Residents in Kyle will be able use Capital Area Rural Transportation System to get rides to and from Austin through the end of the year.

At its meeting Sept. 17, Kyle City Council voted 4-2 to fund transportation services through CARTS for $8,000 per month. The service was due to end Oct. 31, but the decision allows the city to continue receiving service on a month-to-month basis through the end of 2013. In the meantime, council directed staff to explore alternatives.

CARTS is a rural service that provides transportation to customers in Hays, Lee, Caldwell, Bastrop, Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Blanco and Fayette counties.

"The CARTS program has existed in Kyle at this point thanks to funding from the federal government and rural transportation projects," Community Development Director Jerry Hendrix said. "As a result of the last census, the city of Kyle was placed in an urbanized area with the city of Austin."

Kyle was grouped into Austin's urban area in April 2012, when the results of the 2010 Census were finalized. CARTS is funded through federal rural transportation funds, and because Kyle is now considered part of an urbanized area, the city must now match any funds provided by the federal government for the service.

According to CARTS records, 51 Kyle residents accessed the service between Sept. 1, 2012 and Aug. 31, 2013.

Council members Chad Benninghoff and Ray Bryant voted against funding the service altogether.

"We're looking at a very small, small percentage of the very large volume of people who live here in Kyle and I'm looking at what we get as a city for what we're going to spend each month, and that's a crazy amount of money to spend," Benninghoff said.

Benninghoff referenced the $100,000 set aside in the 2013–14 budget for maintenance of all the city's roads and called into question whether providing the service outweighed the need for road maintenance.

"I'd like to see certain options in the future that are very cost effective and I just don't see these options as very cost effective," Benninghoff said.

Mayor Lucy Johnson said she was not happy about having to fund the service on a month-to-month basis, but for now, CARTS is a "service of last resort" for many of the city's residents.

"Kyle is many things, but we are certainly not an urban area capable of providing our own mass transit on a city level," Johnson said. "Without [CARTS] there will be no public transportation option whatsoever for those people who need the service most."

The move will require the city to amend its 2013–14 budget, which was approved on Sept. 4.