With Hillsborough County's transit agency in disarray just weeks after the board fired its CEO, and with the light rail measure's rejection by Hillsborough voters a reality, County Commissioner and HART board member Mark Sharpe today proposed that the terminate its Alternative Analysis study that has been used to find the best transit source and routes – a requirement that the federal government has when providing funding for local transit.
But though he had initial support to kill that study which in many ways is no longer relevant with rail and matching federal funds no longer in the immediate picture, board members ultimately supported a plan proposed by Commissioner Kevin Beckner that will allow the HART staff working on the study to come back before the board with different options about how to finish up the study and still make it a document that could be useful for years to come when rail may come back before the community.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.