SACO — The mayor made good on his campaign promise of summer trolley service to Camp Ellis, but some members of the council are questioning the procedure on how the trolley bus was acquired.

A new seasonal bus route made its debut this summer, shuttling passengers from downtown Saco to Old Orchard Beach to Camp Ellis, looping back to downtown. The plan for the new bus route was spearheaded by Mayor Don Pilon. Local transit service ShuttleBus- Zoom, which receives funding from Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Biddeford, ran the bus service.

It was at first thought a used trolley-style bus could be acquired for $8,000, but the original deal fell through and the trolley-style bus used for the new route was acquired by ShuttleBus- Zoom for $38,000. The City of Saco paid $8,000 of the cost. Pilon said the rest of the cost would be raised through selling ads on the trolley and on brochures. According to information given to the city by ShuttleBus, nearly $11,700 has been raised through advertising.

At Monday night’s City Council workshop, Councilor Kevin Roche questioned where the $8,000 came from. “The council is responsible for the budget, and the council did not see that $8,000,” he said.

Pilon said he was not sure where then-City Administrator Richard Michaud, who has since retired, allocated the money from, but city policy allows the city administrator to spend up to $8,000 without City Council approval.

According to the city’s purchasing policy, in the case of an emergency or unusual circumstance, the city administrator can make a purchase of up to $8,000 without council approval.

Roche noted that Pilon had said in May that he and Al Sicard of Rocky Coast Marketing had raised $22,000 and were well on their way to raising the $30,000. Pilon said at that time he thought they had raised $22,000, but some sales had since fallen through.

Pilon said the bus was purchased by ShuttleBus- Zoom, and he has more than one year to raise the money to pay the transit authority back.

“I am reimbursing them. And they are not looking for it in the first year, or the second year, or the third year,” said Pilon.

Roche asked Pilon if he had ever asked the city finance director for the additional $30,000, and he said no. “It was always the understanding that I would pay for it through advertising,” he said.

City Finance Director Cheryl Fournier said Pilon asked her January, when the former city administrator was in Florida, if she could give $30,000 to the transit authority. She said she called Michaud and asked if he agreed to that and he said no.

According to information from ShuttleBus given to the city, the cost to run the Camp Ellis trolley for the 60-day operating season was about $50,400, half of which will be paid for by a federal grant. The trolley generated about $1,800 in ridership fees from the 1,818 riders that used the bus.

Pilon said like a business, it would take a few years to get the bus established. “It’s a work in progress,” he said.

Roche said he understood that trolleys weren’t supposed to make money, but he thought the Camp Ellis trolley wasn’t marketed or planned well. He said if the service was to continue it would have to be “drastically changed” because it was losing too much money.

Councilor Thomas Roughan called the situation the “trolley folly” and said he was concerned ShuttleBus would come to the city for additional money next year.

“My only comment is, if it was such a good idea, why wasn’t the council brought in on it?” said Councilor David Precourt. Pilon said the trolley was a mayor’s initiative.

Councilor Arthur Tardif said he thought when it was discovered the city could not buy a trolley for $8,000, city funds should not have been spent.

In a phone interview Thursday, Biddeford City Planner Greg Tansley, chairman of the the Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach Transit Committee, said it was agreed that Pilon would raise the remaining $30,000 for the cost of the bus through advertising, but no timeline was discussed on when the $30,000 would be paid to ShuttleBus.

Tansley said this past year was a pilot program, and he didn’t think anyone was surprised it wasn’t “going gangbusters.” He said it takes time for bus routes to get established and “pick up steam,” and he thought it made sense to run the trolley again next year after tweaking the service to make it more successful, determining if there were any possible destination stops the route missed, and reviewing the length of the route and times of operation.

Tansley said the trolley bus belongs to ShuttleBus- Zoom, and if in the future it is decided to discontinue the Camp Ellis route, the bus will be used by ShuttleBus- Zoom for a different route.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].