Transit merger plan to make trip to County Board

Ozaukee County supervisors next month will get a look at the proposed merger of the Ozaukee and Washington county transit programs, even as several questions remain about operational details and its fiscal impact.

The county Public Works Committee recently directed Transit Supt. Joy Neilsen to prepare a draft charter and resolution that would create an Ozaukee-Washington County Transit Commission so that they can be presented to and discussed by the full County Board.

Officials are looking at merging the counties’ transit programs to improve service for residents who travel between the two counties.

Currently, riders traveling from one county to the other have to be dropped off at one county line and picked up by a taxi from the other county.

For instance, more than 8,000 riders a year have to be transferred in Newburg. 

Merging the two systems would necessitate the creation of an independent transit commission.

Under the proposed charter, membership of a joint transit commission would be equally divided between the two counties with three supervisors from each county and one citizen member appointed by each county.

The charter follows a template supplied by the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Committee.

Each county would likely continue its maintenance process, with Ozaukee using its Highway Department to service vehicles and Washington County contracting with a private vendor.

There would be centralized dispatch services but each county would have an on-site manager.

It’s likely that fares for some current riders in Ozaukee County would go up while they may go down for others, officials said.

That’s because the current Ozaukee County fare structure is based on travel between zones while under the merged system fares will be based on miles traveled, County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said.

“There will probably be some winners and losers,” Dzwinel told members of the county Public Works Committee last week.

The Ozaukee County Transit Department building on Oakland Avenue in Port Washington, which was built with federal dollars, could be leased to the transit commission.

One unknown is the amount of “deadheading” — trips from one county that end in the other county and must return with no passenger.

“I’m not sure we’ll ever get an answer to that question” until after the merged system has been in operation for some time, Public Works Committee member Tom Grabow said.

Public Works Committee members also requested that county Corporation Counsel Rhonda Gordon review the charter and resolution.

The hope is that the charter and resolution will be approved before June so that the merged system can be in operation in 2021. If it’s approved later than that, it probably couldn’t start until 2022, officials said based on deadlines to procure federal funding.

Dzwinel said it’s likely the two counties will agree to a three-year contract but that afterward either county could pull out of the deal.