Friday, April 5, 2002
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Friday, April 5, 2002 |
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County finalizes bus deal By JOHN
THOMPSON Coweta County officials quietly signed up Tuesday for the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority's plan to run express buses in the 13-county metro Atlanta region. In exchange for paying $850,000 to help run the bus system for three years, the county receives $10.4 million to improve dangerous intersections and arterial roads. The commissioners met last Friday to approve the deal before the March 29 deadline set by GRTA expired. In previous dicussion, the board focused on the benefits the program would bring to the county. "This gives us a real chance to fix Lower Fayetteville Road like it should be," said Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter. Commission Chairman Jim McGuffey added the Chamber of Commerce had recently endorsed the plan, and he felt it was the right thing for the commission to approve the deal. "We're either going to get the buses for $10.4 million or nothing," he said. But Commissioner Leigh Schlumper maintained her staunch support against the deal. "I do not support the bus system. We're being held hostage by the state. I just don't have a lot of faith that this bus system will work," she said. Schlumper said a pilot program should have been planned to see how enthusiastic Coweta would be about the system. The current plans for the bus system calls for eight round trips a day from Coweta County to Hartsfield. It could be operating by the summer of 2003. Only Cherokee abd Fayette counties declined to participate in GRTA's program.
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