Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 | 1:05 p.m.
Shuttle rides from overflow parking lots to Art in the Park and back will cost attendees during the event Oct. 4-5.
The nonprofit Boulder City Hospital Foundation, which puts on the annual fundraiser, had hoped to keep the service free.
The route will make six stops between the overflow parking lot at the former Boulder City Municipal Airport, 1401 Nevada Highway and Wilbur Square on Utah Street.
A one-way ticket will cost $1.50 and an all-day pass $2.50. Parking at the airport will cost $5, as it has in the past.
For seven years, the Regional Transportation Commission offered free, express rides from the airport to downtown parks for the two-day fair, now in its 46th year.
Downtown streets are too few and too narrow to host the influx of cars with the 100,000 people expected, so extra parking is necessary, Craig Bailey, the hospital's director of business development, said.
An April change in federal law now bans governmental chartering, so the RTC is prohibited from providing bus service when private charter operators could do the same for hire.
The RTC dodged the rule by adding a detour to the normal 402A Crosstown Connector/Boulder City route, Allison Huntly, spokeswoman, said.
Ten buses— some with capacity for 56 people, and some that fit 80— will run the circuit every 10 minutes.
The ride should take about 10 minutes, barring heavy traffic, Huntly said.
The detour route will run 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4 and 5.
Bailey said he was thankful the RTC found a way to accommodate the visitors. Estimates for a chartered company had been $35,000, which is 20 percent of the anticipated Art in the Park revenue, he sasid.
"It really helps us a lot," Bailey said. "If we were to go get a charter on our own, we'd not only be paying, we'd be working with someone who doesn't know the event."
The Boulder City Senior Center had offered the foundation two of its 15-passenger, handicap-accessible shuttles, which are no longer needed.
Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].
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