INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners Tuesday approved submitting a grant application for approximately $3 million from the federal government to be put toward the county’s GoLine and Community Coach public transportation system.
To secure the grant, the County has budgeted $600,000 in local matching funds.
“This is the big dog,” Phil Matson said of the federal grant. Matson is the director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees transportation in the county.
Matson told Commissioners that the grant, which the County has received in previous years, funds approximately half the GoLine’s annual operations and is a big component of the transit system’s growth and success.
The county’s public transit system is now the lowest cost for service system in the state, Matson said, noting it costs $1.88 per ride. Riding on GoLine is a free service to the community.
“They do a lot with fairly little,” Matson said of the transit’s operation team.
He also explained that the federal grant funding source is expected to remain available to Indian River County until at least 2023 when the 2020 census could change the County’s status. Currently, Indian River County’s census has not lumped the county in with St. Lucie County as a metropolitan area. That could change with the 2020 census, however, he said, which could affect how Indian River County qualifies for the federal grant.
