GATEWAY sets new budget and logo
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on June 14, 2007 1:46 PM
With less than a month left before the Goldsboro-Wayne Transportation Authority Board of Directors brings its operations back in-house, several items, including a new logo and a new budget, had to be taken care of at its meeting on Wednesday.
The new logo, which was designed with the help of advertising firm ProMotion Mobile Media of Smithfield, features a road wrapping around GATEWAY's name and telephone number, rather than the original one, which had the road running under the name and off into the horizon. The lettering also will now be blue.
All the board members present agreed it was a vast improvement.
"We wanted something that would stand out and get people's attention. We wanted something that would look good," GATEWAY director Alan Stubbs said.
But a even a nice, new logo can't stand alone, so the board also took care of finalizing its more than $2.4 million budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year, while continuing to look at insurance agreements and personnel policies.
The operating budget, which is split between rural and urban routes, totals nearly $1.9 million. Of that, $638,000 is for Goldsboro's four fixed bus routes, while $1.25 million will fund the 22 vans that crisscross Wayne County.
GATEWAY also has a capital budget totaling about $572,500 -- $470,400 for the urban system and $102,100 for the rural system.
The 2006-07 rural and urban combined operating and capital budget was about $3.6 million.
Funding for GATEWAY comes from riders' fares, the city of Goldsboro, Wayne County, the Federal Transportation Authority, several state sources, including the N.C. Department of Transportation, and contracts with organizations such as the county Council on Aging, the county Department of Social Services and Wayne Opportunity Center.
Fares for city bus riders are $1. Fares for individuals scheduling county trips are $8, and appointments must be made 48 hours in advance. Contract fees can vary on a sliding scale based partly on the price of gas.
Stubbs also said he is hoping to bring in additional advertising revenue as they begin to sell space on the sides of the buses and vans to local businesses.
"The buses, especially, are very visible. It's an excellent advertising venue," he said, asking that anybody interested call him at 736-1374.
He hopes to being rolling out the new logos and some of the newly painted buses sometime shortly after July 1 -- the beginning of the new fiscal year and end of GATEWAY's three-year engagement with Apple Bus Co.
Stubbs explained that the motivation for ending the contract with Apple and bringing all the operations back in-house -- like it once was -- was simple.
"The GATEWAY board felt it could run operations more efficiently themselves," he said.
And so far, the budget is bearing that out, even though the transition process has been a long one.
"It's like starting a new business. We're starting a business over that was disbanded three years ago, but basically our total budget should be lower because we're able to operate more efficiently. We're expected to have quite a bit of savings," Stubbs said.