After assuring that a contractor was in place to run the proposed Route 130 shuttle bus, the county Workforce Investment Board now says that issue still needs to be finalized.
By: Michael Arges
The Mercer County Workforce Investment Board needs to "ramp up" their Route 130 bus project and put an end to the repeated delays in the proposed bus service, said Brian Hughes, chairman of the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
The proposed service would run along the Route 130 corridor between the Hamilton train station and South Brunswick near New Jersey Turnpike Exit 8A and would transport needed employees to businesses along the corridor.
Mr. Hughes comments in a Thursday interview were made in response to a Wednesday statement to the Windsor-Hights Herald made by Mercer County WIB Executive Director Cathy Tramontana. In response to a question about what contractor the WIB would use for the bus service, Ms. Tramontana responded, "I can’t give you that information at this point in time, because, again, that’s one of the issues that we’re still finalizing."
This appears to contradict Aug. 1 assurances from the county administration that the original contract for the service was still in effect.
Ms. Tramontana said she could not give a definite date when the service would begin.
"We hope it’s going to be very soon, in the next few weeks," she said, noting that there are two "housekeeping issues" remaining to be done. She indicated that her agency is not entirely sure which bus contractor they are going to be using for the service. "That is just one of the two items we are finalizing."
The apparent discrepancy is especially shocking to Mr. Hughes in light of recent efforts by East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov to get the project back on track, after it had been delayed for about a year and a half.
"Two months ago your mayor in East Windsor called a meeting to get all responsible parties to the meeting, and she has been moving this process along," he said.
At the end of July, Mayor Mironov invited representatives from all the affected municipalities and counties, plus the state Department of Transportation, to a meeting to be sure that all impediments to the service had been resolved. Following that meeting, it was anticipated the bus would be running by the end of September.
Though invited, representatives from the WIB were conspicuous by their absence, Mr. Hughes said.
"As a county freeholder and chairman of the county freeholder board, I was frankly a little bit shocked that no one from the WIB attended the meeting," he said. "The WIB and the leadership of the WIB lost this project for a while and really didn’t take a leadership role, and that fell on Mayor Mironov."
If that original contract had lapsed or if problems had arisen with the contract, WIB should have indicated this two months ago, when other governments and agencies were working to tie up all the loose ends in the proposed program, Mr. Hughes indicated.
Mayor Mironov agreed, pointing to an exchange of memos between the vice chairwoman of the Mercer County board of freeholders, Lucylle Walter, with Mercer County administrator John Ricci. Mr. Ricci assured Ms. Walter that the original contract approved by the freeholders was still in effect.
"How can it be that we’re sitting two months later and she can’t answer whether they have a bus company or not?" the mayor asked.
In light of the very productive and cooperative July meeting, Mr. Hughes suggested that the WIB’s inaction is the only remaining impediment to the bus service going forward.
"It’s my understanding that the state Department of Transportation is satisfied, that the local governments are satisfied, that we are waiting and watching for this bus to appear. The only person or persons that are holding it up are connected to the WIB," he said.
"There are a couple of final things that have to get completed before the bus service can actually run, but we are pretty much almost at the very tail end," Ms. Tramontana said. "So it will be soon, very, very soon.
"I’m not going to give a specific day at this time, because I can’t, because there are two issues outstanding that are currently in the works, which should be done soon," Ms. Tramontana added.
Besides the choice of contractor, the other outstanding item is to put up bus stop signs, she added.
"The signs are currently in the process of being installed probably next week and there some things we have to fine tune with our transit vendor, with the transit vendor itself." Apparently the "fine tuning" necessary is choosing which vendor to hire.
"We got approval from the Department of Transportation," Ms. Tramontana said. "So that’s what we were waiting for. There are some delays with this particular project not on our part, but because of just the process itself and getting approvals and all that stuff."
The bus project is funded by state and federal grants through the WIB, a government entity with strong board representation from the private sector that works to encourage job training and job opportunities. It is a pilot project, but organizers hope that New Jersey Transit, one of the backers, will undertake the route on a regular basis if it proves successful.
In general the bus route would follow Route 130, but will veer off to make contact with employment and housing sites.

