City Commissioner Ahearn-Koch asks interim city manager for update on plans
During their regular meeting on Jan. 6, the Sarasota city commissioners unanimously adopted an amendment to the city’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget to incorporate a $530,082 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for the operation of the Bay Runner trolley.
This is the fourth year of FDOT funding for the program, the formal Agenda Request Form noted.
The inclusion of that business for the commission’s first meeting of the New Year did prompt a request for an update to the board members on the future of the trolley.
Originally, the Agenda Request Form explained, FDOT provided $530,082 per year over three years as part of the funding to enable the trolley to travel a circuit that takes it through downtown Sarasota and over to St. Armands and Lido keys. The total state amount was $1,590,246, the memo added.
Officially, as the FDOT agreement noted, the money will facilitate the provision of “public transportation along the State Road 789 corridor …”
A related FDOT document pointed out, “This corridor project shall enhance the regional mobility of all citizens and encourage the use of public transportation. This project shall relieve congestion and improve capacity within the State Road 789 corridor.”
Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, who was elected in November 2024, asked interim City Manager Doug Jeffcoat for clarification about the funding, prompting him to explain, “This is a reimbursable grant.” The city will send invoices to FDOT, so it will provide the funding throughout the current fiscal year, he added.
Then Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch asked Jeffcoat, “Could we at some point in time get an update on the trolley?” She added, “I believe that the county is looking to take over the city’s trolley.” She wanted to know, she continued, how much money the city would be expected to contribute to the ongoing operations of the Bay Runner and out of which city fund that money would come.
“I’d appreciate that,” she told Jeffcoat.
In mid-May 2024, Jane Grogg, director of Sarasota County’s Breeze Transit Department, explained to the County Commission that she and her staff had been working with staff of the City of Sarasota on the potential of incorporating the free Bay Runner into the county’s public transportation system.
When Commissioner Joe Neunder asked how the Bay Runner’s expenses are covered, Grogg noted the that the city was in the third year of a three-year grant agreement with FDOT. The city has been covering what the grant does not, she added.
“So you think there could be potential synergy [between the Bay Runner and Transit routes]?” Neunder asked.
She and her staff had been exploring how they could create a system to connect a number of visitor destinations, including the barrier islands and the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, Grogg replied. (In March 2024, the county began providing a special trolley route between specific downtown Sarasota destinations and the airport.)
The discussions she and her staff have had with city representatives have included the fact that the city’s continued financial support would be needed, Grogg added, “to maintain the characteristics [of the Bay Runner] that they enjoy now.”
For various reasons, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis noted, he and his assistant county administrators and Grogg believe that the county could operate the Bay Runner at a lower cost than the city has been documenting. Nonetheless, Lewis said, the county still would need city financial support for the service. “We wouldn’t want it to be a deficit for us.”
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger characterized the potential of the county’s taking over the Bay Runner operation as “a great idea.”
This week, in response to a Sarasota News Leader request for an update, Grogg said in a Jan. 6 email, “We are working with the City of Sarasota to develop an interlocal agreement that would transfer management of the Bay Runner service to the county’s Transit Department, and incorporate the Bay Runner into the current network of Breeze services. The agreement will be presented at public meetings of the City Commission and County Commission for their respective approvals. Meeting dates will be determined once the agreement details are finalized.”
Having been launched in March 2022, the Bay Runner in late July 2024 surpassed the 400,000 passenger mark, city Planning Director Steve Cover reported to then-City Manager Marlon Brown in an Aug. 8, 2024 email. The total, Cover noted, was 403,001 riders.