Lisa Maragnano and the CARTA board conducted their monthly meeting via Zoom, and the finances of the company were a focal point. With COVID-19 shutting down many businesses, the amount of riders and people parking have sharply decreased. According to a graph shown during the meeting, it has decreased by around 43 percent.
“We are financially fine, since we received that influx of money from the federal government, and we also received money from the city of Chattanooga,” said Ms. Maragnano. “They gave us the next three months of our budgeted number, but we do not get that til April.”
The Incline Railway was not open during the month of March, which hurt CARTA’s bottom line considerably. She did tell the board that there was no need for overtime pay, and that spending money on fuel was reduced due to extremely low gas prices.
Their “Care-a-Van” program actually saw an increase in revenue due to grant money they had received. She also said some part-time employees had to be laid off due to the pandemic.
“Obviously, ridership is significantly down. It’s down by about 25,000 per month,” said Ms. Maragnano. “But it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Obviously our biggest decrease is Eastgate/Hamilton Place route, because it’s our biggest. That and Mocs Express.”
Because of the pandemic, CARTA has taken measures to ensure safety to any passengers still riding the buses. There are only to be 10 people per bus, and CARTA is asking people to not ride unless they are essential workers or absolutely need to.
“We are not encouraging people to get out and about unless it’s for essential services,” said Ms. Maragnano. “So we need to follow the same services the governor has put out, the mayors have both put out regarding staying home, and only the people that need to get to work to the essential services still open to be utilizing public transit.”
CARTA also allows employees who are 65 years and older to stay home due to COVID-19 and altered their time off requirements. 80 hours of paid time off to care for an individual or quarantine themselves, 80 hours plus two thirds for an additional ten weeks for daycare for school closings.
CARTA also instituted hazard pay. It is $40 a day for full-time employees and $20 a day for part-time employees. And in addition to the 10 person limit on buses, CARTA also has spare buses in reserve if there are too many passengers to fit on one bus.
In regards to the tornadoes, CARTA had several staff members and drivers affected. CARTA has also assisted emergency services in evacuating residents of the Morning Point living facility, which sustained heavy damage during the tornado.
The board approved having Mauldin and Jenkins handling a state-mandated audit of the company, which had already been agreed upon in a contract. However, it was noted this is the last year of the five-year contract with Mauldin and Jenkins.