here? So we come
- up with this late night program. We partner with Uber and Lyft. So we wanted to provide
- a safety net to those individuals that still needed service during those hours. So you
- can go to our website, you can download a voucher, and BT will subsidize up to $12 of your trip
- through Uber or Lyft. More importantly, we have those drivers available in the morning
- when we need them the most. All right, so who rides Bloomington Transit? The majority
- of our riders are related to the university, Indiana University students primarily. We
- also have faculty and staff. We have a partnership with the university where they prepay for
- the fares. So if you are a student, faculty, or staff member, and you have a valid Indiana
- University ID, you can ride any of our routes for free. We also have many people that use
- our services to get to work. We are a critical provider for entry-level positions for
- transportation
- for those individuals either just starting off or working minimum wage jobs. Seniors
- and the disabled individuals have limited mobility, a big part of our ridership. Basically,
- we have a cross-section of the community that use our services. A little bit of everybody.
- That's what we tell our new drivers. You are going to be interacting with a little bit
- of everybody. So, what are some of the new technologies we have implemented? Part of
- our strategic plan was to improve efficiency through innovation. So, we have launched new
- electronic fare collection equipment. So, instead of having a traditional old fare box
- for drop cash filters in, we have electronic validators. And once again, through an app,
- I know everything is going to app-based services, but through an app, you can load value onto
- your account 24 hours a day and you don't have to worry about exact change or having
- the exact change when you board the bus. You can use that app, use your phone on the validator
- and you're good to go. More importantly, what that technology allows us to do is what's
- called fare capping. So, prior to having this technology, we had a discounted price for
- a monthly pass, $30. And there are a lot of individuals who didn't have the financial
- wherewithal to come up with $30 at once. So, they couldn't simply afford to spend $30
- to get the discount. So, what they would do is they'd ride to work, pay a dollar, ride
- home, pay a dollar. After the 16th day, they're losing money. They're not getting the rewards
- of the discount. With this new system, if you create an account, it's going to track your
- usership and when you hit that $30 mark, you're going to ride for free during the rest of
- the calendar month. And that's been very well received by the public. The other technology
- we implemented, our microtransit booking platform. This has allowed us to optimize the scheduling.
- It's a very dynamic process now. Prior to having this software in place, drivers would
- be given manifests for the demand response type trips. And if someone cancelled, they
- need to have a void in the schedule. This continues to optimize the trips. So it improves
- the efficiency and it's worked out really well. The CAT AVL system was recently adopted
- here within the last year and a half. It's a computer automated dispatch, automatic vehicle
- locating system. So once again with another app, you can track where the bus is in real
- time. More importantly, if you're a regular user and you need to use the app, you sign
- up for notifications. If there is any type of service disruption or anything that's going
- to affect the route that you're using, you're going to get an immediate notification in
- real time. So you know there's times when buses traveling the route, utility company
- comes out of nowhere, they're excavating, we've got to do a detour. Getting that information
- out to the passengers in the past was next to impossible. Now it's instantaneous. And
- then what we're currently working on is a driver telematic system. And this component
- of technology uses AI, and it monitors the driver. And it looks for any type of unsafe
- behaviors. And it immediately notifies the dispatch if there are any of these unsafe
- behaviors happening. In addition to that, in a crisis situation, if there was an emergency
- on the bus, we can do a live look in now. So you can see exactly what's going on in
- the bus in real time. All right. So what's in the future for Bloomington Transit? We
- want to continue to expand our service to provide transit services, not just within
- the city, but throughout the entire urbanized area. We want to expand our fleet and align
- it with the needs of the services we offer. Next year, you'll be seeing 60-foot articulated
- buses operating within the community, you know, the kind of bend in the middle. So we
- have issues currently on various routes where we have capacity issues. So your bus pulls
- up and there's 60 people, one on the board. You've already got 40 on board. You've got
- to turn people away. Typically, what we do is we send another bus out with another driver
- to meet the capacity. With a 60-foot bus, you can meet the capacity with one driver
- instead of two, saving the operating costs. So that's the motivation for that type of
- expansion. We want to continue to acquire zero-emission
- buses. So the battery electric buses, we started off with two. First generation, they had their
- challenges. We had a lot of challenges. The second generation that we received, we have
- 16 of those. Fantastic. The cost per mile to run a diesel bus is $0.85 per mile. We're
- at $0.29 on a battery electric. Battery electric, you're not changing any fluids. It's a very
- simple process. We want to continue to explore our expansion for a new facility. Our existing
- facility on Grimes Lane, we're at capacity. We're running out of room. And in order to
- expand service, we need additional vehicles. You need additional vehicles. You need additional
- space. And then lastly, we're in year two of a three-year project to improve accessibility
- at bus stops. So you may have seen some new passenger shelters that have been installed
- and more importantly, accessibility concrete works being done for the disabled community.
- All right, so what are the challenges moving forward? You know, establishing a dedicated
- source of local revenue, very critical. And with Senate Bill 1, the recent property tax
- reform bill, the rules of the game change in 2028. We will need the county to assess
- the special tax for transit in order for us to continue to receive our lit funds, local
- income tax funds. And if that happens, people throughout the county will have skin in the
- game, so to speak. So obviously, we want to provide services to everybody that is contributing
- to the funding the service. Another big challenge for us is at the state level, the public mass
- transportation fund is our source of funding we received through the state. That has remained
- stagnant for 10 years. And during those same 10 years, the costs, the inflationary costs
- of our products and services have skyrocketed. So we made a strong effort at this last legislative
- session to increase the PMTF. Minor victory, as everybody else was getting cut, we remained
- at the same level. So they said chalk it up as a win. But hopefully we can get some movement
- on that in the future. Another big challenge we continue to face is employee recruitment,
- skilled employee recruitment. So maintenance employees are the most difficult currently.
- So years ago, you're looking for qualified mechanics, you're looking at the size of their
- toolbox and sizing them up. Nowadays you need to see not only a toolbox, but a laptop. Technology
- has become as important as turning a wrench. So we're struggling based on the nature of
- our schedules to attract qualified people. We haven't had any issues or concerns with
- pay. It always gets back to the scheduling. Since we operate from four in the morning
- to midnight, weekends, a lot of people don't want to work weekends. So that's a challenge
- for us. And then, and lastly, what we'd like to close with is just ask you, what would
- you like to see from Bloomington Transit? What can we do to make your lives better in
- our community? Thank you very much. Yes. We're about 38 percent right now. What percentage
- of our fleet is now battery electric? We're not quite 50 percent, but we're getting real
- close. Yes, sir. Busses are clean nightly. We have a wash crew. As far as the limitations
- in some of the areas, Penn Street overpass is an issue. This has been an issue when we
- had the hybrid buses, the height. Big concern. Matter of fact, we're making route changes
- to address in the fall because the electric buses were going to be the same type of issue.
- So we had to make route changes. But yeah, it continues to be a challenge. And I think
- that was a challenge back when I was at IU. So we'd really love to see some movement on
- that project. Yes, they're mopped in the whole nine yards. Yep. Wonderful. That's how it's
- grown. It started way back once upon a time when I got on the city council. But what we
- haven't done, I think, what are we doing to coordinate with the county? Do we still have
- county buses under a different program? So moving forward in 2028, you know, that's going
- to be a big, big consideration for the county. If you recall, in my presentation, I talked
- about Bloomington Transit wanting to provide service throughout the urbanized area. And
- the reason I use those terms, the urbanized area, when you look at the federal funding
- that we receive, it's based on the urbanized area, which includes Ellitsville and areas
- outside of the city. Now, with that being said, there are a lot of property outside
- the urbanized area that's still in Monroe County. So we have rural transit. We coordinate
- with rural transit to make sure everybody in the county has access to public transportation.
- So our role is the urbanized area. Their role is those rural areas of the county in my opinion.
- I just wanted to share some history. My first real full-time job was working in the office
- as staff for Bloomington Transit and was on staff when the Public Transportation Corporation
- was formed. And one of our fellow rotarians, Monica Kroner, was on the original Public
- Transportation Board when I was a little staff person. And we all learned how to use MS-DOS.
- Our manager decided to bring us into the computer age. So that's where I started.
- I remember those days. This is what I get for sitting with Sam. I am accompanied to
- rotary every week by Wendell St. John who gave up his car long ago, walks a lot, arranges
- transportation with me, and I said, "Have you ever used the bus?" Hardly ever. I know
- lots of people in this town when I say, "Do you ever use the bus system?" No, not at all.
- My wife and I use it regularly. How can we get more people to use the bus system instead
- of it just being conceived as only for the poor and the students?
- So one of the things we need to do a better job at is getting the word out on the services
- we have available. So for example, the BLINK program with the three microtransit, the three
- zones, I would imagine the majority of people in here is first time you've heard about that.
- We were making an effort in our 2026 budget to increase our marketing efforts. But getting
- back to like how do we get people out of their cars and into the buses, the service has to
- be convenient, has to be very convenient. And when we talk about convenience, we're
- talking about frequency of service. So throughout my career, all the best performing routes
- had one thing in common. They were the ones that ran the most frequently, every 10 minutes,
- every 15 minutes. Our goal is to provide service at least every 30 minutes. In an ideal world
- if funding wasn't an issue, we would want to see 10 to 15 minute headways. So you don't
- need a schedule. We know I'm going to get out there and the bus is going to be rolling
- by soon. So that's a big challenge.
- We have a couple of questions online. We do. Go ahead, Sandy. Hi, I appreciate your talk
- today. Thank you very much for being here. I'm Sandy with My Sister's Closet. I'd like
- to know if you have a free training program for nonprofit clients like My Sister's Closet
- who would like to provide jobs for applications for them to apply at Bloomington Transit,
- but they still need to get their CLD. Do you have a way of helping them with that and also
- do you accept applications from individuals that might have some past felonies?
- So the first part of the question, we do provide CDL training. So you don't have to have the
- commercial driver's license to be employed. We do have a background check, and there are
- just disqualifying felonies that we do have in place. As far as opportunities, I would
- encourage anyone that's interested to apply, and it's really a case-by-case basis. You
- don't have to have commercial driving experience. Sometimes we prefer you come in without any
- type of driving experience. There's a lot of people bringing in bad habits, right? Well,
- we want to mold you. And we provide the training for the CDL. So if you have individuals and
- they're interested, have them apply, and we can use them.
- Thank you.
- How much money do you make on the advertising?
- We were about $285,000 a year, and our advertising program was wide open. And what I mean by that,
- we didn't have any limitations on the number of full wraps, and we didn't have any limitation
- on how many one single advertiser could advertise on the fleet. And that became an issue earlier
- this year with our board. And I said, "Hey, we need to rethink this." Because quite frankly
- there were people thinking Ken Nunn ran the bus service. And I wouldn't be surprised if
- his office didn't get a couple of scheduled inquiries. And it was a situation where that
- advertising policy didn't have any guardrails. And what I mean by guardrails is the very
- thing. And this gets back to the marketing concept. We need to do a better job of branding
- Bloomington Transit. We live in a community where you have new freshmen come in every
- year and they see buses and it's Ken Nunn, Ken Nunn. There's no connection to Bloomington
- Transit. So as we've introduced our battery electric, there's no advertising on those.
- But at the same time, there's a big loss in revenue. So we have to find that balance.
- So you may see some, what we call the tail signs on the back of the buses, but as far
- as the full rafts, those are going to be limited.
- Okay. First is a comment, a compliment. I have an experience with a refugee, international
- refugee that was hired by Bloomington Transit as a driver without a commercial driver's
- license. In fact, he only had gotten his operator's license a few months before. And I wanted
- to compliment you on that. He had a very positive experience driving for Bloomington Transit.
- And I think he still does a little part-time work with them. The question I have is about
- light rail, which may seem like trying to talk about laser cannons in the age of bow
- and arrow, but I am curious about a route like the east-west route along 3rd Street,
- whether you can imagine that that could ever be a corridor for light rail in Bloomington.
- I don't think it's going to be a corridor for light rail, but our goal is for bus rapid
- transit, which is basically, it's geared up like light rail. You have raised platforms.
- You have bus-only lanes in what we call the pinch points, or in some cities, it's the
- entire corridor. We did do a study, did a phase one and a phase two, and the results
- were not quite there yet. And in order to make that happen, you have to reach certain
- criteria in terms of potential ridership, population density, because to tackle that
- type of project, you have to get a capital improvement grant. And there are qualifiers
- to receive those funds, and it's strictly on a discretionary basis. But we have the
- study in place, our long-term goal is to phase in components of the green line over time.
- Leslie online.
- Yeah, our next question is, how is your ridership on the microtransit, and do you plan to expand
- it? And then I have one more after that.
- So the microtransit is still relatively slow, and the idea behind it when we launched it,
- our biggest concern, it was going to be overused. And the last thing we wanted to do is overpromise
- and underdeliver. So we originally started off where you had to go to a bus stop within
- the zone, and Shelly, she's shaking her head. She talked me out of it, but that's just between
- us.
- So now we've changed it. So it's curb to curb. So you can get picked up. It's just like Uber
- and Lyft. It's going to find you, and we're going to send the vehicle. But once again,
- the marketing and getting that word out is what we're going to really key on in 2026.
- And then what was the second question?
- The second question was as far as drivers and recruiting qualified drivers, what's the demand
- or shortage for drivers and with the expansions plans that you have or the turnover of drivers?
- So the turnover is, like I mentioned earlier, when we do exit interviewing with the challenge
- we find, I've yet to have one person tell me that they were leaving because of the economics
- of the job. It's usually the lifestyle of the job. So we work on the weekends. You work
- late at night. It's a union environment. When you get hired in in a union shop, everything's
- done by seniority. Where do you land? You land on the bottom of the seniority list. So you
- end up with the most challenging schedules and that's, that can be problematic.
- Thanks John for the presentation as well. Good to see you. Back when we had an opportunity
- to work together, and of course many of us here knew Lou May, the previous general manager.
- So we're glad you're here. But I just wanted to make a complimentary comment. First of all,
- thank you for your knowledge, expertise and efforts and being able to compromise and work
- with many others in order to reach some of your goals. But the question I have, I think
- it's a question. The city is currently having a rebranding committee to work on rebranding
- the city, and it just occurred to me that there might be an opportunity for you to maybe
- save some dollars on marketing if you were to partner with them. So has anyone ever thought
- about BT's branding to be part of the city's rebranding, which might make both efforts
- a little bit more efficient? Yeah, and I think that's a great idea. We have worked recently
- real closely with Gold Bloomington on a shared video about our Blink program, because you
- know, the goals are parallel. You know, they're trying to get people on public transportation,
- so that was a good partnership with the city. And you know, I just would like to, one of
- the things I should point out is this Transform BT strategic plan and all the things we've
- got accomplished to date really is a result of the city council that Jim was part of at
- the time to enter into a five-year agreement with Bloomington Transit. And that five-year
- agreement moved $3.8 million of LIT funding to Bloomington Transit for five years. And
- we were able to leverage those funds, those 16 battery electric buses, you know, $18 million
- project as a result of the council stepping up and saying, "Hey, we recognize how important
- transit is, and we're willing to make this commitment." And that's helped us Transform
- BT, quite frankly. So thank you. John, thank you very much. I especially enjoy just hearing
- about your innovative approaches and the use of technology. In honor of your presentation,
- a donation we've made this quarter to Off-Night Productions. So I'd like to thank the club
- members who volunteered to help with today's program. A few of them did it on very short
- notice. Art Omec, Dave Meyer, Trent Deckard, Leslie Kosenko, Sarah Cochran, Jim Bright,
- Sam Udek, Dave Meyer. And also like to thank our staff, Tyler Martin Nichols, who was challenged
- for the second week in a row. Did a great job. And Natalie Blaze. So our next meeting will
- be August 5th in the Georgian room. Our speaker will be Dominique Domornay, whose topic is
- Chamos for Change, Rotary Support for Positive Parenting. So Tyler, if you would pull up
- the four-way test, please stand if you're able.
- Of the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all
- concern? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial
- to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?
- Thank you all. [Music]
- [Music] [Music]