By Natalie Cook

November 17, 2006 | HYDE PARK -- The City Council approved plans to merge the CVTD and the LTD, Wednesday, continuing a four-city trend in favor of the merge.

The Cache Valley Transit District and the Logan Transit District will soon combine forces, operating under one roof so-to-speak. The idea is to make public transportation more user-friendly and available to more valley residents.

"Our job is to move people in the very best way possible," said Todd Beutler, transit manager.

Beutler and his team are collecting approvals from city councils around the valley before they can continue with the project and move up the chain of command, all the way to the lieutenant governor to recieve his approval. The plan is to simply merge the two exsisting systems and create a whole new board of representatives.

The new board that makes decisions and resolves issues with the transit system will consist of 13 members and will hopefully run more efficiently and better represent the valley's population than previous plans for a 47-member board.

"If people have concerns about the busses, they will only have one body to come to for a solution," said Beutler. "The new set up provides for more equal representation of smaller cities and removes the influence of politics from the board's decisions. They will be more unified."

The new CVTD will hopefully recieve additional government funding for new shelters at several stops around the valley. Primarily, the same system and routes will be used with some new stops added and with all still meeting back at the Logan Transit Center near Smith's on 400 North and Main Street.

Another goal of the project is to reduce pollution-causing emissions in the valley. Because cars are a major contributer to poor air quality during inversions, an improved public transit system will reduce these emissions without leaving people out in the cold.

NW
MS