By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH, MI – Berrien County Commissioners are expected to look in coming weeks at forming a countywide authority to address public transportation issues that include funding and access. The public transportation debate goes back more than a decade and has not resulted in actual action up to this point.
Berrien County Community Development Director Dan Fette outlined the current public transportation issues at a recent Committee of the Whole meeting. Commissioners did not formally vote but directed Fette and other staff to bring back a resolution to the board in coming weeks to start the process of forming a countywide authority.
Currently, there are three public transportation providers in the county: the Niles Dial-A-Ride (DART) which serves Niles and Buchanan, the Twin Cities Area Transportation Agency (TCATA) which serves the Benton Harbor and St. Joseph area, and Berrien Bus which serves rural parts of the county.
Fette said that TCATA officials have been informed that they will no longer get federal funding later this year. In addition, both TCATA and Berrien Bus are operating with deficits.
He also spoke about the need for public transportation. He said thousands of county residents rely on public transportation to get them to work, medical appointments, and grocery stores. Right now, a large part of the county away from the Twin Cities and the Niles-Buchanan area have less access to public transportation.
Fette told commissioners that one solution would be to form a countywide transportation authority which would consolidate the three public transportation services to achieve efficiencies. Existing millages in Niles, Buchanan, and Benton Harbor would continue and a new countywide millage might be proposed.
The countywide transportation authority would allow for routes that would connect urban centers and have a unified fare system. Possible routes would include ones from Benton Harbor to Niles, Niles to South Bend, St. Joseph to Watervliet, Benton Harbor to New Buffalo, New Buffalo to Michigan City and New Buffalo to Niles.
He said getting the countywide authority in place would make the county eligible for additional federal and state funding. He said the Michigan Department of Transportation would provide 100 percent funding in the first year and then reduced funding over the following two years.
Fette noted that he’s already raised the idea of a countywide transportation authority to local governmental leaders and will be asking them to provide letters or resolutions of support for such a move.
County commissioners in general were positive about the new public transportation effort but wanted to make sure everything is done right.
“The devil’s in the details,” County Board Chairman McKinley “Mac” Elliott said. “We haven’t had a full briefing on the enabling statutory framework, how it would be millage based and how authority is created and constituted. There would be a governing body over it–someone has to be accountable. We don’t want to be in Frankenstein’s laboratory with no control.”
“We have to be deliberate about the process,” Elliott added. “It’s easier to create than to unwind later. Will local governments want to cede authority to the county? We need to make sure it’s done right.”
“I’ve been a part of these discussions since 2012,” Commissioner Jim Curran said. “The question that is before us today is do we create authority or not? We already have an outline for creating authority. I’d like to see Dan dust off that and update and bring back to us.”
Curran added there are still a lo of unknowns. He said, “We need to have something in writing to show local entities and address some of their questions. It’s not one of those processes where the staff brings it to us and approve it the next week.”
“We do have an outline of procedures,” Fette said. “We have draft articles of incorporation and resolutions of acceptance, most of the work is already done. The devil’s in the details, last time the question was who gets seats on the authority. Here there are three entities/systems that will want representation and the county would also want representation. It’s a political question; there’s no good answer.”