The Michiana Area Council of Governments took action Wednesday on Interurban Trolley cuts and U.S. 30 intersection changes.
MACOG’s Policy Board approved a roughly seven-percent service reduction to the Interurban Trolley, the bus system serving Elkhart and surrounding areas.
MACOG Executive Director James Turnwald said operating costs have increased by about 55 percent since 2019, but funding hasn’t kept up. “We’re targeting a lot of the hours in which they’re just not seeing the ridership, so it’s a lot of early morning or late evenings,” Turnwald explained.
Elkhart City Council member Dwight Fish cast the lone opposing vote. He said the state’s property tax reform is hurting poorer residents.
“My constituents are heavily reliant on any kind of public transportation, and I believe this comes from some silly political cuts at a much higher level that’s affecting all of us,” Fish told the rest of the Policy Board.
MACOG officials previously said the cuts could take effect as soon as June 1.
Meanwhile, the board rejected two potential U.S. 30 "j-turn" projects in Kosciusko County. Members denied the Indiana Department of Transportation’s request to add “median U-turns” at State Road 19 and County Road 800 West into the transportation improvement program. Those projects got an unfavorable recommendation from MACOG’s transportation technical advisory board last week.
INDOT says these types of projects have been shown to reduce fatal and serious crashes by 80-percent. Deputy Commissioner Jason Kaiser felt these were good solutions for rural intersections.
“We want to have that opportunity to go out and speak to the public, get stakeholder feedback, tweak designs, if necessary, cancel the project, if necessary,” Kaiser said.
But Kosciusko County Commissioner Cary Groninger said he’s talked to stakeholders, and none of them support it. “We really have to figure out improvements at those intersections that allow for not only free-flow traffic on U.S. 30, but also, we don’t lose our local mobility, we don’t lose our economic opportunity,” Groninger added.
He said the Amish community is also concerned about the safety of navigating their buggies through j-turns.
Still, MACOG’s Policy Board voted to move forward with two similar projects in Marshall County near Plymouth. It also agreed to let INDOT do a more in-depth study of potential U.S. 30 improvements in the Warsaw area.
