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By John Chambliss THE LEDGER
April 20, 2011
LAKELAND |The four board members of Winter Haven Area Transit unanimously voted Wednesday to disband the group.
Winter Haven City Commissioner Jamie Beckett, the chairman of the WHAT board, said the board was pointless.
"There was a consensus among members that there was no purpose," Beckett said. "We had no authority to do anything."
Transit board members Polk County Commissioners Todd Dantzler and Melony Bell and Winter Haven Commissioner Steve Hunnicutt also voted to disband.
Beckett said the group voted to send a letter to city and county officials notifying them that responsibilities will be transferred to Polk County's Transit Services.
The move to disband the 14-year-old board had been in the works for months.
In February, the group discussed its future and came to the consensus that they would begin disbanding.
Officials have said they want to eventually consolidate the county's three bus systems — WHAT, the Lakeland Area Mass Transit District and Polk County's Transit Services.
Tom Deardorff, director of Polk Transportation Planning Organization, said in an email to the Polk Transit Authority board that the PTA was established to provide a transition to a countywide system. "We're one step closer to having a single agency," Deardorff said Wednesday.
Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields, a member of the Polk Transit Authority, said having one system will reduce costs. How the systems will merge is the next question.
"We're exploring other alternatives in light of the referendum not being successful," Fields said.
Funding has become a serious concern since a referendum to impose a countywide half-cent sales tax to support transit was rejected by Polk voters last year.
Some options for additional funding include holding another sales tax referendum or expanding Lakeland's existing transit district, which levies a property tax, into other urban areas. That would require a referendum, too.
Funding has become a serious concern since a referendum to impose a countywide half-cent sales tax to support transit was rejected by Polk voters last year.
Some options for additional funding include holding another sales tax referendum or expanding Lakeland's existing transit district, which levies a property tax, into other urban areas. That would require a referendum, too.
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