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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,April 9,2018 Page 7 ments was asked about needing the bus service; the response was no, thank you, but perhaps someone else will need the service. Mayor Roe summarized that the intention is to provide the service. Ms. Barsel concurred. She added that there have been suggestions made about a nefarious reason for changing the bus route. The fact is that the route was changed due to lack of response or a negative response. CHAT and NewTrax has talked with people at the adult learning center to see if some students could do distributions or speak with people, and it was not possible. She reiterated that the CHAT volunteers have been working very hard, in recognition that this area needs services,but they have not been met halfway. Mayor Roe suggested one approach is to delay the circulator bus start date and then work on more outreach. A second approach is to mimic what happened in White Bear Lake: get started on the route and it will evolve and change as more understanding of the program happens. He asked for the Council's thoughts. Councilmember Willmus started by saying this circulator bus is a great program. The program has to begin someplace. He has noted that given the restraints of the physical equipment, this is what will work best at the onset. He does not have a problem rolling out, knowing it will expand into SE Roseville. That is vital, and everyone agrees with that. But the program also needs to begin. He also added that if NewTrax were not looking for some supplementary funding at this stage, this discussion would not be happening and they would be free to begin the ser- vice and run their buses where and when they chose. He indicated that he is taken aback by the adversarial back-and-forth. This is a good program and it has to start somewhere, so let the program begin. Councilmember McGehee stated she does not agree with that position. The real critical need is to get to the food shelf and to get to the adult learning. But there are a lot of things along this route are not planned yet and possibly could be planned. For her, the mission of this circulator bus is a little bit fuzzy. She ques- tioned whether the goal is to get people to the food and services they need, or to give people the ability to visit their friends. The other piece of socialization is important, but it is not as important as getting to the food. Perhaps one of the so- lutions is to have a bigger bus and have a time when all the people from SE Rose- ville are taken to the food shelf to get what they need. Participation and taxpayer dollars are being requested of the City. She suggested the first priority should be the humanitarian mission, rather than the efficiency of the bus route. She also ex- pressed concern about the safety of riders on the bus, as this is an independent project. She would like more oversight and discussion about the safety of the rid- ers.