Rossland Transportation

HI- I am in the process of collecting letters of support for the following public transit initiative. I will be presenting these to City Council on Monday April 14th- and need all the help I can get. IF you would like to help out please submit a letter of support preferably on your own letterhead.
Thanks
Deanne

Currently the RDKB provides a Red Mountain Ski bus which runs twice a day on weekends and when school is not in session. I believe that this service is not adequate to support the needs of locals, employees or tourists in gaining access to the ski hill.

What I would like to do is to collect letters of support from various local organizations and individuals for a winter time bus 7 days a week 5 trips per day to and from the Red Mountain Base area for the 4 winter months of December, January , Feb and March. I have had so many complaints this winter from visitors about the lack of transport to and from the base area that I believe this issue needs to be addressed. My strategy is to collect letters of support from various organizations including accommodators, retailers, developers, non-profit organizations, locals, unions, and schools and present them to City Council. I will then request that City Council formally approach the Regional District with this request. My goal is to show broad support for this plan from all different groups in the hope that we can convince the RDKB that this is an important issue.

This strategy is supported by the Visions to Action Strategic Sustainability Plan “ Public Transit within Rossland is affordable, accessible, reliable, frequent, safe, comfortable and ‘green’, and a high quality connection links downtown with the resorts. “

Additionally it may be important to note that the Rossland Chamber of Commerce is also addressing this issue with a policy which they are taking to the BC Chamber of Commerce “Lack of provincial transportation in rural areas hampers local economic prosperity”

You may also be interested to note that the RDKB’s requisition from Rossland taxpayers for transportation has gone up from $109,000 in 2007, to $131,172 in 2008.

I will be presenting these letters to City Council on April 14th and would appreciate any letter of support which you may be able to offer.

Specifically I would suggest that you may wish to include some of the following information in your letter which should be on company letterhead:
- How a ski bus would be beneficial to you
- The economic, social and environmental importance of a link from Red Mountain to Rossland downtown
- How this would assist employees
- That the lack of adequate service is hindering your business
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Regards
Deanne