Riverside Casino considering ride-sharing program

The Riverside Casino & Golf Resort is considering a ride-share-like program through the East Central Iowa Council of Governments to encourage prospective employees to join its workforce.

ECICOG board member and Washington Economic Development Group Executive Director Mary Audia said the casino had reached out to WEDG for help finding transportation solutions. WEDG, in turn, got them in touch with ECICOG’s Corridor Rides Program.

“Enterprise has this program called Commute with Enterprise, and ECICOG will pitch in a certain amount of money each month to help employees get to and from work,” Audia said. “They came up with a whole grouping of ZIP codes, based on where their employees are coming from.”

Commute with Enterprise Iowa Sales Executive Abby Wilcox said the program was comparable to a long-term ride-sharing service.

“Each van pool rider pays a set fee per month, which covers all costs including gas, insurance and repairs,” Wilcox said. “Commute with Enterprise also provides 24-hour roadside assistance, liability insurance and scheduled maintenance.”

Riverside Casino Facilities Manager Brett DeWolf said the ride-sharing program was a promising proposal.

“In rural settings such as ours, there’s no sidewalk that connects us to any community,” he said. “We have people in city centers that will apply for jobs and ask about commuting options, but there’s not a bus route, there’s not a municipal service for transporting them to work.”

Despite the excitement, DeWolf said the program is only in the discussion phase at the casino, which is carefully considered every option before committing.

“We’re going to work on selecting a department to work with and possibly set up a van,” he said. “Then (we’ll) see how it works and if it drives any more applications or interest in working there because there is transportation to the casino.”

DeWolf cited logistical issues like schedule coordination, address comparability and fairness as issues still being hashed out.

Though Corridor Rides is currently concentrated in urban centers, ECICOG Transit Administrator and Planner Brock Grenis said it would be just as beneficial to rural areas like Washington County.

“So far the people choosing to use it are people that have to pay to park at like, the VA Hospital or University of Iowa,” Grenis said. “It’s suitable, certainly, for any employer, rural or urban, in my mind. The program operates the same, it’s a way to share a ride and reduce the cost for people and even help those people that might not have access to their own car.”

Grenis said the Corridor Rides program would subsidize $400 of the casino’s rental fees per month per van, out of the roughly $1,000-$1,500 average cost. The rest would likely be paid by commuters.