Get ready to board the bus.

Coweta County officially 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.

"This gives us a real

chance to fix Lower Fayetteville Road like it should be," said Commissioner

Vernon "Mutt" Hunter.

Commission Chairman Jim McGuffey

said he would like to have received more of an assurance from the DOT

that they were going along with GRTA's plan, but Hunter said he felt the

county got the most commitment it could possibly get from the agency.

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

said she could not support the efforts.

"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 commission passed a resolution

to negotiate the contract with GRTA by a 3-1 vote, with Schlumper casting

the dissenting vote.

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.

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