40 years ago: Future of Lawrence Bus Co. threatened by lack of summer revenue

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 5, 1971:

Duane Ogle, president of the Lawrence Bus Co., recently had told the city commission that the buses would not be able to run unless the city agreed to an $8,000 subsidy for the summer months. Ogle pointed out that Kansas University students provided 70 per cent of the company’s business, and when school enrollment decreased in the summer, the bus company lost money — $10,000 on the previous year, for instance. Ogle said that the company did not have enough revenue to make it through the summer and that a summer closing would make it doubtful that the firm would be able to resume services in the fall. Earlier, Ogle had attempted to arrange a three-way division of the subsidy among local merchants, the university, and the city, but the merchants and KU had declined to shoulder part of the amount. City Manager Buford Watson said that the city needed to “make it clear to the public that if they feel they need a bus system, they better use it and they better use it every chance they get to keep those buses on the street.”