Holyrood awards bus study
By Craig Westcott
Consultant Pat Curran & Associates has been hired by the Town of Holyrood to prepare a business and operations plan for public transit in the town.
Council awarded the $49,834 contract for work on its ‘Green Transit Initiative’ during its public meeting Tuesday evening.
Finance committee chairperson Laura Crawley pointed out the value of the contract is less than the amount the Town secured from the Province for the work. The company was selected, she added, because of its experience and the professional team members identified in its proposal.
Curran and his team will look at whether the operation of a municipal bus service is feasible and if so, how it would work. He will have to conduct public consultations as part of the work.
Holyrood was awarded $482,510 in federal funding by Avalon MP Ken McDonald in April 2023 for the purchase of two accessible, zero-emission, 18-seat electric buses, a charging station, solar panels, and booking software.
“This has been offered by our government, this does not cost our town a cent of money, as of right now,” Crawley stressed Tuesday. “And once the initiative has gone through and it checks out the feasibility, we can still vote to say no, this is not feasible for our town… So, before anyone gets upset, this is the feasibility study to see if the operation is going to be able to go through.”
Mayor Gary Goobie said the consultant will look at many things during the course of his work.
“We want to determine at the end of the day, is this viable, and is this sustainable for the town?” he said. “And of course, we have to develop a business plan and if the report comes back with a lot of things that are called into question that we feel that it’s not in the best interest of the community, then we can return the funding to the federal government.”
Crawley said that is correct. “I’m all about going green, so I’m hoping the feasibility (study) comes out (positive), but we’ll see,” she said.
“There’s a lot of communities that would love to have this opportunity,” Goobie added. “And it’s the way of the future, and it’s forward thinking.”