The board of the Salem Area Mass Transit District meets on Thursday, April 27, to consider spending $5.4 million on new electric buses and a beefed up security contract that would add more patrols on transit property.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. and will be in person at the Senator Hearing Room at Courthouse Square, 555 Court St. N.E. It will also be accessible by Zoom and live streamed by Capital Community Media.
Public comments are due at 5 p.m. Thursday, and written comments can be emailed to [email protected].
READ IT: AGENDA
The board will vote on a revised contract with Gillig to increase the purchase price for five electric buses the transit agency originally ordered in 2021.
The original order for $3.6 million included the cost of the buses. The revised contract includes onboard chargers, batteries and extended warranties for the batteries. Cherriots is paying for the new buses, which will replace diesel powered buses, with several grants.
Buses are expected to arrive in May, Cherriots spokeswoman Patricia Feeney said.
Board members will also vote on an expanded security contract with a new provider, PPC Solutions, Inc. which would cost $11 million for seven years of service. The initial contract would be for four years, with the option to extend an additional three.
The contract calls for increased security staffing at both the Downtown Transit Center and Keizer Transit Center, as well as a new mobile patrol that would respond to bus shelters and park and ride lots.
“The increase in staffing will allow the contractor to expand the security presence onboard buses,” the agenda item says.
The board will consider a contract to purchase a traffic signal priority system, which would allow buses to communicate with Salem traffic signals and extend a green light for buses running behind schedule, allowing them to move more efficiently. Emergency vehicles, which also have traffic signal priority, would be prioritized over buses, the agenda item says.
The contract for the system would be awarded to SinWaves, Inc., not to exceed $276,380.
Board directors will consider a contract for project management services to oversee six major construction and capital projects the agency has underway. Those include a bus stop improvement program and the purchase of property for the future south Salem transit hub. The contract with Mott MacDonald, LLC would be for four years with three possible one-year extensions and a cost not to exceed $1.69 million.
The board will also vote on a new travel policy for board directors, allowing them to obtain frequent flyer mileage and rewards points from business travel for Cherriots.
The resolution comes a few months after general manager Allan Pollock was fined $100 by the state for applying his personal airline and hotel membership rewards accounts to District-funded business trips between 2018 and 2022. Pollock was required to donate the estimated $760 in accumulated rewards points to charity.
The agency at the time did not have a policy about personal rewards points while traveling for Cherriots business. Cherriots has adopted an identical policy for employees, Feeney said. Staff policies do not require board approval.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
JUST THE FACTS, FOR SALEM – We report on your community with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Get local news that matters to you. Subscribe to Salem Reporter. Click I want to subscribe!
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
