Tag: SCDOT

Select Committee on Coast RTA Considering Final Report

The Select Committee on Coast RTA members have until Friday to come up with preliminary statements for consideration in the committee’s final report.

Charged with assessing the failures of a shelter and sign project and an intermodal center project, the committee must conclude whether the failures of the projects point to systemic problems within the management of the agency. It must also make a recommendation on future funding of the transportation agency by Horry County Council.

During its third meeting April 21st, the committee concentrated on new information received over the last two weeks about an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Myrtle Beach, a resolution by the Coast RTA board, the Coast RTA/SCDOT shelter project contract and a contract between Tolar Mfg. and Coast RTA for the shelters and associated equipment.

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Unresolved Issues Remain with Coast RTA Shelter Project

The third meeting of the Select Committee on Coast RTA will have to obtain some answers to several unresolved issues regarding the shelter and sign project before the committee can begin to finalize a report.

Despite fairly lengthy presentations by Coast RTA and SCDOT at the second meeting of the committee, held on April 7th, the number of shelters Coast RTA managed to install for use by its passengers remains in question.

While Coast RTA has maintained all along that it purchased 73 shelters total and installed 15 of those shelters, 10 shelters installed in the City of Myrtle Beach appear to be used for purposes other than those for which a $1 million grant was received by Coast RTA from the Waccamaw COG GSATS in 2005.

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Coast RTA Shelter Project: Whose Shelters are They Anyway?

An intensive study of documents provided by Coast RTA, SCDOT and the City of Myrtle Beach have brought to light discrepancies between the agencies about what exactly happened with the shelter project and associated funds.

It is obvious from studying the documents why Horry County Council chairman Mark Lazarus established an ad hoc Select Committee on Coast RTA to take an in-depth look at the project.

Presentations made before the Select Committee, at its April 7, 2014 meeting, by both SCDOT and Coast RTA indicate that 73 shelters were purchased by Coast RTA. Of these, 15 shelters were installed by Coast RTA for its use. After nine years, SCDOT cancelled the project and the remaining 58 shelters were inventoried and auctioned by GovDeals.com.

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Coast RTA Funding Up Against Tight County Budget

Horry County’s funding for Coast RTA could be more affected by a tight county budget than by the current controversy the agency is embroiled in with SCDOT over Coast RTA’s cancelled sign and shelter project among other differences.

County staff had to cut $750,000 for dirt road paving from the budget just to present a preliminary balanced budget to county council at the council’s budget retreat this week. Coast RTA funding remained at $1.055 million in the preliminary budget.

Cutting dirt road funding has serious impacts on the citizens of at least five council districts, all of which have little to no bus service. Additionally, it has lesser impacts on five more council districts that do have some level of bus service.

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Coast RTA Special Committee Second Meeting

The second meeting of the Special Committee on Coast RTA confirmed there is fault to be shared among several agencies when investigating why the bus sign and shelter project was not completed.

When Coast RTA received a $1 million grant through the Waccamaw Council of Governments, the Federal Highway Administration provided the funds. However, SCDOT administered the grant as if the funds came from the Federal Transportation Administration. FHWA and FTA have different requirements for how grant funds are administered.

Despite submitting 13 invoices for reimbursement from the FHWA, through the first few years of the project, SCDOT continued to administer by FTA regulations.

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Coast RTA Board Member Asked to Resign

Coast RTA board member Katharine D’Angelo reported via email Thursday night to the other seven members of the board that she was asked to resign her position as a board member.

According to D’Angelo’s email, the request came out of a meeting between board members Ivory Wilson and Joseph Lazzara and unnamed members of the Coast RTA senior staff.

D’Angelo reported in her email that she had no intention of resigning from the board, a position she has held for 14 years through appointment by the North Myrtle Beach City Council.

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New Developments for Coast RTA Special Committee

Several developments over the last 48 hours have ‘stirred the pot’ regarding deliberations of the Special Committee on Coast RTA formed recently by Horry County Council chairman Mark Lazarus.

The committee, chaired by council member Marion Foxworth, held its first meeting March 17, 2014 with a second meeting scheduled for April 7, 2014.

According to stipulations of fact adopted by committee members at the first meeting, the committee has no oversight of Coast RTA or its management and is limiting its scope to attempting to make a determination of what went wrong with two projects cancelled by SCDOT – a bus sign and shelter project that began in 2007 and a study for an intermodal transportation center begun in 2013.

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Coast RTA Special Committee Meeting

The first meeting of the ad hoc special committee looking into Coast RTA management practices and funding was held Monday.

The committee was created by Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus to help council determine what level of funding the county should provide to Coast RTA in upcoming years.

Specifically, the committee is looking into the circumstances that caused the sign/shelter project to be cancelled in December 2013 and the suspension of the intermodal center project earlier this year.

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Coast RTA Shelter/Sign Project Moves Forward

Despite the best efforts of the S.C. Department of Transportation to derail it, the Coast RTA shelter/sign project is back on track moving to completion.

The project was originally funded by a $1 million Federal Highway Administration grant to the Waccamaw Council of Governments. The COG awarded the money to Coast RTA to construct signs and shelters at bus stops while requesting SCDOT to handle administration of the project.

SCDOT unfamiliarity with FHWA regulations, with respect to projects funded by FHWA grants, as well as alteration of Coast RTA routes due to financial considerations, caused progress on the project to slow down.

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Coast RTA, SCDOT and Horry County Council Part II

Continued funding of Coast RTA by Horry County Council, and at what level, will be the focus of the ad hoc committee established by Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus earlier this week.

This discussion should have been settled when Horry County voters approved an advisory referendum supporting .6 mill (six-tenths of a mill) funding for Coast RTA by a 62% to 38% margin in the November 2010 general election.

For two years, council honored the voters’ decision. However, during last year’s budget considerations, council attempted to make funding contingent on Coast RTA getting a change in state law designating membership on the Coast RTA board.

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