MOUNT VERNON — Knox Area Transit Director Bethany Celmar feels like KAT is busier than ever, and the data supports that feeling. However, the transit agency faces funding issues.
Monthly ridership increased significantly from April through July compared to 2023, fueled partly by demand for the Night Bus.
“We had a much busier summer than we normally would have, and that’s in the data,” Celmar told the Knox County commissioners. “And we did it with the same number of drivers.”
Employment, education, and medical issues top the reasons why riders rode KAT in 2023 and 2024.
Employment jumped from 24% to 31% year over year, while education dropped from 16% to 12%. Medical stayed the same at 19%.
“But if you look at July and August, it’s actually 41 and 40% that we are doing [for employment]. So that’s excellent,” Celmar said. “We love to do that. We love to get people to work.”
However, she noted it creates greater strain on the system because people must get to work on time.
“It’s the same with education and medical appointments,” she said. “You can see that a large portion of our trips have a time constraint on them. That has been something we’ve been very aware of, trying to juggle more within that time period and be on time.”
KAT’s on-time performance is about 96%. Celmar said the main goal for 2025 is to reach 99% to 100%.
Knox Area Transit Night Bus
The Night Bus schedules 26 trips a night for second-shift workers.
“It is booked, and unfortunately, we’re having to deny a few rides here and there,” Celmar said. “We could probably add a second bus, from about 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. or 7 to 11, just to accommodate demand.”
The program served about 51 employers and 75 individuals from July to September. Workers went to Knox Community Hospital, every nursing home, and the private sector.
A significant portion is food service and retail; about 11 are manufacturers.
No employer helps fund the program.
KAT launched the Night Bus with a $200,000 Ohio Department of Transportation grant. However, ODOT is not renewing it.
The commissioners appropriated $200,000 from the general fund for transit in 2024. They added another $100,000 as the community match for new bus wraps and software.
“We had to have the match or they wouldn’t have given us the money. We didn’t have any other match,” County Administrator Jason Booth explained.
“But the county can’t keep adding more and more for the match.”
Because of the high demand for employment transportation, Celmar said downsizing KAT is not a good solution.
“I like that people are using it for employment. I think that’s what we want do. We want to see people be employed even if they don’t have transportation, they don’t have their own vehicles,” she said.
“We are the only transit in the state doing this. … I have COTA talking to me asking me how I’m getting this done.”
Transit directors in Northeast Ohio also ask Celmar how to start a similar program.
A ‘fork-in-the-road decision’
While Knox Area Transit demand increases, funding lags. The commissioners have propped up funding, but Celmar sees no help from the state or federal level.
Forty rural Ohio transits split $32 million and $7.7 million in federal and state spending, respectively. Celmar said there is not enough to go around.
“Our revenue is a little lower than $2.5 million. It needs to be about $3 million to get to fully functioning,” she said.
Celmar said KAT faces a “fork-in-the-road decision.”
“Are we going to try to fund it and meet all of the demand in the county, or are we going to refocus and say this is the demand that we can meet, and this is the funding we have?” she asked.
Celmar said more demand is there, and not just for employment.
“You hear in meetings that people are saying they’re getting denied. It’s true,” she said.
“There are times when we just can’t, especially if it’s same day or even the next day. We are just too busy; we are fully booked.”
Meeting current demand
Celmar said the agency could meet current Knox Area Transit demand if it got another $500,000 in local funding and 10 more drivers.
The $500,000 would be the 50-50 match for federal funding. Theoretically, if KAT gets the match, then the federal money follows.
However, federal funding is capped at $32 million, and KAT is not guaranteed to receive it.
Celmar said that the more KAT charges under government funding, the less the government gives.
“So you almost have to give it away to get full funding, which we can’t fully afford to do,” Commissioner Thom Collier said.
KAT can use contract revenue from organizations as a local match. However, Celmar said there is a lot of push-back from organizations to pay for transportation.
“I have not had a lot of good reception to it,” she said. “My contract rates are very reasonable, probably lower than a private company. But I don’t think people have the budget line for it.
“I don’t know what the answer is to that.”
Celmar is comparing other transit companies’ hours of service and Saturday operations. She will also investigate to find data on trip purposes and funding.
“It will be interesting to find out how they fill their funding needs. I think the majority of our riders are from the city, so we could certainly use a bigger investment from the city,” Commissioner Teresa Bemiller said.
“Yes, especially because they’re going to work, and I can now prove that they’re working and that’s bringing income tax,” Celmar agreed.
