CRESTVIEW — Two concurrent efforts could spur the return of county public transit buses to Crestview streets.
Okaloosa County Transit bus routes 11 and 12, which served the county seat, were terminated two years ago when county officials demanded that the city help fund the service.
The City Council refused to approve payment until the city received representation on the board that operated the transit service.
Now, the Board of County Commissioners is issuing what Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert called “a very robust request for proposals” for a new county transit operator.
At the same time, county and municipal officials are putting together a detailed plan for an Okaloosa County Public Transit Cooperative.
Tentative plans — which require approval from each represented community’s council — would assure equal representation by Crestview and the county’s other incorporated municipalities.
CITY INPUT
Crestview’s representative, City Clerk Betsy Roy, said the cooperative has been more than two years in the making.
Roy said the city also has representation on the committee producing the transit services request for proposals.
“We’re trying to get as much input as we can from the ground floor,” Kampert said.
City councilmen on Monday were cautiously favorable toward the agreement and search for a new transit services operator. A major concern had been poor timing and convoluted bus stop placement, they said.
“One of the reasons for the cooperative is to make the routes more friendly and useable so people will use it and make it work,” Roy said.
NO PARTICIPATION, NO VOICE
Council President Shannon Hayes said it is important that Crestview be represented on the cooperative board.
“If we become part of it, then we’ll have a voice,” Hayes said. “We need to do something about this. It’s broke and it needs to be fixed, if it’s fixable. But if we don’t agree to it (the cooperative), then we won’t be part of it.”
“We want to get major population centers to the table, and that’s Crestview, Destin and Fort Walton,” Kampert said.
Commissioners want to have the cooperative “up and running by next month, where people are sitting and talking, because it needs to happen,” he said.
At this early development stage, joining the cooperative brings no financial obligation, and any funds eventually sought by the cooperative would only come by approval from the respective municipalities’ councils, Roy said.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Inter-municipality board could return bus service to Crestview