Grant could lead to merger of bus services

City lawmakers have been asked to support an application by Ulster County for a $20 million grant that could be put toward consolidating Kingston’s Citibus service and the Ulster County Area Transit system.

During a special meeting of the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee on Monday, Mayor Steve Noble said the county was seeking support from the city for Phase 2 of its Municipal Consolidation and Efficiency Competition application.

“It’s a $20 million pot of money that the county is interested in obtaining,” Noble told committee members.

Noble said the county applied for the money earlier this year and was awarded $50,000 from New York state. That money was used toward studying a possible merger of the Citibus and UCAT systems, as well as the dissolution of the village of Ellenville and other sharedservices initiatives, according to Noble.

The mayor said Ulster is one of six counties in New York eligible to submit an application for Phase 2 of the funding. The application is due June 23, so he has not seen the final draft, he said.

“There’s no [required funding] match for us at this time for this application,” Noble said. He said the city’s resolution basically states Kingston has expressed an interest in studying the consolidation of its public transit system with UCAT and is committed to saving taxpayers money.

The committee unanimously approved the resolution. The full Common Council was to vote on at a meeting Tuesday night, which took place too late to be included in this story.

The possibility of a city-county bus merger was brought up last year during sales tax negotiations between Kingston and Ulster County. A feasibility study, known as the “Transit Integration Study,” was launched earlier this year to examine whether the bus systems could be combined.