WV: KRT director: 'It’s been a tough year,’ praises community for passing levy

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 174,000 people live in Kanawha County. And according to the Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority — otherwise known as KRT — approximately 153,000 of those people live within three-quarters of a mile of a KRT route.

Established in 1971, KRT services all of Kanawha County, as well as portions of Putnam and Fayette counties, accounting for a service area of more than 900 square miles. Service for KRT’s 20 fixed routes is available six days a week, closed on Sundays.

Kanawha County Public Safety Levy

When Kanawha County voters went to the polls last week to vote in the primary election, an item appeared on the ballot that had nothing to do with public office — the Kanawha County Public Safety Levy, which provides funding for law enforcement, volunteer fire departments, the County Ambulance Authority, and the KRT public bus system. And with more than 75% of county residents voting in favor of the levy, its passage was overwhelmingly secured.

“The one thing the levy does — which is extremely valuable to us — is it creates certainty,” KRT Executive Director Sean Hill explained last week. “This levy starts in 2029, so we now know what the next seven years of funding look like for KRT.”

That certainty, Hill said, is helpful when working through KRT’s budgeting process.

“We’ll be able to make more informed decisions, and our board will be able to understand exactly what our funding looks like for the next coming years,” Hill noted.

While Hill said that no plans have been finalized for increasing service routes or reducing fares, passage of the levy “gives us the ability to start looking at this process and being deliberative, instead of scrambling at the last second.”

“If this funding didn’t come through, that would have been a much bigger problem for us,” Hill said, noting the funding level has been reduced from previous years. “That’s something that our board is going to have to take into consideration.”

“While it’s extremely necessary for us in order to maintain our operations, it is going to be a challenge as we move forward to figure out how we continue to make the most responsible decisions we can with this funding level,” Hill added.

‘A tough year’

“It’s been a tough year,” Hill said. “Everything costs more today than it did yesterday, and with funding levels remaining pretty consistent, it’s tough to make your dollar go as far as it did yesterday.”

Being both creative and innovative, Hill said, have become a necessary component of KRT’s ongoing effort to stretch their available funding as far as possible.

“Once you administratively solve the problems you can that are right in front of you, it only gets more complicated as you move forward,” Hill noted, adding that KRT’s Board of Directors is scheduled to present their fiscal year 2027 budget during their May 28 meeting. “We currently have about a $1.8 million deficit, and obviously, you don’t want to budget toward that.”

“This levy was just so important because it gives us the understanding that those funds are going to be there,” Hill said. “Even if it’s at a diminished rate that’s still stable, it gives us the ability to paint a clear picture, as opposed to dealing with the unknown.”

Fuel prices

As of Wednesday, AAA reports the national average cost of gasoline to be $4.55 per gallon and rising. However, as the managing body of the Kanawha County Fuel Consortium, this is one financial reality that KRT is safe from for now.

“That fuel consortium actually allows us to set contracted prices for two years,” Hill explained. “We have about 75 to 100 county and municipal agencies that participate in that.”

“Right now, our gasoline is $2.02 a gallon, and I want to say diesel is $2.55 a gallon,” Hill said. “We locked in those prices last November, so we’ve been saving Kanawha County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars through this system. Other public transit entities ride the market. Right now, with diesel prices above $5, that’s killing people.”

The benefits of a stable fuel cost, Hill added, is twofold.

“One we’re saving money for local agencies with those contracted fuel prices,” Hill said. “And two, we’ve had about a 5% increase in ridership over the last two months. Hopefully it’s people saying, ‘Hey, I’d much rather pay $1.50 and get on the bus to go to work, instead of getting in my car and paying $4 a gallon.’”

For more information about KRT, including a complete route map and bus schedule, visit rideonkrt.com.

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