Utah County, UTA weigh service
All cities should be included in district, commissioners say
Both Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain have requested district admission, but UTA trustee Terry Deihl wants Utah County commissioners to pursue legislation in the 2009 legislative session that would bring in all of Utah County with a vote of the commission.
That was one of the terms that he asked be included in an interlocal agreement as an addition to trustee Keith Bartholomew's motion that the UTA board hold a public hearing as a step toward annexing the two north Utah County cities into the district.
The motion passed unanimously with these additional conditions:
• Both cities must annex.
• Congestion mitigation and air quality funding must be available.
• Minimum sales tax revenues must be available to continue the route after the CMAQ funding period.
• No commitment is promised for continued services after the CMAQ funding period. Services beyond the CMAQ funding period would be up to the UTA board, as is the case with the rest of the transit district.
• Because it is difficult to cancel a route after three years even if tax revenues fail to justify its continuation, UTA could consider asking Utah County to guarantee sales tax revenues.
• As has occurred with other annexations, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain would agree that all sales tax revenues be commingled with other UTA income, which would be pledged against bonds for projects throughout the transit district.
UTA would provide express bus services for both Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs to and from downtown Salt Lake City, northbound in the morning and southbound in the evening through the end of 2011 once a final agreement is reached.
The service would likely switch to a connector service in 2012, taking passengers to a planned commuter rail service at Thanksgiving Point, Deihl said. Ground has already been broken for the terminal.
The public hearing is scheduled for Friday, 7 p.m., in the Eagle Mountain City Hall.
Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs voters decide Nov. 4 whether they want to raise sales taxes to pay for the express bus service to Salt Lake City.
If it passes, the city's sales tax will go up a quarter cent.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com
Recent comments
I failed to finish my thread of thought...
UTA gets communities…Lucy Fooling Linus: repeat | Oct. 1, 2008 at 12:41 p.m.
Express buses are much better and cheaper than UTA trains. We should…
Lucy Fooling Linus: repeat | Oct. 1, 2008 at 12:34 p.m.
I second that, all the buses seem to be full. I've been riding for…
Hooray Public Trans | Sept. 30, 2008 at 1:50 p.m.
