San Benito County transportation officials have slated $374,000
of the $1.2 million headed to the area from the federal stimulus
package toward the purchase of two new buses for transit routes to
replace two others with high mileage.
HOLLISTER
San Benito County transportation officials have slated $374,000 of the $1.2 million headed to the area from the federal stimulus package toward the purchase of two new buses for transit routes to replace two others with high mileage.
A transportation official with the Council of San Benito County Governments responded, when asked how it would stimulate the economy as intended in the $787 billion legislation, by noting how the cutaway buses will service college students and people who go to work. The buses set for replacement have surpassed the 200,000-mile mark.
“Yes,” said Lisa Rheinheimer, COG’s executive director, “in the sense that our services for County Express – it is not only serving college kids, we are servicing people that use the bus to go to work.”
She added that these buses will work toward preservation of current jobs.
“Without these buses, some people couldn’t go to work,” she contended.
San Benito County’s $1.2 million – the remainder is headed toward road improvements – is the first of two installments from the recently approved federal package. An amount for the second installment is unclear at this point.
County Supervisor Anthony Botelho, also a COG board member, said he wants to use the money in whatever fashion is allowed and he emphasized his goal is to keep “as much of the money as possible” in the area.
“If there is an opportunity to update the fleet of buses, in the long run, it will be a benefit for the transit system,” Botelho said. “The only thing I can gather from that is that A, if we don’t utilize that money, somebody else will, and B, perhaps it’s a stimulus to make more buses in Detroit or something.”
In the first tier of spending, along with the $374,000 on new buses, the agency is scheduled to allocate $811,000 to both the City of Hollister and San Benito County for road improvements. Related projects are required to start within 120 days, she said. The second tier of projects, then, would be ready to begin in August 2010.
Officials have noted how much of the road work will be street overlay and maintenance jobs such as fixing potholes.
In terms of job creation, Rheinheimer said that according to the Federal Highway Administration, for every billion dollars spent on transportation, 18,000 jobs would be created. In the county, that would amount to around 24 or 25 jobs.
To ask questions or make comments to COG, e-mail the agency at in**@sa**********.org. To write to individual board members, go to www.sanbenitocog.org/board_members.php and click on the member’s name for an e-mail address.
For an expanded version of this story, go to www.freelancenews.com Friday.
Free Lance Editor Kollin Kosmicki contributed to this report.
