County Manager Candace Bryant and operations staff reviewed the countys intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Summit Stage and said the county currently faces an outstanding obligation in the range of $258,000 for transit service.

Bryant briefed the board on the IGA history and cost drivers: past IGAs showed hourly rates that rose from about $71 in 2012 to roughly $81 in 2023. Summit Stages current hourly charge to Lake County is about $87 per hour; grant offsets reduced the countys net obligation in past years. Bryant and staff said the county is pursuing a limited SB 2/30 emissions grant but does not expect it to fully close the funding gap.

Staff described three modeled options for 2026 service costs: keep current hours (estimated obligation about $260,000), reduce contracted hours to 9 per day (modeled county contribution roughly $146,000), or reduce to 7 hours per day (modeled county contribution roughly $82,000). The board discussed operational trade-offs and asked staff to get precise, seasonally disaggregated ridership data so negotiations could be based on which trips have the lowest ridership.

Stuart (operations) proposed a local staging strategy that would keep bus units in Lake County (a local bus barn or heated storage) so Summit Stage would not deadhead vehicles from Dillon each morning. Commissioners discussed a potential park-and-ride site near Monroe Street/Justice Center, possible partnerships with the school district to share maintenance/storage facilities and available grant sources for bus barns.

The board also discussed reintroducing fares (staff estimated a $20,000–$40,000 contribution if fares were reinstated) and employer or resort partnerships (e.g., Copper Mountain) to shift some cost to large employers whose workers primarily use the route. Commissioners said they want Summit Stage to provide the National Transit Database (NTD) or comparable ridership counts that break out local employees versus tourist riders and seasonal peaks.

On immediate next steps, staff will: request detailed ridership and invoicing data from Summit Stage and the transit board meeting minutes; check for the NTD submission; assess costs and feasibility of staging buses locally and the Monroe Street park-and-ride concept; and pursue grant opportunities for a bus barn. Commissioners and staff agreed the county would pay the outstanding invoice before Summit Stage's cutoff date to avoid a service interruption while negotiations continue.

Commissioners emphasized that any long-term service changes should be data driven and seasonally informed. Staff said it will return with a memorandum summarizing the data and recommended negotiation points for a revised IGA in time to consider options for 2026.