GAINESVILLE – Yes, it’s the time of year that budget requests are presented, but Thursday morning the Gainesville City Council heard a four-year plan regarding the Hall Area Transit System that did NOT involve a specific dollar request…at least not yet.
Notwithstanding, the four-year Transit Development Plan put together by transportation consultant J.R. Wilburn, Inc. does propose service and fleet increases, as well as route extensions and the consequent hiring of personnel to provide for the increased services.
City Manager Bryan Lackey said following Community Service Center Director Phillippa Lewis Moss’s presentation to the city council that a budget request would soon be forthcoming.
“We’ve already started that (process)…she will come and sit down with me in the next couple of weeks,” Lackey said. “I’m sure Phillippa will have a generous list of projects she wants, just as all the department heads have when they come in.”
Lackey continued, “We’ll look at that, we’ll see what we can fit into the budget based on the benefits we get back from expanding the service, and then fit what we can in the first year.”
The Transit Development Plan, as explained by Moss, recommended four implementations to come online over the next 48-months for the fixed route service portion of the transit system, commonly referred to as the Gainesville Connection:
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Extend evening hours (Moss suggested a two hour extension from 6:15 PM to 8:15 PM)
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Increase peak hour headways (Moss suggested a 30-minute frequency during the rush-hours of 7-9 AM and 4-6 PM)
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Extend several routes into needed service areas (Moss suggested extending Routes 10 and 50 and creating a new route along SR 60)
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Begin Saturday service
“I’m for extended services as long as they’re revenue neutral,” Mayor Danny Dunagan said.
Council woman Barbara Brooks said, “I’m excited about the potential.”
Brooks said she very recently had a conversation with a 20-year-old who was hired at Kubota Manufacturing just off White Sulphur Road.
He starts next week, according to Brooks, and plans to walk to work because he doesn’t have any other means of transportation.
His long walk in the predawn hours affects Brooks on a personal level. “That’s a concern to me; that’s a concern to you, too; it’s a part of this whole (transportation study). And that young man is my grandson and I’ve got to carry him.”
Kubota is not the only large employer lacking public transit service for their employees. Moss said Fieldale Farms on Thompson Bridge Road, the Kubota plant in Jackson County and numerous businesses along Candler Highway have requested service for years.
In addition, Moss added, service to the Gwinnett County Transit Park and Ride lot off I-985 at Exit 4, Buford Drive, would help those Hall County residents working in Gwinnett County and points beyond. Money earned by those workers, Moss said, would likely be spent in Hall County, increasing the tax base.
“And a lot of folks work on Saturday,” Moss said referring to the Transit Development Plan’s recommendation for six-day-a-week service.
Regarding the budget requests for Hall Area Transit awaiting the city manager and the approval of the city council, City Manager Bryan Lackey said, “What I do like is how we are tying it to an economic development tool, to use for our industries, to get people and connect get them to their jobs.”
“These recommendations are really the ‘low-hanging-fruit’”, Moss said regarding the obvious service needs and opportunities to enhance transit revenues presented in the strategic plan.
“We have businesses who are running their own van pool program and bringing people from Atlanta, doing all kinds of crazy things…and what they want to focus on is building tractors; they want to focus on processing chickens; they don’t want to be in the business of building transit,” Moss explained.
“We need you guys (city council) to connect our employees to our companies.”
