Knox County Transit Director Bethany Celmar told the Board of Commissioners at its June 30 meeting that the agency was nominated and received an award from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission at a mobility exchange event it held.
"It is for mobility initiative, which I love. Basically, it's for the night bus, seeing that we were one of the first ones to get to the scene of nighttime transportation for the workforce, and just we made it happen, so and there have been several other transits that have followed in our footsteps," Celmar said. According to Celmar in the video recording, it was a team effort with Knox County Transit's drivers working hard to make it happen. She said Deputy Director Nicole Bouchard does an amazing job scheduling it.
Celmar said, with many changes happening for Knox County Transit in May and June, they decided to postpone reevaluating some of the stops until September. She said the agency is always open to feedback.
Celmar also reported that during summer months some normal trips decrease while group trips increase. "Everybody's going to the pool, and we're getting them there," she said. The total trip count in May was 5,829 trips. In June before the last day was counted, it had 6,611 trips. The routes remain consistent and strong, with more than 1,200 trips each month.
Celmar said Knox County Transit is looking to fill two full-time driver positions—one day and one night—after learning that their night bus driver plans to pursue her Master's degree and will be leaving her job. The job is from 5 p.m. to a pull-in time of 1 a.m., requires only a regular driver's license for driving a nine-seat bus, and opportunities are listed on the Knox County website.
