A Viable South Fork American River Shuttle -- Myth or Reality?
Posted for Theresa L. Simsiman
Over the past year the El Dorado County River Management Advisory Committee (RMAC) and other river community members have tossed around the elusive idea of a South Fork American River Shuttle program. Elusive in the fact that creating a viable shuttle would require more than just one single entity. In fact it was apparent from the beginning, that an affordable & convenient shuttle program could not succeed without the combined efforts of the community. Thankfully, we have a great SFA community to do just that — succeed!
250 total participants responded to the the SFA Shuttle Survey posted on surveymonkey.com last January. Using the survey results from the first 100 respondents a community meeting was called and a general plan was put together:
Long story short — The River Store Shuttle proposal was chosen to be recommended to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS) for funding. This means we have one final hurdle which is approval of AQMD AB2766 funding by the Board of Supervisors during a meeting in June. If you would like to show your support of The River Store SFA Shuttle to the El Dorado County BOS, please email me your name, address & phone number and I will include it in a letter to be presented at this meeting — jericah@earthlink.net
Now for the long story — The El Dorado County AQMD grant is the key component of the plan, in other words, without these funds a viable shuttle program would go no where. This particular grant was established by AB2766 and is funded through DMV surcharges. It has been distributed in the past to programs like the American River Music Festival shuttle and the Apple Hill shuttle. Every year the El Dorado County AQMD requests AB2766 proposals & rewards a grant based on a point system that rates the proposals ability to lower emissions. In this case it proved to be challenging because traffic from river recreation, alone, did not lower emissions enough to give us the points needed to compete with other requests.
Luckily for us, other community members stepped in to provide a solution. Martin Harris, Vice President & Landowner Representative to RMAC, abstained from the River Trust Fund vote in order to help pursue the shuttle program with an interest in expanding it for other community members like Coloma/Lotus youth. And Mindy Jackson, El Dorado County Transit Director, also expressed interest in the hopes of integrating county service & possibly assisting with some version to reach neighboring communities Cool and Georgetown. After a few conversations they offered up the "if it where a big fat snake it would bite you" solution ... fill the empty return runs of the river shuttle with community transit or what is fondly referred to as "dead head" transit. In one fell swoop the ridership would double and increase the proposal's points for lowering emissions.
Finally armed with a decent amount of points, matching funds from the River Trust Fund approved by RMAC and letters of support from BLM, State Parks, El Dorado County Transit, El Dorado County Airports Parks & Grounds Division and the Coloma Lotus Chamber of Commerce a grant proposal was submitted for consideration to AQMD on behalf of The River Store Shuttle to provide service for river recreation & the community resulting in what is detailed above.
In closing I would like to acknowledge some of the community folks who gave of their time & advice to help move a myth into reality:
Sincerely,
Theresa L. Simsiman
(916) 835-1460
Over the past year the El Dorado County River Management Advisory Committee (RMAC) and other river community members have tossed around the elusive idea of a South Fork American River Shuttle program. Elusive in the fact that creating a viable shuttle would require more than just one single entity. In fact it was apparent from the beginning, that an affordable & convenient shuttle program could not succeed without the combined efforts of the community. Thankfully, we have a great SFA community to do just that — succeed!250 total participants responded to the the SFA Shuttle Survey posted on surveymonkey.com last January. Using the survey results from the first 100 respondents a community meeting was called and a general plan was put together:
- WHO — Dan Crandall and The River Store
- WHAT — A shuttle for river recreation & Coloma/Lotus Community at $5/person including kayak etc & $20/raft using 2 vans with equipment trailers to run on weekends & one weekday
- WHERE — The South Fork American River Corridor
- WHEN — Test runs in July, full Service runs in August, September, October 2008 & May, June 2009 — based on the county fiscal year
- HOW — A grant proposal for AB2766 funding administered by the El Dorado County Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and additional matching funds requested from the River Trust Fund through RMAC
Long story short — The River Store Shuttle proposal was chosen to be recommended to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS) for funding. This means we have one final hurdle which is approval of AQMD AB2766 funding by the Board of Supervisors during a meeting in June. If you would like to show your support of The River Store SFA Shuttle to the El Dorado County BOS, please email me your name, address & phone number and I will include it in a letter to be presented at this meeting — jericah@earthlink.net
Now for the long story — The El Dorado County AQMD grant is the key component of the plan, in other words, without these funds a viable shuttle program would go no where. This particular grant was established by AB2766 and is funded through DMV surcharges. It has been distributed in the past to programs like the American River Music Festival shuttle and the Apple Hill shuttle. Every year the El Dorado County AQMD requests AB2766 proposals & rewards a grant based on a point system that rates the proposals ability to lower emissions. In this case it proved to be challenging because traffic from river recreation, alone, did not lower emissions enough to give us the points needed to compete with other requests.
Luckily for us, other community members stepped in to provide a solution. Martin Harris, Vice President & Landowner Representative to RMAC, abstained from the River Trust Fund vote in order to help pursue the shuttle program with an interest in expanding it for other community members like Coloma/Lotus youth. And Mindy Jackson, El Dorado County Transit Director, also expressed interest in the hopes of integrating county service & possibly assisting with some version to reach neighboring communities Cool and Georgetown. After a few conversations they offered up the "if it where a big fat snake it would bite you" solution ... fill the empty return runs of the river shuttle with community transit or what is fondly referred to as "dead head" transit. In one fell swoop the ridership would double and increase the proposal's points for lowering emissions.
Finally armed with a decent amount of points, matching funds from the River Trust Fund approved by RMAC and letters of support from BLM, State Parks, El Dorado County Transit, El Dorado County Airports Parks & Grounds Division and the Coloma Lotus Chamber of Commerce a grant proposal was submitted for consideration to AQMD on behalf of The River Store Shuttle to provide service for river recreation & the community resulting in what is detailed above.
In closing I would like to acknowledge some of the community folks who gave of their time & advice to help move a myth into reality:
- RMAC members — Hilde Schweitzer, Martin Harris, Tim Lasko, Marilyn Tahl, Dave Martinez, Steve Liles & Bill Deitchman
- Bill Center
- Chuck Seidler
- "Bronco Bob" Hunden
- Gary Johnson
- BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner — Jeff Horn
- El Dorado County Transit Director — Mindy Jackson
- El Dorado County AQMD Air Quality Engineer — Carolyn Craig
- El Dorado County River Recreation Supervisor — Noah Rucker Triplett
- El Dorado County Sheriff — Brian Schaub
- Coloma Lotus Chamber of Commerce President — Marjorie Sanborn
- Coloma Lotus Chamber of Commerce Vice President — Sara Schwartz Kendall
Sincerely,
Theresa L. Simsiman
(916) 835-1460
Labels: logistics, River Store, shuttle, South Fork American River, whitewater kayaking, whitewater rafting
posted by Donna McMaster at 9:50 AM
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