Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

November 18, 2009

Editorial: BATA risks $4.7M grant

Four years ago the Bay Area Transportation Authority secured a $4.7 million federal grant that was to fund BATA's future.

Under the grant, BATA was supposed to build a wind turbine that would create enough electricity to power a small fleet of hybrid buses; those buses were to provide virtually silent, virtually pollution-free service on BATA's fixed-route Cherriot routes in Traverse City.

No more buses belching diesel exhaust banging their way through Traverse City neighborhoods. Eventually, perhaps, no more diesel buses on any BATA route.

Now, with less than a year to go, BATA finds itself scrambling. The bus system needs to have the project under contract by Feb. 1, and spend the grant by Sept. 30, 2010, or lose it.

What a way to run a railroad. Or a bus system.

As things stand now, BATA has a potential site for its wind turbine in Long Lake Township, but there are snags.

A Long Lake zoning ordinance requires BATA to conduct a migratory bird study before a zoning permit can be issued. Township Planner Leslie Sickerterman said a qualified biologist will have to score a number of factors such as geology, wind currents, bird species and historical migration patterns to determine the potential impacts.

BATA Executive Director Tom Menzel worries that because birds won't migrate again until April and May, it may be too late.

Sickerterman said the township is rewriting its zoning ordinance and is willing to look at requirements inconsistent with state guidelines. "The regulations are not that crystal clear, but I don't see anything that says we have to actually count birds," Sickterman said. "But it may eventually come to that."

Ouch.

Ed Rice, Light & Power executive director, says the utility doesn't expect any problems completing needed contracts for the project, but Menzel still needs to negotiate to purchase the power, maintain the turbine and build it on Light & Power-controlled property.

Ouch. Again.

The only reason BATA is in this jam, of course, is that the previous administration dropped the ball. As Menzel puts it, no one from BATA took ownership of or pushed the project.

That also means, of course, that no one on the equally ineffective BATA board took ownership of or pushed the project, even though it was absolutely central to the bus system's future and to promises made Traverse City taxpayers.

Menzel, Light & Power and Long Lake are going to be hard-pressed to meet the deadlines. But Menzel, ever the optimist, is hoping for the best. "I think we can get it done if everyone understands it's a collaborative partnership that brings value to everyone involved," he said.

Wish him luck.

Related Story: Deadline looms for BATA wind grant

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