Archive: Around Town

Dr. Henrik “Hank” Dullea, Cornell University’s vice president for university relations emeritus, will take over as chairman of the TCAT Board of Directors at the board’s 2011 reorganizational meeting 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27.

Dullea replaces 2010 Chairman Frank Proto, a Tompkins County legislator, who will now serve as immediate past chairman.

“We are very thankful for Frank’s leadership in 2010 in which we again are pleased to announce record ridership for the fourth straight year in a row with ridership in excess of 3.5 million,” said TCAT General Manager Joe Turcotte, (adding that TCAT will release specific data on 2010 performance later this week.)

“Over the past year, we have accomplished much with the addition of our next‑generation fare collection system, featuring the rechargeable Tcard fare medium,” Turcotte said. “In addition we implemented a more efficient route system following a comprehensive study with extensive public input.”

Turcotte said TCAT’s staff welcomes Dullea to the board’s helm in the new year. Turcotte said Dullea, in his capacity as TCAT board budget committee chairman over the past decade, has provided sound fiscal guidance that enabled TCAT to withstand a particularly tough budget year in 2010.

“Hank’s forward‑thinking approach and his fiscal expertise has enabled TCAT to avoid resorting to route cuts and fare increases, unlike many other transit agencies across the state and nation,” Turcotte said.


Nonetheless, Dullea warned of challenges ahead with New York State’s persistent financial woes.

“We have done everything we can to keep our fare structure as low as possible and we will have to invade our fund balance significantly in 2011 to meet our expenses,” Dullea said.

“New York State is TCAT’s largest source of funding; if the state’s fiscal crisis results in reductions of transit operating support, TCAT’s service will be severely impacted. TCAT has a strong board and a terrific team of managers, bus operators and mechanics who together will bring us through these difficult fiscal times.”

Dullea said TCAT’s services are key to the community retaining and creating jobs and boosting economic development overall.

“TCAT’s provision of bus service to a ridership of more than 3.5 million annually is an absolutely essential element of our local economy,” said Dullea, who served on the TCAT board since 1998 when TCAT was incorporated.

Turcotte said one of  Proto’s major initiatives was to establish the TCAT board’s planning committee. The task of the committee is to examine and direct long-range transportation planning issues to include regionalized transportation and TCAT’s close relationship with economic development. The planning committee is also studying TCAT‘s future needs, including an expanded facility to accommodate growth and the consequent need for an expanded fleet.

“We live in a community that generates numerous ideas on how to increase bus ridership as well as the use of other alternative modes of transportation,”  Proto said “This planning committee is a place where all these ideas are studied in determining how TCAT fits in to those plans to best serve the entire community.”

Proto, who has served on the Tompkins County Legislature since 1985 and has served on numerous community organizations and TCAT’s board (pre- and post- incorporation) for 16 years.

Proto called 2010 “a great and busy year” for TCAT with the new fare collection system, new routes and increased ridership. He said he was particularly pleased that some Schuyler County residents, who will lose TCAT service on Jan. 14, are forming the region’s first vanpool. TCAT contracted with VPSI Inc. in 2009 to offer vanpool service to those not served by a TCAT bus route. After the Schuyler County legislature decided to cut funding for the service in 2011, passengers in that county were forced to look for alternative modes of transportation and nine of them found vanpooling to be a viable option.

Proto also said he was proud to participate in TCAT’s hosting of the 2010 New York Public Transit Association’s 2010 Bus and Maintenance Roadeo in September, which drew 150 bus operators, mechanics and transit administrators from all over the state.

TCAT was officially established in 1998 and reorganized as a not-for-profit corporation in 2005. TCAT’s history stretches back nearly half a century, originating from three transit systems: Ithaca Transit, City of Ithaca; CU Transit, Cornell University; and TOMTRAN, Tompkins County.

TCAT’s other board members include: Kathy Luz Herrera, Tompkins County Legislature; Pam Mackesey, Tompkins County Legislature; Dan Cogan, Ithaca City Common Council Member; Nancy Schuler,  Ithaca City, (former Common Council member); and Jennifer Dotson, Ithaca City Common Council member; Kyu‑Jung Whang, Cornell University’s vice president for facilities service; and David Lieb, Cornell University’s associate director for transportation services.

In 2011, Cogan will serve as vice chairman and Mackesey will serve as secretary.

Dullea announced his proposed committee assignments for other board members to include: Audit Committee – Herrera (chair), Whang and Schuler; Budget Committee, Proto (chair), Cogan and Whang; Human Resources Committee, Schuler (chair), Herrera and Dullea; Planning Committee, Cogan (chair), Dotson, Mackesey, Proto and Lieb; and Transit Services Committee, Dotson (chair), Lieb and Mackesey. In addition, Dullea will replace Proto as TCAT policy committee representative to the Ithaca‑Tompkins County Transportation Council (ITCTC).

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