Barely a month after its launch, Mayor Laurence Leyens said Tuesday he wants to push the NRoute transit system from the city’s control into its own management board.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen had planned on giving the system about six months before creating an independent board to guide operations. The system was launched in late June after five years of planning and leg work.

Leyens, however, said he thinks the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and other city entities are stretched far too thin to handle day-to-day details and promotions as effectively as needed.

&#8220We were planning to do it in December. What I’m asking the board is, let’s go ahead and do it,” said Leyens, who has been vocal with city employees about what he sees as a delay in getting printed routes and schedules into local businesses.

&#8220If there was an active board right now, they’d be meeting with employees and taking a more active role and getting some of these other problems taken care of,” he said.

The push comes after NRoute’s fourth consecutive week of improving passenger numbers.

After drawing 632 riders during a fare-free debut, total boardings fell to 214 from July 3-7, which included the Independence Day holiday, before rising to 347 people the following week, said Director Evelyn Bumpers. From July 17-21, drivers logged 388 fares, and the count was up to 529 last week.

In all, passengers have made 2,110 trips on NRoute buses, 1,478 of them paid at a base fare of $1.50 and the rest at half-off for seniors or through monthly passes.

Projections of the annual cost to run the system were as high as $700,000, but under the city’s draft budget for the spending year that starts Oct. 1, NRoute’s total cost is estimated at about $470,000, the majority in payroll.

Just over $60,000, or nearly 13 percent, of that number is expected from fares. To meet that income, 3,300 riders per month would have to pay the $1.50 fare. The first month of paid customers hit roughly 44 percent of that benchmark.

Creating the authority would not affect funding. The remaining 87 percent of the overhead is to be paid from general tax funds, donations and advertising income.

Currently, the city runs seven routes with 8 to 11 regular stops per route from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Leyens said the model for the transportation board would be the five-person board that oversees Vicksburg Municipal Airport, established in August to guide the 56-year-old facility. That board plans and oversees airport projects, grant applications and submits budget requests.

The transportation board would probably also have five members, Leyens said, likely geared toward raising more awareness about the system.

&#8220It’s not just going to be anybody” on the board, he said. &#8220It’ll definitely be an interview process. You’re going to have to know what you’re doing.” Leyens has said NRoute is assured of funding for three years.

Initially, an appointed board would not have authority over the system, Leyens said, but would be in place to develop a philosophy and learn to work with one another, along with more practical issues like setting up bylaws, insurance, staffing and a process for funding and budgeting before being officially handed the reins.

Bumpers, the small administrative staff and eight drivers would become employees of the board.

&#8220We know it’s going to take months to do that. It’s not going to happen in a week,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman. &#8220The earlier we start, the better off we are.”

It was more than a decade between NRoute’s June 26 launch and Vicksburg’s last effort at public transportation, a system of downtown trolleys 11 years ago, which cost about $120,000 and did not catch on. In its history, the city has been served by horse-drawn carts, electric trolleys and conventional buses. The last bus system shut down in the 1960s.

Six of the 20-seat, wheelchair-accessible Ford E-450 buses were bought from Starcraft Bus of Birmingham, Ala., with a $488,000 federal grant. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to amend its budget in April, adding $181,550 into the bus fund and authorizing spending $237,790 to get the system running. The remaining $250,000 went into the general fund to be apportioned for other projects.

The decision to seek the grants and commit local funds followed a Chamber of Commerce study assuring the buses were needed, especially in census tracts with double-digit unemployment rates and fewer personal vehicles.