El Dorado County releases funds for BlueGo

By Kathryn Reed

El Dorado County on Thursday wrote a check to Tahoe Transportation District for $119,294.65.

The money had been held per legal counsel after the county backed away from its commitment to transit on the South Shore when the former overseer – South Tahoe Area Transit Authority – filed for bankruptcy.

The county released its two buses back to TTD earlier this year.

The dollars are not out of the county’s general fund. It its broken down this way:

• $62,633.33 – California Transit Assistance Funds

• $56,661.32 – Local Transportation Funds.

Both allocations are from Nov. 1, 2010, — after TTD took over – through June 30, 2011.

The county is not giving TTD money for the time STATA was still in charge, which was from July 1-Oct. 31, 2010.

Neither Carl Hasty nor Alfred Knotts, the two paid transportation guys with TTD, returned phone calls Feb. 17.

Despite TTD not having all the former STATA players on board, so the budget is not as flush as had been hoped for, the district has hired a public relations firm to get its message out.

The Feb. 16 press release says in part, “Latest figures indicate an 8 percent passenger increase in core service routes – most related to South Shore, while facing challenges to maintain established budget parameters.”

But the release does not say what the time frame is – such as since TTD took over or from a year ago. Nor does it explain what “core service routes” are. Without a call back from the above TTD personnel, who were listed on the press release as the contact people, the release created more questions than substance.

Nor did the release say anything about the county paying its share.

The TTD board meets again March 11, when more route modifications to BlueGo, the bus system, are expected to be voted on.