Belen’s public transportation program, which shuttles citizens around the Belen area, will be receiving stimulus money to help the program, city officials said at last night’s council meeting.

“This will expand the public transportation services,” City Manager Sally Garley said.

The city will get more than $128,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funneled through the New Mexico Department of Transportation, to purchase three transportation shuttle buses.

The city currently operates two shuttle buses — one from 1994 — and a passenger van.

“We are getting the three new shuttles to replace the two, and have maybe one backup,” said Annie Sanchez, the secretary for the public transportation program, who has temporarily managed the program during a transition in the directorship.

The city council last night unanimously passed a memorandum of agreement to secure the funding.

The public transportation money is the city’s second successful effort to acquire stimulus funds. Last month Gov. Bill Richardson’s office announced the city would receive $750,000 for water collection system projects. City officials are still assessing what, if any, strings might be attached to the money before accepting it.

Recently, the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), under the name Rio Metro, began to develop its own shuttle bus service for the southern half of Valencia County, including Belen.

City officials said they’ve had discussions with Rio Metro officials to begin to plan how to coordinate the two services to avoid overlap. Garley said she expects the city to continue its bus service, while at least one MRCOG official has suggested MRCOG wants to take full control of the city’s service.

“We intend to transition with them,” Garley said.

City officials will meet tomorrow with a Rio Metro official who wants to view the city’s daily shuttle service schedule.

This page was published on June 16, 2009 at 11:37am and is filed under Archive.