Student Senate is set to vote tonight to approve $3,900 of student segregated fees to fund a trial run of a weekend late night city bus route that would include stops at Water Street, downtown and Oakwood Mall until 3 a.m.
The total cost of the route is $13,900; the other $10,000 would come from two local alcohol distributors, said Sarah Harvieux, alcohol education coordinator for Student Health Services.
| Student Senate meeting Time: 6 p.m. tonight Place: Tamarack Room, Davies Center Meeting is open to the public |
She said part of the reason for this route is to give students an opportunity to attend alcohol-free events.
The route also is designed to take impaired drivers off the road, Harvieux said.
“We figure, why have people take those chances?” she said.
Another goal is to give students a way to get to Oakwood Mall after regular city routes have ended, Harvieux said. With current bus schedules, students can get a ride to a late night movie, she said, but have to find their own way home.
Although the specific route has not been set, the proposed trial run would begin Jan. 30 and end March 20, Harvieux said. It simply would be another public route run by Eau Claire Transit – free for students with their Blugold card, but community members must pay the normal fare.
Hopefully, the route also will reduce the number of people walking in the dark and give people a safe way of traveling late, she said.
Harvieux has been working with a committee consisting of students, university officials and members of the community since a student approached her in the spring about a late night bus route.
After discovering a similar proposed bus route failed because of a lack of funding two years ago, Harvieux and the committee decided to pursue the same basic course.
Senior Kevin Funk, transportation and safety chair of Student Senate, said the difference this time is that the route does not include Thursday nights.
The next step is “just to start working in case (the trial run) does succeed – which we think it will,” Funk said.
If this trial run is successful, the committee will attempt to establish a permanent weekend route beginning in September 2004, Funk said.
He said the estimated cost of a permanent route would be about $70,000. Hopefully, the majority of that money would come from donations from local businesses, Funk said.
If the buses are empty during the trial run, Harvieux said the program would be scrapped with no further financial obligations. But based on the reactions from students, the trial run should be a success, she said.
“The only concerns that have come up,” Harvieux said, “are students requesting more buses.”
The next step is to take the proposal to the Eau Claire City Council for approval sometime in October.
