By Tricia Pursell
MIDDLEBURG — The Snyder County commissioners once again expressed a lack of support for a request by officials of the North Central Pennsylvania Transportation Task Force on Tuesday.
Mark Murawski, chairman of the task force and transportation planner for Lycoming County, and Keri Albright, vice chairwoman of the task force and executive director of the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way, met with the commissioners to try to convince them of the need to financially support a transportation feasibility study. It would be 80 percent funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and 20 percent by the counties that are expected to benefit.
“Local transportation organizations need to work more together,” Albright said, calling the current state of public transportation “inefficient” and “exclusionary.”
“This is a regional collaborative effort to address the lack of public transportation in our central Pennsylvania area,” Albright said. “We hope the commissioners heard us.”
The study is expected to cost $100,000. Each of seven counties — Snyder, Union, Northumberland, Montour, Lycoming, Columbia and Schuylkill — has been asked to support the study based on their populations.
Snyder County represents 5 percent, at $1,470.
So far, Lycoming, Northumberland and Montour counties have agreed to pay their share, Murawski said. Those shares are $4,490, $3,510 and $680, respectively.
Union County has been asked to support the study with $1,680, Schuylkill with $5,670 and Columbia with $2,500.
“We are continuing a dialogue with the remaining counties,” he said.
“Until they formally take a vote on it, we haven’t been provided any answers,” Albright said.
Snyder County commissioner Chairman Joe Kantz said there are several reasons why he is not inclined to support funding the study with taxpayer dollars.
The major concern is that a study will only lead to more requests for more money to fund a public, subsidized transportation system, he said.
In addition, as a big supporter of free enterprise, Kantz said, “I believe if the need is as great as they are telling us, some private business owner would explore the opportunity to create a profit-making business that would, in turn, create new jobs.”
He also believes that if all the counties involved were to meet and discuss ideas, they could forgo the $100,000 cost to taxpayers for a study that would “tell us the same thing.”
“I understand the need for those who do not have adequate transportation, but I will not fund another new entitlement program when hard-working families are already being taxed too much,” he said.
But Albright argued, “This request comes with zero strings attached.”
Murawski said: “I assured them I did not think it is financially or politically feasible for member counties to put more money into public transportation than they already are. As long as I am chairman of this task force, we’re not going to see a study that will see an increased cost to counties.”
Instead, he expects the study to improve public transportation, relieve burdens on taxpayers and find a way to pay for itself.
Many transportation services, including fixed-route transit systems, shared ride systems, taxi companies and social service organizations that provide their own transportation, are operating buses and vans that aren’t full. The reason, Murawski said, is that they are not getting to areas where the demand is.
With an aging Pennsylvania population and increasing gas prices, he said there is likely to once again be increased pressure on public transit and on public officials to respond to the need.
The task force was organized in August 2008. The members meet monthly. Officials are expecting consultants to provide proposals for a feasibility study by Dec. 31. The task force will select one at its Jan. 26 meeting.
