With Kyle failing to provide reliable public transportation for the city, Mayor Travis Mitchell is looking toward the private sector for help.
In a Facebook post made March 21, Mitchell asked the community for help in solving public transportation issues in the city.
“I am proposing we bring together our local faith-based organizations, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals to create a new, yet-to-be-named, nonprofit transportation organization.”
–Travis Mitchell, Kyle mayor
“I am proposing we bring together our local faith-based organizations, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals to create a new, yet-to-be-named, nonprofit transportation organization,” Mitchell said.
Kyle cancelled participation in the Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) in 2015 because of the expense and low ridership.
Afterward, the city tried a subsidized taxi service before that too was cancelled.
Mitchell said there is too much red tape and it is not cost effective for the city to solve the problem on its own.
“At least for the city of Kyle, the government has a hard time solving transportation problems that some of our residents face,” Mitchell said. “I have met with various stakeholders in the community in the last year and pitched the idea of the government supporting a nonprofit that would have its own board, and that would function independently from the city to essentially fulfill the same purpose.”
Jerry Hendrix, Kyle chief of staff, said the city also tried to use electric trolleys that did a route around the hospital and retail centers in the early 2010s. However, the trolleys were not dependable, which led to the experiment falling flat.
“Given low demand for ridership in all three (public transportation) attempts, we’re not looking at more transportation services until we reach a higher population and retail center,” Hendrix said. “The whole transportation thing really won’t have enough demand to take off in Kyle without a larger population.”
Despite past misfortune with public transportation in Kyle, Mitchell believes that taking the issue private will solve the problems.
“I’ve got it in my head to try to solve this problem outside of the government and the government can support and the government can potentially provide some financial assistance, but this would be a legitimate nonprofit,” Mitchell said.
After Mitchell made the Facebook post, some commenters seemed concerned about accountability for this nonprofit program.
Mitchell emphasized that this is merely an idea of his that is in the early stages and details still need to be worked out.
The next steps would be getting potential stakeholders together and laying out the proposal.
Once an agreement is struck, stakeholders can apply for a nonprofit designation, and then fundraise and execute the plan. Mitchell is also looking for someone to take the lead on the project.
Other commenters were concerned with the project being too closely associated with faith-based organizations.
“It’s important to note that whatever organization that is created will not be a religious organization, that’s not the idea, but the reason faith based organizations have expressed interest in what we’re doing is because they share a similar mission as the government in that they want to help people in the community,” Mitchell wrote on his page.
Mitchell said he wants the community to step up and come together to do what the government cannot.
“The idea is, let’s just solve it ourselves, as citizens, and I think that’s something that the government would be willing to support,” he said.
“We’re always open to new ideas, but until the demographics and population grow I don’t think (the city will) actively pursue it, but if an opportunity presented itself we’d certainly look at it,” Hendrix said.
