City Council Approves Fiber Infrastructure Expansion, Reviews Public Transit Modernization Plan
Decatur, IL – Highlights from the January 21, 2025, Decatur City Council meeting include approval of fiber internet expansion on the east side of Lake Decatur and a discussion about modernizing Decatur Public Transit operations.
Fiber Internet Expansion
On Tuesday night the Decatur City Council approved an agreement with Bodine Electric to expand the City’s fiber infrastructure further into the east side of Lake Decatur. A connection will be made to Decatur Fire Station 7 as well as Eisenhower High School, providing reliable, high-speed internet to those facilities.
A 144-strand fiber conduit was installed under Lake Decatur late last year in coordination with a Sanitary District of Decatur project. Council’s action Tuesday will connect the school and fire station to the recently installed conduit near Lost Bridge and provide the backbone for other connections to be made in the future, such as Baum, Muffley, and Montessori schools, the Decatur Airport, and others.
The contract is $530,500 and will be paid for with American Rescue Plan Act monies.
Decatur Public Transit Operations Analysis
Council also discussed what the future could look like for the Decatur Public Transit System (DPTS). Results from a Comprehensive Operations Analysis (COA) were presented at Tuesday’s meeting, which included recommendations to modernize transit operations. Significant changes have not been made to the mostly fixed-route transit system for many years.
Recommendations discussed include:
· Introduction of micro-transit service – micro-transit, or Mobility-on-Demand (MOB) is being proposed to complement and supplement fixed-route service. Similar to Uber or Lyft, citizens
could use a mobile device to order a ride share to an existing fixed route or to their destination
· Expanded hours – expand fixed-route service until 8:00 p.m. and MOB could service from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. daily
· Higher frequency on popular routes – adding MOB and reducing the number of fixed routes would allow more buses to operate on the more popular fixed routes. Frequencies could be increased to arriving/departing every 15-20 minutes on weekdays and 20-minute frequencies on Saturday and Sunday
The Council was excited to hear these anticipated recommendations and was supportive of most of them. The recommendations will come before Council for approval throughout 2025.
More information about these topics can be found in the City Council meeting packet, downloadable/viewable here: www.decaturil.gov/389/Agendas-Minutes
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