Harnett County's transit system to get a new home

Mar 8, 2010 — The Fayetteville Observer

Gregory Phillips

Mar. 8, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- LILLINGTON -- After a wait of almost two decades, Harnett County's H.A.R.T.S. will soon be in the right place.

The Harnett Area Rural Transit System is moving to a custom-built, 1,975-square-foot home off McKinney Parkway in Lillington. The new facility has enough parking for all 27 of the vans that crisscross the county each day, ferrying county residents with no other means of transport for $2 per ride.

"This is really a Godsend for me," said Angela Washington of Lillington. She's been using the system's Dial-A-Ride service to get to community college classes since her car broke down in December.

"I desperately needed transportation," she said. "This is not a city like Raleigh that has mass transit."

H.A.R.T.S. provided 38,398 rides to county residents between July and December last year. Washington's story is typical, according to driver Tonia Edwards, whose route takes her from Lillington to the Anderson Creek and Spring Lake areas.

Besides dropping off students like Washington at community college campuses, many of her passengers are headed to and from work at local restaurants and don't have any other way to go, Edwards said.

The new facility will centralize control of the vans and should even out the miles they have to drive, according to Ralph Thurman, the county transportation manager.

For now, the vans are parked across the county and the headquarters is housed with General Services in an anonymous brick building that doesn't even have a sign because it's in a residentially zoned neighborhood.

The state paid for the new $549,000 office. The county contributed the 2-acre site.

The building has been planned since 1992, but has been repeatedly dogged by funding problems and red tape. The project was put out to bid in 2002, but the state wasn't happy with the bids. Then funding dried up.

"It was like a puzzle," county General Services Manager Jerry Blanchard said.

When the state unexpectedly approved money for construction last year, the county had already scheduled its inaugural agricultural fair on land including the transportation site. The building was held up another few months so the first fair could go ahead. That event is seeking a new home.

Thurman hopes to be in the building by June. And he'll keep speaking to any civic group that invites him, to let people know they can get a ride, if they need it.

"It's word of mouth," he said. People use our services and pass the word on. It's available to everyone."

Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at phillipsg@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0072-42662462