Cut routes, cut personnel expenses.

Nathan Cummins of May & Company, the NRoute bus system’s accountant, spelled out financial options Wednesday night while reviewing a breakdown of the system’s expenses from fiscal 2012.

The transit system’s Board of Commissioners is examining solutions to continue operations and head off an anticipated $96,000 year-end deficit for fiscal 2013.

Evelyn Bumpers, NRoute executive director, said she is preparing an assessment of the system’s bus routes and will recommend cutting routes when commissioners meet Dec. 19.

Cummins also suggested the commissioners ask the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to bump the city’s monthly $11,250 supplement by an additional $8,000 a month.

Board chairman Alvin Taylor said the possibility of NRoute getting more money from the city is remote.

“I’ve talked with the mayor and the aldermen and they don’t want to talk about paying more money,” he said.

According to the four-page profit and loss report presented by Cummins, NRoute’s cost to keep 11 vehicles running during fiscal 2012 was $145,183, with about $98,000 of that going for fuel and oil. An additional $23,000 was spent on repairs, and the remainder went for maintenance. Currently, Bumpers said, five of the vehicles are down for repairs.

“The only way you’re going to reduce those costs is by reducing your routes and reducing wear and tear on the vehicles,” Cummins said.

NRoute’s payroll numbers, which include salaries and benefits, according to the report, show NRoute has paid out $501,689 from October 2011 through this month, the second month of the new fiscal year. Certain costs, such as insurance and the bus system’s contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System, Cummins said, cannot be cut.

“You’ll have to find some way to cut personnel expenses,” he said.

Bumpers said she plans to recommend in December that NRoute go to a flex route system that concentrates on the transit system’s more active routes.

NRoute operates six bus routes. Bumpers did not say which routes would be eliminated, but the more popular destinations, such as River Region Medical Center, Walmart and the Vicksburg Mall, would be kept in the proposed plan. Reducing the routes also would reduce the transit system’s payroll.

“With a flex route system, you go where the people are. These are the routes the people really want,” she said. “These are dedicated routes rather than fixed routes, but the buses can be flagged down by people who are in the (route) area.”

She said the changes would be recommended even if the Board of Mayor and Aldermen agrees to increase the city’s supplement. She added any route changes could not be implemented until after a public hearing on the plan.

In other action, the board:

• Learned November ridership totaled 3,178 people, up 152 from November 2011, but down 928 from October’s total of 4,106. November’s fares totaled $5,656.29, down $203.56 from $5,859.85 in October.

The total fares for the first two months of fiscal 2013 was $11,516.14, up $4,379.53 from the $7,136.61 collected in October and November, 2011.

• Approved Dec. 24 and 25 as Christmas holidays and Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 as New Year’s holidays.

• Received a Friends of Transit award from the Mississippi Public Transit Association.