By Paul Gable
Two meetings will be held today that will look to how Coast RTA will be conducting its operations in the future.
The first will be at 10:30 a.m. at the Coast RTA board room where Coast RTA officials will meet with members of the Horry County legislative delegation, a Georgetown County representative and several members of Horry County council.
The purpose of the morning meeting is to investigate changes in state law to provide Horry County more representation on the Coast RTA board in line with its local grant contributions to the Coast RTA budget.
Horry County has budgeted approximately $1.07 million from county general funds for Coast RTA this year, but a fourth quarter FY 2014 payment of just over $263,000 currently hinges on efforts to move additional county representation on the Coast RTA board forward.
According to an amendment in the FY 2014 budget, county council will have to approve a resolution to forward the fourth quarter payment to Coast RTA.
The resolution may appear on the agenda for the council’s July 16, 2013 regular meeting, but there are indications that county council may defer consideration of the resolution at least until after the scheduled July 31, 2013 meeting of the Coast RTA board.
The delay would be for council to hear comments from the Coast RTA board members regarding proposals that may emerge from today’s morning meeting.
The second meeting will be held at the Train Depot in Myrtle Beach at 5:30 p.m. today with Coast RTA and the city of Myrtle Beach hosting the event.
The purpose of the meeting is to begin the process of investigating where and when an intermodal transportation center for Coast RTA will be located.
The intermodal center, including new headquarters offices for Coast RTA, has been desired for most of the last decade, but has not gone much beyond the wish stage to this point.
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