GEDC votes to purchase, restore TAPS trolley

By ANDY HOGUE, Register Staff Writer

Tue, May 13 2008

— A spring vacation stop-over in Gainesville may be a lot more pleasant for visitors now that funding has gone through for a long-awaited trolley.
In business, the Gainesville Economic Development Corporation (GEDC) Board of Directors voted to purchase a used trolley bus currently standing in the parking lot of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce building on South Culberson Street.
The GEDC board met 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Chamber building. The Board, according to Chamber director John Broyles, agreed to spend $4,999 to purchase the trolley from TAPS (Texoma Area Paratransit System).
A story on restoring the trolley and an attempt to raise funds for it through a grant from the General Mills corporation appeared in the March 16 Register.
Broyles said in a previous interview he estimates the trolley bus can operate on $22.50 an hour, factoring in fuel and maintenance costs. But the first step, he said, is to make sure the trolley is in a condition to run routes, in conjuction with TAPS.
“And then we will have it insured and be able to have qualified drivers drive it,” he said. “This will be the preliminary step before the actual route agreement with TAPS goes through.”
Kent Sharp, GEDC executive director, and Broyles are working on the details of a route agreement with TAPS.
Broyles said a trolley service couldn’t come at a better time. Over Spring Break there were about 50 “stranded” train passengers at the Amtrak station at the historic Santa Fe Depot during Spring Break weekend. Broyles said he, Harriett Dickson of the Cooke County Heritage Society, and several others active in downtown events were called by Ann Crisp, who operates the museum stored at the Depot, alerting them of the situation. Broyles, Dickson and others offered rides to train passengers to the Frank Buck Zoo, downtown or to the Gainesville Factory Shops outlet mall.
TAPS does not run bus service to and from the train depot on weekends. Broyles said if all goes according to plan the trolley would fill that gap on weekends.
Sharp said the meeting did not contain any other major business and was rather short. Much of the discussion surrounded a surprise spike in sales tax revenue over the last month.
Sales tax revenue for March is up 59 percent, as compared to March 2007.
“That was phenomenal,” he said.
No action was taken following an executive session on economic development negotiations.
For information on the planning for the trolley service, call Broyles at his Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce office at 665-2831 or e-mail him at john@gogainesville.net.
On the Net:
To leave a comment in support of the trolley restoration for a grant from General Mills Foods, go to www.myhometownhelper.com and click on “Find A Project.”
Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net

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