While it ponders its future course regarding a downtown bus station, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority is moving forward with installing a solar-panel array on the roof of its main bus garage.

The TARTA board of trustees Thursday awarded an $890,000 contract to Solscient Energy LLC of Toledo to install the array atop the garage,. It will include a new canopy over the bay doors facing Central Avenue.

But before that installation, the transit authority will pay Wolfe Roofing Co. of Walbridge up to $341,000 to replace a portion of the bus garage’s roof where the solar array will be erected.

Federal Transit Administration grants will cover 80 percent of both projects’ cost, said James Gee, the transit authority’s general manager. Funding for the solar array is from a discretionary fund targeting solar projects, he said.

Ray Micham, a principal architect with The Collaborative in Toledo, said after the trustees’ meeting the 415,927 kilowatt-hour array will supply about 25 percent of the electricity the garage now uses, cutting TARTA’s electric bill by about $30,695 annually.

There’s enough room on the roof to set up solar panels capable of producing about 1.92 million kilowatt-hours, or about 70 percent of the garage’s consumption, he said.

The new canopy, Mr. Micham said, will be “a decorative feature” that will highlight the garage’s use of solar power.

Mr. Gee said it will enhance the building’s appearance at a time when the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority is planning redevelopment of derelict warehouses across the street as part of its Overland Industrial Park project.

The solar project “will not only help us with energy, it’s going to really spruce up the building,” the transit manager said.

Solscient was the only bidder for the solar contract, while the only other bidder for the roofing contract was deemed noncompliant for paperwork issues, Mr. Gee said. Wolfe’s was the lower of the two roofing bids, he said.

The transit board also awarded a $98,404 contract for heating and air conditioning work at the garage to Hoffman & Harpst of Toledo, the lowest of four bidders. 

It also approved contracts totaling just over $140,000 for Bender Communications Inc. of Marion, Ohio, to provide new radios and related software for transit authority vehicles.

Under a $33,029.75 contract, Bender will provide radio equipment for nine Toledo Area Regional Paratransit Service buses that Mr. Gee said are being added to the fleet to meet rider demand.

A separate $107,452.27 contract, meanwhile, will only be implemented if TARTA and the Toledo Public Schools agree on a contract for the transit authority to operate bus service for the school system. In that case, TARTA plans to add 43 buses to its fleet.

TARTA previously operated school routes for TPS, but dropped those in 2010 when the school district eliminated transportation funding during a budget crisis.

District officials pledged to use funds from a levy that district voters approved in November to reinstate student bus service.

TARTA has been working on plans to replace its five-station bus loop in downtown Toledo with a single bus terminal, but last week Toledo City Council tabled a resolution supporting a plan to place such a station on Jackson Street because of concern it would destroy the boulevard along Jackson.

“We’re taking another look at the project, the size and scope of the facility,” Mr. Gee told the transit trustees Thursday. “We want to make sure the project is beneficial not just for TARTA, but also for the future of downtown. ... We want to make sure we do it right.”

Among the authority’s considerations for revamping downtown service are route proposals drafted by Jonathon Ousky and Taslima Akter, two University of Toledo graduate students who studied Toledo’s transit network for an academic project.

In a presentation Friday to Mr. Gee and two members of TARTA’s planning department, Mr. Ousky said downtown routes could be revised to establish a few stops at key locations from which the rest of the business district would be withing walking distance. 

The walkability would promote people becoming reacquainted with downtown and could spur business development, he said.

“I like it,” Mr. Gee said after the hourlong presentation. “There's good stuff here.”

Mr. Ousky and Ms. Akter were students in a community planning workshop under Bhuiyan Alam, an associate professor in the university's geography and planning department.

Earlier in the board meeting Thursday, the TARTA trustees approved a three-year labor contract with United Auto Workers Local 5242, also known as the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel, and which represents 48 full-time and part-time clerical and support workers at the authority.

They will receive raises of 1.5 percent, 1.5 percent, and 2 percent during the contract that will be offset by health-care concessions, Mr. Gee told the board.

Staff writer Taylor Dungjen contributed to this report.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published May 9, 2015, 4:00 a.m.