Superior City Council Signs Off On Funding Portion Of Bike Share Program

The Superior City Council narrowly approved Tuesday funding about 25 percent of the cost to kick start a bike share program in Superior. Council members also voted down transferring additional funds from the city’s Oil Pipeline Terminal Tax to balance next year’s budget.

Superior Mayor Jim Paine has been working to bring the bike sharing company Zagster to the city. A few weeks ago, the finance committee voted against a measure for the city to provide public funds for the initiative. After a visit from Zagster representative Daniel Petkanas, the council voted to contribute a portion of what’s needed. City officials plan to pursue private sponsorship to fund the remainder of the investment.

Mayor Paine said Superior’s contribution is enough to fund one bike rack.

“It could end up being much smaller than 25 percent if other members of the community get on board,” Paine said. “We are going to have four stations and the city of Superior will sponsor one of those.”

The bike share program would cost $36,000 for four stations and 20 bikes. The city may hire someone to maintain the bikes or pay Zagster to conduct maintenance. Council members posed many questions to Petkanas, such as how much it would cost, where the money would go, how maintenance of the bikes would be handled and how the technology works.

People who use the bike share program would use a cell phone app to rent the bikes. They could pay an hourly or monthly fee depending on the frequency of use. According to Petkanas, the city collects the revenue from users and can decide how to use the money.

The Superior City Council also considered whether to transfer an extra $200,000 acquired through the Oil Pipeline Terminal Tax to the city’s general fund. The tax assessed on Enbridge Energy’s terminal in Superior draws in more than $4 million each year. The revenues are typically used to fund capital improvements in Superior.

The additional funds were anticipated to help the city balance its budget next year. The measure was narrowly voted down. One council member compared it to putting a band-aid on the city’s struggle to maintain services with stagnant revenues and rising costs.

Finance Director Jean Vito said they now have some work to do to balance next year’s budget without the transfer.

“What we were seeking approval from the council tonight was to use $600,000 of that oil pipeline terminal tax instead of the original plan of $400,000 to help out in the city’s general fund to balance that budget for 2018,” she said. “So by increasing it from $400,000 to the $600,000, I think that’s where the councilors were getting concerned that that was going to take more money out of the capital improvement program budget because that’s where the funds are currently slated to go.”

The next city council meeting will be held on Aug. 15.