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Last year the Winslow City Council voted to apply for federal grant money to begin a transit system. The grant, provided by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) requires a match of 20 percent from the City of Winslow. The first phase of the two-year grant has been awarded to the city.
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Also included in the adoption of the plan was the hiring of a transit manager. In December, the city hired Timothy Nelson for that position. Nelson presented an update on the transit system last week in front of the council.
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“I have been working on building up contacts for the transit system, putting together organizations that may be a good reference or good resource to tap into,” said Nelson.
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Within the City of Winslow Transit Plan is the need for partnerships in order to fund and mitigate the economic impact of building a new system. In fact, according to Nelson, part of the criteria for receiving grants is that the city find a transportation company already doing business to ‘piggyback’ on.
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Nelson continued, “Part of our transit building with other organizations was with Hopi Senom. We have come to find out that, while we did meet with Navajo Transit, we have not been able to meet with Hopi Senom. Unfortunately, two things happened. One, we found out that Hopi Senom is over capacity, they can not add anything else to their plate. On the other hand, Navajo Transit was chomping at the bit to go do something, but they are in a period of transition that is keeping them from making decisions, currently. Initially, they were very excited about working up an intergovernmental agreement to partner with the City of Winslow.
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“We did meet with NACOG (Northern Arizona Council of Governments) and ADOT last week. That meeting brought out some interesting information. One of the questions I presented to the organizations was, ‘what if we cannot find a group that is willing to take us on as a partner?’ I asked if it would be possible for us on a limited scope to build our own city transit and run a route here in town. The answer was yes. We would just need to spend our funds judicially.”
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Nelson has also met with NAIPTA (Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority). He continued, “We met to see if we could build a partnership with them through Flagstaff. Their primary interest in the I-40 corridor and getting people back and forth from Winslow to Flagstaff. I am not sure how well a local route service would be received by them. It will be interesting to see what they want to do with our request for partnership.”
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The transit grants awarded to the city are federal funds administered by ADOT to procure busses for the transit system. Nelson explained, “You may be aware that there was a government shutdown. During that time, we could not do anything, including utilizing the ADOT website.”
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Originally, the plan had busses on the road in Winslow in October 2019. “Because of the shutdown, that has all been pushed back. Now, October is the soonest we will be able to order busses and then we will be in line with other communities trying to buy busses as well. It would be a six to nine-month process. In the meantime, I am working on getting bus stops established with posts and signage and explore partnerships.”
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City of Winslow Community Development Director, Paul Ferris added, “NACOG will be here, in front of the council on Feb. 26 to give you a follow up on the meetings that are being held and to discuss partnership plans.”
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