Fulton County Transit Authority
Proudly serving Fulton, Hickman, Graves, and Carlisle counties
Statistics & News
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 west of the 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.
Child safety seats are focus of special week
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
For the first time in recent memory, Fulton County Transit Authority has two Employee of the Year recipients.
The 2023 award voting by FCTA employees resulted in a tie at the end of vote tabulation earlier this month. Rather than try to determine a way to break the tie, Executive Director Kevin Kelley and Assistant Director Kristin Grooms decided to name two winners.
The 2023 FCTA Employees of the Year are Mechanic Bill Shoemaker and Driver Trainer Sonny Starr. Kelley and Grooms announced Shoemaker’s win at the Fulton FCTA Office Christmas meal Thursday, December 21, while the leadership duo announced Starr’s win at the Mayfield FCTA Office Christmas meal.
Shoemaker, an Army brat, began working on vehicles in high school. Although he earned a scholarship to attend technical school, Shoemaker opted to join the United States Navy where he worked on helicopters for eight years. Following his time in the Navy, Shoemaker worked as a mechanic working for mostly vehicle dealerships for much of his career. He is classified as a Master Tech 12 and a Chrysler Master Tech.
November 11, 2022, was Shoemaker’s first day as FCTA’s mechanic. Working on Transit vehicles, Shoemaker says he sees typical mechanical issues.
“It’s mostly minor stuff and nothing repetitive,” Shoemaker said in a May 2023 article for FCTA’s Transmissions newsletter. “I do a lot of general maintenance.”
Shoemaker and his wife, Wendy, have been married for two years. She started working in Scheduling at FCTA earlier this year. The couple have four children between the two of them.
Although his time working at FCTA has only been a little over a year, Shoemaker says it has been a good one. He is very appreciative of the recognition from the other employees.
“I appreciate all the votes and hope to do a better job this coming year,” Shoemaker said. "Thank you for all the votes. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”
Starr was born in Tacoma, Washington, but grew up in Winston, Oregon. He and his wife, Michelle, have four children – three girls and a boy.
Starr began working at FCTA June 20, 2022, as a Driver. He still drives for the agency, but also serves as a Driver Trainer at FCTA. Currently he has trained many of the newer FCTA Drivers.
The West Coast native has had a plethora of careers throughout his adult life. He managed a string of radio stations and served as an EMT. He has worked as a producer, film historian, newspaper columnist, and host for the nation’s top classic Hollywood program called “Starr Talk With Sonny Starr” for 14 years.
Starr is very appreciative of the award.
“It took me by surprise,” Starr admitted. “I really didn’t expect it. There are so many that are better qualified than me. All I can say is I’m very grateful for such an honor. The fact that this came from my peers has such special meaning. Thank you so much. I will always remember this great honor!”