There’s good news when it comes to public transit service in the urban part of Belleville’s Thurlow ward.
At a city council meeting Monday Councillor Bill Sandison says the regular bus and mobility bus service now available on a trial basis until the end of September could be able to continue until the end of March next year.
Sandison says the money would come from the federal Safe Restart Agreement and the provincial gas tax.
“No property tax impact on urban Ward 2 residents, no knee-jerk shift in service. We stay the course and allow the Ward 2 public transit service to unfold in a thoughtful and purposeful manner.”
Sandison mentioned that Route 9 would likely be shortened from a 45-minute turnaround to a 30-minute round trip as there was very little uptake from the public on some sections of the route.
The topic of extending the Route 9 public transit service in urban Thurlow past September has been a controversial subject in the past several weeks.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk had to intervene after Councillor Paul Carr said he was on the public transit committee and Sandison’s revelation on funding was “all news to me”, wondering why he hadn’t been involved in the discussions.
Sandison wanted to respond but was overruled by the mayor saying that he and Carr would be better discussing the matter outside of the council meeting.
Sandison did manage to exclaim that the funding options had been discussed at a past council meeting.
The matter will be up for discussion during an operating budget meeting at the end of next month.
