Business View Magazine Apr-2023

135 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 qualified candidates. Currently, 70 percent of the department’s employees are full and part- time bus drivers, 15 percent of employees are dispatchers and operation supervisors, and the remaining staff largely consists of maintenance and administrative employees. “It’s been a struggle to find new employees but I think we’ve turned a corner. That’s important because demand for service is only going to increase alongside our community’s aging population,” says Capelle. That increase in demand is proven by another large financial commitment - $22 million to renovate and expand Laketran’s headquarters to be able to operate 40 additional Dial-a-Ride vehicles. That investment makes the renovation the largest single construction project that the organization has ever undertaken. The expansion to its operations and maintenance facilities will be funded primarily by a competitive grant from the Federal Transit Administration that funds bus facility improvements. Laketran has several goals it wants to accomplish in 2023 and beyond to provide an even higher level of service for residents. It is adding a new service to its Local Routes to serve Lake Erie College’s expanding campus, and already has a campus shuttle serving Lakeland Community College. It is also a member of NEORide, a collaboration of 15 public transit systems across Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan that have come together to offer a coordinated mobile ticketing app, EZfare. The regional partnership allows riders to pay bus fares for multiple systems using one app. The hope is to expand NEORide to include other transit systems across the Midwest and around the U.S. creating a uniform way for transit riders to pay their fare no matter what public transit system they are using. “We want to make it a more reliable franchise,” Capelle says. “Right now, you go to most cities LAKETRAN