Laketran has chosen a strong and dedicated leader to lead the agency in its 45th year of serving Lake County. Brian Falkowski, of Concord, was unanimously re-elected to a fifth, one year term as the Board President of Lake County’s regional transit system. Chuck Zibbel, also of Concord, who has held the role of Vice President since last May, will continue serving his positon.

“Laketran is a critical organization for Lake County and it is an honor to continue to serve as president,” shared Falkowski. “In 2019, we will be focused on the financial challenge of sustaining Laketran’s Dial-a-Ride service, as well as concentrating our efforts on ways to reduce costs by considering passenger vans and propane buses for vehicle replacements that are more fuel efficient and digitizing our fare collections to eliminate the need for pricy on-board fareboxes.”

Following the roll call vote, both said they were honored to serve the Laketran Board of Trustees for another year in the two leadership positions and thanked their colleagues for their support.

“We have a lot of exciting projects to look forward to in 2019 with the construction of a new transfer center at Lakeland Community College and upgrades to the Wickliffe Park-n-Ride to install charging stations needed to run our electric buses coming in 2020,” shared Zibbel, who is a retired senior engineer from Burgess and Niple, where he managed an expansion of the Wickliffe Park-n-Ride nearly 20 years ago.

“I could have never predicted we’d be installing infrastructure to operate electric buses twenty years ago. It’s great to see Laketran embracing new technology and fuel sources, especially when it helps us operate more efficiently and improves the environment. I am happy to continue to serve an organization that offers so much to Lake County.”