To bus or not to bus will be

the question on the Fayette County commissioners' minds during their meeting

Thursday night.

Following up on a contentious

discussion with a representative from the Georgia Regional Transportation

Authority last week, commissioners may take a vote tomorrow on the authority's

proposed express bus service.

During last week's discussion,

commissioners didn't exactly say they won't approve the concept, but the

tongue lashing they gave Jim Ritchey, deputy director of GRTA, left the

impression they're not likely to.

As part of a 13-county program,

GRTA proposes to run buses up Ga. highways 74 and 85, connecting to the

MARTA system at Hartsfield International Airport. Pushed by Gov. Roy Barnes,

the program promises extra road improvement funds for participating counties.

Eleven of the 13 targeted counties have signed letters of intent to participate

only Fayette and Cherokee have not.

Specifically, if commissioners

turn down the offer, they'll be turning down $12 million in funding for

arterial road improvements in the county. GRTA is offering the road funds

in exchange for a $1.2 million commitment by the county to participate

in the regional bus system.

To participate, the county

would have to have a formal agreement in place by the end of March, pay

20 percent of the money by July 1, 40 percent by Dec. 31 and the remainder

"How about $14 million

from you and nothing from us," quipped commission Chairman Greg Dunn

as Ritchey explained the offer to the commission during last week's workshop

meeting.

Representatives of all of Fayette's

cities also attended the meeting to ask questions and make comments. "Any

buses we would accept or reject would be buses that would or would not

run through their cities," said Dunn in explaining why the cities

were invited.

"The Atlanta region has

grown fabulously," Ritchey said in his introductory remarks. "Fayette

County ... grew at roughly a 50 percent rate over the last 10 years."

Growth has caused traffic congestion

and air pollution, he said, causing the Atlanta region to fail federal

air quality standards. Environmental groups' lawsuits over that issue

froze road improvement funds until the Atlanta Regional Commission developed

short- and long-term transportation plans that federal agencies agreed

would lead to air quality improvement.

Now, Ritchey said, state officials

are looking for ways to speed up some of the mass transit elements of

the plan, to more quickly reduce the region's dependence on the automobile.

The regional express bus plan,

dubbed the Governor's Transportation Choices Initiative, calls for increasing

the number of mass transit buses operating in the region from the current

700 to about 900, he said.

GRTA is offering to buy the

buses and pay about 20 percent of the operating costs, with the rest coming

from the counties, he said. The buses would operate from 2003 to 2006,

after which the program would be reevaluated.

To sweeten the pot, the agency

is throwing in accelerated road improvement funds for local arterial projects.

"You ought to be willing

to give us our money back without our giving to a bus service," Commissioner

Herb Frady told Ritchey, adding that Fayette residents have paid state

and federal taxes for roads for years while receiving very little in the

way of state and federal road projects.

"We've had major projects

that have been turned down," he said, "and now we're getting

$311,000 for LARP [local road paving projects] when we had been getting

over $700,000. These things weigh on my mind very heavily."

"The way to accomplish

[road improvements] is to work within the system," Ritchey said,

prompting a quick answer from Dunn: "We've been participating in

this for years; we've developed a 25-year plan. We had been deprived of

these state and federal funds for four or five years [due to air quality

problems], and we came up with a plan that was conforming [with federal

air quality standards] and now the governor ... has taken that plan and

turned it upside down."

"You're making us take

a bus system that doesn't seem to be the right time and the right place,"

added Frady. "I just can't put this burden on the taxpayers."

"I understand the distastefulness

that you feel," Ritchey said, but added, "This is the business

arrangement that GRTA is offering."

Commissioners also disputed

Ritchey's projection that rider fares will pay a third of the operating

costs. Surveys locally show most people won't use the service, Dunn said.

"I'm convinced the buses would be full," answered Ritchey. "It

will do extremely well."

Peachtree City Mayor Steve

Brown questioned plans to put a park and ride lot somewhere near the intersection

of Ga. highways 54 and 74. "The last thing we need is another traffic

pull at the 54/74 intersection," he said.

Ritchey said state officials

will work with local governments on site selection, but added that plans

for a future rapid rail station near that intersection would make it the

ideal place for a bus stop.

Ritchey said if Fayette elects

not to participate now, the county may want to get in later. "I hope

as we move forward you may decide in the future [to discuss it again],"

he said.

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