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LEXTRAN 12 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2015 Like many in transit, Burke has worked a number of diferent places. His frst job as a general manager was in Jackson, Mississip- pi, working for McDonald Transit. On the private side, he worked for Prevost and TransCoach, and the Austin Police Department as its feet and equipment manager. "I was there and happy. Got a phone call one day from folks in the transit industry," Burke said. "Tey said, 'We know you're from Kentucky and the job in Lexing- ton is open for a GM, would you be interested?' I said sure and ... have loved every minute of it." His next stop is Sarasota Coun- ty Area Transit (SCAT) in Saraso- ta, Florida, which he took Dec. 29. "I've taken the job as the director of transit for Sarasota County," Burke said. "It's a transit system a little bit bigger than what we have here but not by much. Not work- ing for a contractor anymore but working directly for the county." Coming on to Lextran to fll the general manager role is Carrie Butler. "I'm from Louisville, Ken- tucky," she said, "and have worked at the Transit Authority of River City and have been doing consulting for a number of diferent agencies, one of which was Lextran." An employee of Transdev, Butler had been working on a technology project and its surveillance system. "It made a nice transition," she said, "I really know a lot of the back-end systems, as well as the staf and the management team having worked on that project." She stated, "Tat's made the transition a little smoother." Burke said, "I would say that's one of the benefts of an agency contracted with a management service. It helps my attention to resign and taking this new job." He continued, "Inside of a week Trans- dev was able to reach out to some internal applicants, to external applicants, reviewed resumes and within a week was able to present Carrie to our board of directors. Tey stepped up quickly to make this a smooth transition." LEXTRAN HAS 22 fixed-route bus routes and two trolley routes. A LEXTRAN bus before the agencies re-branding. Before & After Rebranding Past Experience One of the things Burke enjoyed about his experience at Capital Metro was the fexibility and freedom to start the compressed natural gas program there. "We partnered with a local gas provider and just a great relation- ship," he said. A couple of years ago, a few Lextran board members came to him and asked what he thought about going to CNG for the feet. "I said it's a great idea but you know, it costs quite a bit to do that, the infrastructure and all," said Burke. "But it's a great time to be consid- ering because we're building a new facility," he added. "From way back when, that CNG experience really has helped," he said. And the private sector ex- perience has helped, as well. "What I learned from that, how do you op- erate the public transit system like it's a business?" he explained. "Peo - ple that I run into over the years feel like they've got an endless supply of money and not necessarily operat - ing it as efciently as they should. "Even though I'm not in the business to make money and ev- erything's subsidized, still I think it's important to operate as ef- ciently as you can." New Facility Te facility that they are in was built in the 70s and when Burke came to Lextran, he said they had 75 buses and a peak of around 60 everyday yet in the maintenance garage, there were only two fully functioning bays. "Mechanics were working on buses out in the parking lot and sending all of our non-revenue ve- hicles of site for repair." Burke said they knew they needed to plan to grow the system and they had some grant money set aside to start the planning process. In September 2013, Lextran pur- chased land at the site of the former GE Lighting Glass Plant for the site of its future consolidate operations and maintenance facility. Te of- cial groundbreaking took place on Dec. 9, and completion is expected sometime in late 2016. Te new facility will house all operations, maintenance and administrative staf and facilities and the maintenance garage will have seven bays to do a full line of maintenance. It's a $26 million project and Burke said they'll have about 54,000 square feet under roof. Te two-story administration building will handle all administrative staf and the frst foor will be dedicat- ed to a really nice day room for operators with showers, lockers, workout facility and quiet rooms. Te site of the facility is an old brownfeld site. A project manager was brought on that was an archi- tect, very familiar with the LEED certifcation process and Burke said they anticipate achieving LEED Sil- ver on this project. "Very proud of that," he said. "When we talk about it, we make sure people know that. "Tis is only about an eighth of a mile from where we are today so it won't disrupt our bus service or our routes. We're excited about that," Burke said. "…in 2016 we'll move in to that new facility, so it's a good time for us here." Design-Build Option Instead of a design-build-bid, Burke said they opted for a design-build project delivery to save money and to do things a bit quicker. Te proj- ect manager is URS Corp., the con- struction company is Lancer Com- mercial Construction of Lexington, Kentucky, and the architect is Main- tenance Design Group (MDG). Burke said of MDG, "I was familiar with them, worked with them a little bit when I was at Capital Metro in Austin and worked with them on a project up in Fort Worth. "One of the reasons we chose that design-build team was they were the only ones that actually went out and did some research and brought along one of their subs, Maintenance Design Group, who has gone around the country designing public transit facilities, By the Numbers 67 Fixed- Route Buses 5 Trolleys 22 Bus Routes 2 Trolley Routes 86 Bus Shelters 980 Bus Stops 115 Operators 44 Administrative Staff 33 Maintenance Staff