A bus barn at the airport is the latest brainstorm to come out of Pendleton City Hall. They say the need has arisen for a storage building to house an accumulation of vehicles that city management has deemed essential for the operation of our public transportation system, vehicles paid for with various government grants they consider “free” money.

The vehicles are currently “stored” at city hall or at the local taxi company, 10 vehicles in all. The city contracts their subsidized services to the local taxi company. Those services include senior/disabled and general public taxi tickets, plus fixed and deviated bus routes. This is supplemented by the Clearview Disability Resource Center, which provides non-emergency medical transportation for individuals on the Oregon Health Plan.

City hall loves comparing our services to other cities, so let’s take a look at Hermiston. Their services pretty much mirror ours. The difference is how they’re administered.

All of their public transportation is contracted through third parties. Kayak Public Transit, operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, provides their fixed-route bus service. On-demand taxi service for all, including seniors, disabled and the “rides to work” program, is provided by Hermiston Transportation LLC, the local taxi company.

This is where the similarities end. Hermiston does not own any public transit vehicles — no need for a bus barn. Pendleton, on the other hand, plans to construct a bus barn at the airport. How inconvenient is that? With office space included, I expect they’ll be hiring a manager of some sort, so long-range costs are sure to exceed the planned $90,000 for construction. That cost includes $72,000 of “free money” provided by the state “transit tax.” That’s a new tax levied on employers and passed down to you in the form of increased retail prices.

City hall should be asking itself: Do we really need these 10 vehicles that require storage? When the CTUIR is the city’s largest employer, why are we not reciprocating by taking advantage of the expertise in mass transit offered from Kayak? Why continue to waste tax dollars on new facilities when we can’t maintain what we have?

How about investing in projects that enhance our economic future? Why not stick to those goals just announced by our city council? City management is already losing its focus with projects such as this bus barn fiasco.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton