CRESTVIEW — After approving funds Oct. 14 to support the city's two bus routes through the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the City Council passed a motion Monday to fund the routes only through January.
The Board of County Commissioners initially demanded the city pay for half the buses’ operating costs or risk losing the service.
When the city scraped together the money — counting on as-yet undetermined gasoline tax increase revenue — commissioners changed parameters and said the routes would only operate through January 2014.
Though the $13,125 city contribution approved during Monday evening's council meeting is significantly less than the original $48,125 demand, council members expressed frustration with the increasingly complicated situation.
"After February, what happens?" Councilman Tom Gordon asked City Clerk Betsy Roy.
There has been no indication from county commissioners what their stance will be after the current city contribution expires, Roy said.
City taxpayers, unlike other county and municipal residents, are expected to provide federal, state, county and now city tax contributions to the bus service, Gordon said.
"And now we're going to take funding out of our contingency fund and we're going to fund it four times?" he said. "This was never meant to be a city of Crestview busing system."
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview council funds bus service through January