Some procedural steps that needed to take place.

We are hopefully getting towards the conclusion of that in December.

The MPO, one of the final steps that needed to be done was the creation of what's called a TIP transit uh uh transportation improvement plan, that's correct.

Um, and then uh once that TIP was uh developed and approved by the MPO board, it would go to the state.

And once the state had the time to be able to approve that, um, all of the different funding sources and projects that were on that tip can be approved and be put on what's called the state uh transportation improvement plan or the STIP.

And once that was done, then anything that was programmed into that uh for us in particular, and namely uh the two years of funds that we had already been apportioned, um, and then any other future projects, and one of those I'm gonna talk about in a few minutes.

Once those are in and programmed, uh, I can then start directly applying to FTA to get those funds that were essentially a set aside for us.

And once we've been awarded those funds, which should not take very long after the applications are submitted, uh, we can then start the process, which is a new process for us because of being direct recipients, but start the process of getting kind of back billed and caught up to current.

And so we're staff has been really chomping at the bit for a long time to be able to get to this point so that we can get caught up with those.

And then, like I mentioned here in the actual program notes, that hopefully this quarter, I would really hope this quarter we can actually resolve that, and then I can have at least a solid update for several of those reimbursements having been done at our next meeting that we have.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh, then the next thing that we have here uh is another section that we've been reporting for about a year or so um at our meetings, but it's the passenger complaint report section, and I am happy to report that um not just in one because we didn't have our last meeting in November, but uh for the last two uh quarters, we have not had any passenger complaints recorded uh that were warranted or that we had to follow up or anything on service.

Okay.

So the next thing that we've got here is the 5339 grant application.

So staff had requested approval from the city council to apply for funds in purchasing a new RBOC bus.

Our the RBOC style of bus is the bus that we have operated for uh close to 15 years.

So it's the same style that we've always purchased, same number of passengers and the ADA accessibility, a low floor bus, a cutaway vehicle.

Um Mr.

Peluto, do you know what the cost is on that?

Yes.

Oh, so when we put in for that um the build sheet that we had looked to do, um the vehicle was coming out to I believe just over 217,000 dollars.

Um, and then this grant, depending on what the award would be, can be anywhere from uh any anywhere from 80 percent, which is typically normal for a uh a capitalized project to anywhere up to in the past, they've done up to 93%.

So it varies until we get that award.

Um I have a quick question on that as well.

Is would it be safe to presume that there's multiple bids to build that out?

So typically when we purchase these, we've purchased them off of the ADOT state contract.

So it's part of it is ease of access because the state's already gone through all of the federally subsidized like procurement rules and everything, anything that we made off of a purchase for that, we know has met the strict standards that FTA requires to go through all of that procurement.

If we individually wanted to go out and do our own procurement, we could, but it kind of comes to a weighing of like resources and balancing that of like doing it in-house.

Um, so we have traditionally in in this opportunity, look to just use the state contract.

Um, there are uh based on that state contract, which is updated every couple of years, and they do go out for multiple bids and do kind of what's the best fit for that and for what vehicles are available.

They have a lot of different options that are available to explore.

Um, we've primarily again been getting this one specific type of vehicle.

So we've always just looked at whatever that is off of that contract cost.

Um and generally uh they when the state goes out and does the contract, because there's so many of those purchased throughout the state, they are typically very competitive with other states, and then if you're going to be going out for it federally or anything like that.

Another question.

Do you is this an additional vehicle or a replacement?

This is a replacement vehicle.

So this is not for any uh additional like expansions of service or anything like that.

Um this request was made for a replacement of a vehicle that is well exceeded past its useful life, um, which for us is either 10 years or uh 250,000 miles.

I believe the vehicle that would uh we would be replacing with this new one has over 500,000 miles on it.

We've kept it in service a long time.

It's been a good bus, but it's time.

Um so with that, uh we had um requested these funds uh and these funds were also programmed.

We had known that we were going to be requesting um or making this uh request, so we had it included in last year's budget.

So the money is there and available for us to purchase.

Um and then the request was approved by city council in October, and we submitted it before the end of October when that funding had closed.

Uh so one thing I'm not gonna read here is that last line because I do have an update.

Uh just on Friday, we were notified that we did get awarded this vehicle.

So I believe the federal funding amount, don't quote me on the last three numbers, but it is 184,000.

When I did the math, it's uh 85% covered that we got for this capital purchase.

Um kind of the same thing that I had mentioned earlier with our financial reports.

I'm not going to be able to move forward yet because this hasn't been programmed yet into the tip uh and also sub subsequently the STIP.

So until that can happen and it gets programmed and we have the approval, then I'll be able to on the federal side uh uh go through, apply for the funds that we've already been basically allocated.

And then once that's done, then we can move forward in the process to doing the purchase.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Okay, and then just the last thing that we have got on here is for recent and upcoming events.

Uh so we will be closed, and that's with no vehicles, no buses operating for uh on Monday, February 16th, uh, in observation of President's Day that the city does.