By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

HONOR, Mich. — Susan Miller, executive director of the Benzie Transportation Authority, is pretty happy about federal economic stimulus money coming to her neck of the woods.

There’s no bus transfer station in Honor, only an office where a few people can wait, Miller said. The main office is a leased building. She also said that mechanics have a very small space in which to work on transit buses.

“We need a garage really bad,” Miller said.

Money from the economic stimulus legislation, known as the Recovery Act, may change all of that. The transit authority in Honor, located at the tip of the state’s little finger – in the northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula – is slated to receive nearly $1.3 million of the federal money.

An announcement of the so-called Phase 1 list of projects was made on May 28.

Miller said that the authority is planning to buy a defunct auto dealership with the stimulus money and then renovate it.

Altogether, 19 transit authorities and counties across the state are expected to receive $13.2 million to build or renovate transportation buildings as well as purchase or repair buses. The Indian Trails bus company is also listed as a recipient of stimulus money.

The company is contracted by the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) to provide bus service for places that don’t have enough money to start their own bus service.

“This is the first announcement we’ve been able to make about rural transit agencies,” said Janet Foran, a spokeswoman for MDOT.
“The Recovery Act money will certainly go a long way towards helping with the aging fleet. We rate the overall rural transit fleet as poor.”

Foran said that states have to send in rural transit applications to the Federal Transit Authority(FTA) by July 1.

“We don’t expect approval from the FTA before Sept. 1,” she said.  She added, however, that there might be a second round of applications that would occur later this year or early 2010. MDOT contracts with a number of private bus services in addition to Indian Trails.

“A number of other private carriers are supplemented by the state and federal governments,” Foran said. “This is especially true in the U.P., where bus service would simply cease to exist without aid.”

Miller said that state officials have told her the money is pretty much a sure thing.

Allegan County is also on track to receive money for a new transportation building. Dan Wedge, director of the transportation department there, said that the approximately $1.6 million will help the county finish the new building, which is already partially built. Currently the staff is split into two locations and there are two separate telephone systems.

“The money will give us a maintenance room, some storage rooms and a wash bay,” Wedge said. “It’ll also give us indoor vehicle storage. It’ll allow us to store about 24 vehicles inside. In the winter months that’s crucial.”

Wedge also said that with everyone under one roof “it will improve customer service tremendously.”

Nothing specific has been announced regarding Phase 2, except that those transportation dollars are supposed to be focused on “investments that will improve efficiency.” According to Foran one of the things this could mean is hybrid buses.