It pays to read.

In the most recent Council Information Letter, there was a jurisdicitional breakdown of all the A-Ride trips by client home address provided by the AATA. The breakdown was for the first quarter of calendar year 2008.

Of particular interest were the rides from Concord Road, Firwood Street, Concord Drive, and Medford Road.

For those of you playing at home who haven’t caught on just yet, none of those addresses are in the City of Ypsilanti.

After a flurry of emails, I received the following response from the AATA (via the City):

Councilman Robb’s message relates to A-Ride service. Each quarter the AATA provides records of the use of A-Ride service for the three month period. Councilman Robb has apparently examined the records and found these street addresses which are not in Ypsilanti. We are revising the jurisdiction code for these users, and adjust our records to eliminate the trips by these users from the totals for Ypsilanti. The charge for A-Ride service is based on the number of trips by Ypsilanti residents in the previous year, so this doesn’t result in change in the charge this year, but will affect the calculation for the FY 2009 charge.

Speaking of the FY 2009 charge … The AATA board met this past Wednesday to discuss some possible changes. Of particular interest to the City of Ypsilanti was Ypsilanti’s fixed cost calculation. The AATA is interested in reducing their hourly operating costs from $107.17 per hour to $96 per hour. If Treasurer Ted Annis gets his way (and the hourly rate isn’t reduced), Ypsilanti could be on the hook for a $443,561 bill. It was for discussion purposes only, but it really makes you wonder where those discussions will lead.

UPDATE:
In 2006 and 2007, the AATA thought Carpenter Road, Chestnut Drive, Glory Lane, as well as Concord Road, Firwood Street, Concord Drive, and Medford Road were all in the City.