Stuart

Hoff says he will keep trying to convince Fayette

County officials that they should get involved in

the public transportation process.

County

commissioners last week voted to tell Hoff that

he is on his own if he wants to provide bus

service to Fayette County residents, but Hoff

said the commissioners are being too hasty.

"Competition

and the private market frequently works best when

left alone by the government," county

manager Billy Beckett told the County Commission

during a discussion last week of Hoff's request

for county help in getting a bus system started.

But

Fayette needs public transportation if it ever

wants to solve growing air quality and clogged

traffic problems, Hoff said, and government

involvement is necessary to make that happen.

"Nobody is going to come in and operate

county-wide public transportation unless it's

done under the [federal] 5311 plan," he told

The Citizen Monday.

The

initial cost of equipment is too great, he added.

Federal

funds are available under the 5311 program, he

said, but the county must act as conduit for

grant money and then, through a bidding process,

must choose a company to receive the grant money

and operate the service.

Hoff,

owner of Phoenix Star Transportation Services,

made it clear in a recent letter to

commissioners' aide Chris Cofty that he wants his

company to be involved in the process.

"We

ask that we be permitted to be part of the

organizational process as well as be the third

party provider that implements the program that

finally evolves," Hoff wrote. "We are

not suggesting that the county be in the bus

business, but rather act as a conduit for funds

available under the 5311 and other

programs," he added.

But

if the county doesn't want to select his firm as

third party provider, Hoff asked that his firm be

hired by the county as consultants to help

prepare grant applications at a rate of $30 per

hour for up to $10,000 in charges.

If

a grant application is successful, the county

also would be liable for 10 percent of the grant,

which would be applied to start-up costs of

buying equipment, he said, but added that those

costs might be recouped. "If it's operated

the way that I'm talking about," he said,

"it could produce enough profit to pay back

the county."

In

response to Hoff's letter to Cofty, commissioners

said they aren't interested. The recently created

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority is

studying transportation needs in the entire

metropolitan Atlanta region and will be in the

driver's seat when it comes to public

transportation, said Commissioner Herb Frady.

"GRTA

is going to preempt anything we are doing

here," he said, before making a motion that

a letter be sent to Hoff outlining the county's

support of private companies that want to provide

public transportation, but stating the local

government's intention to stay out of the

process.

"Until

they hear the plan that I have, how can they turn

it down," Hoff said. "The county has to

be a cog in the wheel. They have to be a player

in order to get transportation

accomplished."

He

said he will address commissioners at some future

meeting in an attempt to get further dialogue on

the matter.

Hoff's

company recently started a shuttle service from

Peachtree City to Hartsfield International

Airport, and he said he will begin Fayetteville

to Hartsfield service Aug. 1.

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