Fulton County Transit Authority
Wir sind stolz darauf, die Landkreise Fulton, Hickman, Graves und Carlisle zu bedienen
Statistik & Nachricht
Two tie for prestigious award
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Santa Claus came to town Thursday, September 5, in the form of five transport drivers from two different companies. There were no reindeer involved, but Fulton County Transit Authority received one Chrysler Voyager low floor van and four Glaval cutaway buses built on Ford bodies. The van came from American Bus and Accessories, Inc. near Cincinnati, Ohio, while the four cutaways were delivered from Tesco Bus, a company located in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. The drivers were excitedly greeted by members of the FCTA Management Team and other employees. FCTA Certified Mechanic Bill Shoemaker quickly popped the hood on the van, the first vehicle to arrive, to get a quick view of the engine. Executive Director Kevin Kelley, Maintenance Supervisor Chris Brown, and Driver Supervisor Jerry Young took turns checking the vehicles’ bells and whistles, aka lights and back up alarms, to make certain all worked properly. The five vehicles are the first of 22 FCTA is purchasing to replace vehicles that have aged out of the fleet as well as those lost during the December 10, 2021, tornado that hit Mayfield. At that time, FCTA had an office building on South 9th Street where more than a dozen vehicles were parked overnight. FCTA has moved to a new office space at 3414 State Highway 45 North. The agency is in the process of opening that office after leaving an office on East Broadway near downtown Mayfield. Funding for the vehicles was provided by state and federal grant monies.
The new FCTA office in Mayfield is on Highway 45 North off I69.
Agency moves to new office in Mayfield
Fulton County Transit Authority has obtained a new place to call “home” in Mayfield/Graves County.
Following the loss of the agency’s office in the tornado on December 10, 2021, FCTA Drivers had no real place to go for a brief break or eat their lunch in between calls to pick up clients.
In the Spring of 2023, FCTA Executive Director Kevin Kelley helped the agency obtain a new building to serve as an office and break site for Drivers. This building, located at 802 East Broadway in Mayfield, was small but adequate to serve as a place for FCTA employees to break while in the Mayfield area as well as serve as a place for area residents to pick up applications for jobs at the agency.
Recently, Kelley was made aware of a larger building in the area that had a maintenance area in the back of a lobby area and large office area. After doing his homework and getting the approval of the FCTA Board of Directors and the Kentucky Office of Transportation and Delivery, Kelley signed a lease for the building located at 3414 State Highway 45 North.
This 7,500-square-foot building will be able to accommodate the Drivers who work in the Mayfield/Graves County area or are staging in the area to transport clients elsewhere at some point.
The building will be utilized as a place to take a break, eat lunch, complete paperwork, and use restroom facilities as needed. With the large maintenance area that contains nine garage doors, the building will also serve as a place to house FCTA vehicles overnight and allow Drivers assigned to the Mayfield area the opportunity to begin their workday there rather than drive the 25 miles to Fulton to sign in and get their vehicles. It would also prevent them from having to drive back to Fulton at the end of the day to clock out and park their vehicles.
According to Kelley, once the building is fully available for use there will be four vehicles assigned there. Eventually there may be as many as eight vehicles parked inside the maintenance area overnight.
One of the biggest pluses for being able to park the vehicles indoors is the Drivers won’t have to remove ice or frozen frost from the windows upon arrival in the early mornings of the months when Western Kentucky has wintry and/or inclement weather. Garage parking will also give the Drivers a warmer, cooler, or drier place to complete pre-trip paperwork prior to beginning their workday.
The vehicles also won’t be as difficult to warm up in the mornings since they have been parked inside overnight.
Although FCTA has the keys to the building, it will be a few weeks before the agency moves completely into their new “home.” In a meeting on site in the Mayfield area recently, FCTA Managers completed a walk-through of the site and determined all that will have to be done to get it ready for business.
New signage is in the works now and will most likely be one of the first FCTA-related items placed there.
In addition to the new office space, FCTA still maintains its primary office at 302 Eastwood Drive in Fulton. The maintenance building in Fulton will still be utilized to service and repair vehicles that are used by the agency in the other counties served by FCTA.
In all, FCTA proudly serves Fulton, Hickman, Graves, and Carlisle counties.
Der FCTA-Botschafter ist ein wahrer regionaler Schatz
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is reminding parents and caregivers that child passengers are best protected in a crash when they are buckled correctly in the right seats for their ages and sizes. Car seats and booster seats have height and weight limits, and children should stay in each seat until they outgrow those limits. NHTSA encourages parents to shift the question from When can I move my child to the next seat? to How long can I safely keep my child in this seat?
And it’s important for all children under 13 to ride in the back seat as air bags are designed for adult passengers in the front seat.
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children, and the latest research from NHTSA shows that 46% of car seats are misused. Common issues include children being in the wrong type of car seat for their age and size, and car seats being installed improperly — both of which leave children vulnerable to injury in a crash. Every day in 2022, three children 14 and younger were killed in traffic-related crashes and another 429 were injured.
Caregivers don’t want to be overconfident when it comes to child safety. Caregivers need to know for sure that their children are in the right seats and that those seats are installed correctly.”
Parents shouldn’t be in a rush to move their children to the next seat. Kids may think they want to ditch the harness or the booster seat, but they’re not in charge of protecting themselves. Caregivers need to stay firm on car seat safety in order to protect their young passengers.
Keeping a child in the right seat for their age and size can make all the difference in a crash. Of the child passengers killed in crashes in 2022, more than a third (39%) were unrestrained. Car seats have been shown to reduce fatal injury by 71% for infants under 1 year old and by 54% for toddlers 1 to 4 years old in passenger cars.
Infants have the highest rate of car seat use among children who survived fatal crashes in 2022: For those under 1 year old, 93% of those infants were buckled. Once a child outgrows a rear-facing car seat, he or she is ready for a forward-facing car seat with a harness. Something caregivers often overlook on a forward-facing car seat is the tether; this essential component must be used to install a forward-facing car seat correctly. This keeps the seat from moving forward in a crash, preventing head injuries. Only after reaching the maximum height or weight limits of a forward-facing car seat — which takes longer than most parents think — a child should be buckled in a booster seat until tall enough to fit in an adult seat belt properly. Booster seats are a critical — but often misused — step between harnessed car seats and adult seat belts. If the seat belt doesn’t fit a child correctly, it won’t offer them the optimal protection in a crash.
In 2022, the number of children killed in passenger vehicle crashes was highest in the 4 to 7 and 8 to 12 age groups.
National Child Passenger Safety Week will be marked September 15-21. For more information on this important week, please click on this link: Car Seat & Booster Seat Safety, Ratings, Guidelines | NHTSA
Bill Shoemaker (center, left) and Sonny Starr (center, right) were named Employee of the Year at FCTA. Presenting their awards were FCTA Executive Director Kevin Kelley and FCTA Deputy Director Kristin Grooms.
Two tie for top employee award for 2023
Zum ersten Mal in jüngster Zeit hat die Fulton County Transit Authority zwei Preisträger für den Mitarbeiter des Jahres.
Die Abstimmung der FCTA-Mitarbeiter über die Preisverleihung 2023 ergab am Ende der Abstimmung Anfang dieses Monats ein Unentschieden. Anstatt zu versuchen, einen Weg zu finden, das Unentschieden zu lösen, beschlossen der Geschäftsführer Kevin Kelley und die stellvertretende Direktorin Kristin Grooms, zwei Gewinner zu benennen.
Die FCTA-Mitarbeiter des Jahres 2023 sind Mechaniker Bill Shoemaker und Fahrertrainer Sonny Starr. Kelley und Grooms gaben den Sieg von Shoemaker beim Weihnachtsessen des FCTA-Büros in Fulton am Donnerstag, den 21. Dezember, bekannt, während das Führungsduo den Sieg von Starr beim Weihnachtsessen des FCTA-Büros in Mayfield bekannt gab.
Shoemaker, ein Armee-Gör, begann in der Highschool mit der Arbeit an Fahrzeugen. Obwohl er ein Stipendium für den Besuch einer technischen Schule erhielt, entschied sich Shoemaker, zur United States Navy zu gehen, wo er acht Jahre lang an Hubschraubern arbeitete. Nach seiner Zeit bei der Marine arbeitete Shoemaker einen Großteil seiner Karriere als Mechaniker, hauptsächlich für Fahrzeughändler. Er ist als Master Tech 12 und Chrysler Master Tech klassifiziert.
Der 11. November 2022 war Shoemakers erster Tag als FCTA-Mechaniker. Shoemaker sagt, dass er bei der Arbeit an Transitfahrzeugen typische mechanische Probleme sieht.
„Es handelt sich hauptsächlich um Kleinigkeiten und nichts, was sich wiederholt“, sagte Shoemaker in einem Artikel vom Mai 2023 für den Transmissions-Newsletter der FCTA. „Ich erledige viele allgemeine Wartungsarbeiten.“
Shoemaker und seine Frau Wendy sind seit zwei Jahren verheiratet. Sie begann Anfang des Jahres in der Terminplanung bei FCTA zu arbeiten. Das Paar hat vier gemeinsame Kinder.
Obwohl seine Zeit bei FCTA erst etwas mehr als ein Jahr her ist, sagt Shoemaker, dass es eine gute Zeit war. Er ist sehr dankbar für die Anerkennung der anderen Mitarbeiter.
„Ich freue mich über alle Stimmen und hoffe, im kommenden Jahr einen besseren Job zu machen“, sagte Shoemaker. „Vielen Dank für alle Stimmen. Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr.“
Starr wurde in Tacoma, Washington, geboren, wuchs aber in Winston, Oregon auf. Er und seine Frau Michelle haben vier Kinder – drei Mädchen und einen Jungen.
Starr begann am 20. Juni 2022 als Fahrer bei FCTA zu arbeiten. Er fährt immer noch für die Agentur, fungiert aber auch als Fahrertrainer bei FCTA. Derzeit hat er viele der neueren FCTA-Fahrer ausgebildet.
Der gebürtige Westküstenbewohner hat im Laufe seines Erwachsenenlebens eine Vielzahl von Karrieren hinter sich. Er leitete eine Reihe von Radiosendern und diente als Rettungssanitäter. Seit 14 Jahren arbeitet er als Produzent, Filmhistoriker, Zeitungskolumnist und Moderator für die landesweit führende klassische Hollywood-Sendung mit dem Titel „Starr Talk With Sonny Starr“.
Starr ist sehr dankbar für die Auszeichnung.
„Es hat mich überrascht“, gab Starr zu. „Damit habe ich wirklich nicht gerechnet. Es gibt so viele, die besser qualifiziert sind als ich. Ich kann nur sagen, dass ich für diese Ehre sehr dankbar bin. Die Tatsache, dass dies von meinen Kollegen kam, hat eine ganz besondere Bedeutung. Vielen Dank. Ich werde mich immer an diese große Ehre erinnern!“