MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Mountain Line excess levy is on the June ballot. The 2016 excess levy request was approved by 63 percent of Mon County voters.
Bruffy says since 2016 they have made expanding services a priority and improving equipment.
“We promised to expand evening and weekend services, we are using $500,000 a year to purchase vehicles,” Bruffy said,”We promised to provide service to growing areas such as Wadestown, Suncrest Town Center, Fort Pierpont, WestRidge/Mylan Park area.”
Bruffy says Mountain line vehicles that have been purchased with levy funds are marked with a green check mark.
“Over the first three-and-a-half years we’ve purchased 11 new buses and ordered an additional six buses,” Bruffy said,”We’ve spent $3.6 million purchasing equipment, $1.5 million in levy funds and we’ve matched that with $2.1 million in federal funds.”
Since the levy was approved in 2016, service has increased by 41 percent. That equals 80,000 hours of bus service or 1.5 million miles each year.
“The investment that the community has made in public transit couldn’t be any more valuable than it is right now,”Bruffy said,”Even though ridership is lower than it has been at any time.”
Free bus passes are available to Mon County taxpayers through a program implements by Bruffy late last year.
“For every $1,000 worth of property tax you pay your household is eligible for a bus pass,” Bruffy said,”There’s no charge, that’s what your levy funds are paying for.”
The pandemic has dropped ridership by more than 80 percent, but Bruffy says a new demographic is using public transportation.
“We have been seeing a continuing trend of non university-related ridership in the entire county increasing,” Bruffy said,”Since we’ve increased services through the funding the levy has provided us.”