MOUNT VERNON — More than half of Knox County Transit riders use public transit for employment, but that service is in jeopardy due to funding cuts and a lack of corporate support.
In January 2025, employment accounted for 32% of ridership. That has shifted significantly.
“We actually are up to 52% employment, so over half of our rides are getting people to or from work,” Transit Director Bethany Celmar told the commissioners on Tuesday.
The remaining rides were 20% medical, 13% personal, 8% education, and 7% shopping.
“So we really are hitting some really big needs and some big niches in the community where we want to be with workforce and access to healthcare,” Celmar said. “Those are kind of the two priorities.”
However, Celmar said employers are not supporting the transit agency.
“I’m certainly going to be bumping that up to the higher priority and pushing a little bit harder, because any time we’re getting squeezed, it’s going to be employment, it’s going to be jobs,” she said.
Walmart is KCT’s biggest user for employment riders. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Tim Horton’s are others. Celmar said it is difficult to elicit support from chains.
The lack of corporate support jeopardizes the Night Bus, which runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Celmar said previous conversations have been “this is the Night Bus, would you like to sponsor it?”
Now, she said, the conversation is “this is the end date.”
“It’s still packed. It’s still very difficult to get people on there, and there’s a situation right now where there’s someone that might not be able to keep his job because you can’t get him on there,” Celmar said.
“I do think that’s the conversation if we don’t get the contributions.”
Filling a need
Night Bus ridership is 15 to 20 people a night. The Ohio Department of Transportation provided a $200,000 grant in February 2024 to fund a one-year pilot program.
“It was something that many people came to me with a need in 2023,” Celmar said of the program.
KCT launched a second Night Bus to fill the demand, transporting roughly 35 people a night. However, the agency discontinued it due to a lack of funds.
Celmar cannot reapply for the Night Bus grant because it is a one-time expansion grant.
“Now it’s considered part of my operations that I have to sustain,” she said.
If several would contribute a little
Celmar acknowledged it is not a great time to be asking for corporate support.
“We know that for-profit businesses are trying to make a profit and maybe they don’t have a lot to contribute, but we were hoping to get several to just give a little. That wasn’t the plan, to ask somebody for a lot.”
Part of the difficulty is that KCT serves many manufacturers, but only two or three employees are at each company.
“That was the conversation I had with one of them: ‘It’s only three people. I’m not interested in contributing.’ That’s not a huge portion of their workforce,” Celmar said.
Operational costs for the Night Bus are $80,000.
If employers covered the cost of their employees, that would be contract revenue. Contract revenue does not reduce the amount of federal funding KCT receives and can be used as a local match.
Similarly, KCT can use corporate donations as a match.
“The thing that pops out of my mind is you hate to start something and then not finish it completely, or have some success and then quit,” Commissioner Barry Lester said. “That kind of concept bothers me.”
Celmar said the next thing in danger is Saturday service.
“That’s actually a lot of workforce as well. Those tend to be the shifts that people with disabilities have, either the evenings and the weekends. We take a lot of people to Goodwill to work on Saturdays,” she said.
Anyone who would like more information can contact Celmar at 740-392-7026 option 2 or bethanycelmar@knoxcountytransit.com.
Why the empty buses?
Celmar said KCT receives comments about empty buses. There are four times a day when a driver’s bus will be empty:
•From the station en route to the first pickup.
•Returning to the station for lunch.
•From the station en route to their first stop after lunch.
•Returning after their shift ends.
KCT operates several shifts:
•4 drivers 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.
•2 drivers 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
•4-5 drivers 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
•8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
•9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
•10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
•11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“I have drivers who are starting their day at every single hour of the day. Then you throw in there lunches … So, yes, you will see empty buses,” Celmar said.
“There’s no way to avoid that when we’re out of service or we’re going to and from lunch.”
Staffing: where it needs to be for our budget
Celmar said staffing is “where it needs to be for our budget.”
“I definitely can’t hire any more full-timers. I intend to find somebody who’s doing just out of county, a part-timer, which is going to really help us out.”
KCT is still feeling the effects of cuts last July to the tune of $125,000, resulting from another transit being added in the state. Celmar anticipates additional cuts because another new transit system will come online in 2027.
Celmar said the amount of federal money flowing to Ohio was not cut. Instead, the amount allocated to each transit system is reduced because two more systems are joining the network.
Modifications in routes
In January, KCT stopped picking up fixed-route riders at their home. Now, riders must board at a transit stop.
“We found that we didn’t have time to deviate for everyone … We can drop you off at a location different than one of the stops, but you have to get on at a stop. And it has reduced the number of riders,” Celmar said.
“It’s also winter, a really hard time to be waiting out at a stop.
I think once the spring comes, we’re going to look at that,” she said.
KCT also started a route south of the Kokosing River. Dubbed the Progress Loop, it starts on Columbus Road and incorporates the industrial park.
Celmar applied for a $98,000 workforce grant through ODOT to fund two drivers during the day on the route.
Celmar said that although ODOT said the application was great, it would take 12 to 18 months to reach KCT. Conversely, urban transit systems can access the money immediately.
“The other part is that it’s also linked to pollution or emissions reduction,” Celmar said. “Thankfully, we don’t have a big problem in Knox County with that, but they said they didn’t even do the calculation for us because we’re rural.”
Celmar also believes there is a political component to disbursing the money, noting that much went to COTA and the Cleveland area.
“It’s well known they aren’t lacking funding. COTA is not lacking funding, but they got a million out of them,” she said.
