Shuttles for Art in the Park to eat some of foundation’s profits

By Cassie Tomlin

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008 | 6:23 p.m.

Shuttles to and from overflow parking lots during Art in the Park might cost the hospital foundation this year, though rides will still be free, organizers said.

Since 2000, Regional Transportation Commission had bused visitors from their cars at the municipal airport to Wilbur Square for the art fair, a 45-year tradition benefiting the local hospital.

Neither patrons nor Boulder City Hospital Foundation, which puts on the two-day sale, paid for the 10 shuttles in the past, but this year a change in federal law bans such governmental chartering, free or not.

Downtown's streets are too few and too narrow for the influx of cars, and the event wouldn't succeed without the extra parking, Craig Bailey, the hospital's director of business development said.

Art in the Park organizers say no matter what, on Oct. 4 and 5, off-site parking and a shuttle service will be available for the nearly 100,000 people who are expected, and it won't cost users. Any cost will come out of the proceeds raised for the Boulder City Hospital, they said.

The Boulder City Senior Center has agreed to loan its two 15-passenger vans for the day at the cost of the driver's wage and the fuel, Lori DeCreny, executive director, said.

Bailey said he hoped those shuttles would be in addition to a group of larger buses the hospital has yet to secure.

In April, the Federal Transit Authority passed an anti-charter law prohibiting FTA-funded entities like the RTC from providing bus and shuttle services whenever private charter operators could do the same for hire.

Tracy Bower, RTC spokeswoman, said the ruling aims to "allow charter services to do what charter services do," so the private sector isn't competing with the RTC.

If the RTC violated the law, it could face fines or lose grants.

"Our hands are tied," she said. "We've read this over and over looking for a way to help, but we can't risk losing our federal funding."

Bailey said the private company recommended by the RTC would charge about $35,000 for the two days of bus service, which would amount to 20 percent of Art in the Park's profits and would be the biggest single expense.

He said he is consulting with the RTC about less pricey alternatives and is seeking donors and sponsors to help underwrite the shuttle.

Bailey said hospital foundation workers are already thinking ahead to the 2009 event and securing donated shuttles.