Sara Spence, of Willowick, was sworn in earlier this week to serve on the Laketran Board of Trustees.

Spence is the president of Willoughby-based Spence Technologies and immediate past chairman of the Willoughby Western Chamber of Commerce. She also serves as the vice president of the Alliance for Working Together.

“Transportation access has been a part of the workforce development discussion among manufacturers for quite a while,” explained Spence. “I am looking forward to learning more about the agency to see if we can create solutions to bridge the gap between manufacturing jobs in Lake County and public transit.”

Spence, who will serve until May 2022, fills the seat vacated by the resignation of Alice Cable, former executive director of Alliance for Working Together. Cable recently moved out of state.

Brian Falkowski, of Concord, was unanimously re-elected to a sixth, one-year term as the Board President of Lake County’s regional transit system. Chuck Zibbel, also of Concord, will continue serving as Vice President.

“We are very excited to have Sara as part of our organization,” shared Falkowski. “We are working to bring more transit options to Tyler Boulevard this year and I believe Sara’s relationships and expertise within the manufacturing sector will bring a lot of value to Laketran.”

As for the year ahead, Falkowski commented, “We have a lot of exciting projects to look forward to in 2020 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 electric buses that will replace our 12 year old diesel buses.”

“We promised new levy funds would support services that would improve job access and the need for hourly public transit service along Tyler Boulevard was something we have heard from employers and agencies for a longtime. We have designed route options and will be bringing them to the public for input very soon,” concluded Falkowski.

Laketran is governed by a volunteer nine-member board appointed by the Lake County Commissioners. The board provides the agency fiduciary oversight and establishes policies to ensure services that best fit the needs of the community.