Commissioners vote to add new vehicles to FACT
Fayette County Commissioners voted to approve spending on new FACT buses.
During Thursday’s voting meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to approve the purchase of nine vehicles: a F550 Champion Defender bus from South Central Transit Authority (SCTA) cooperative purchase from Rohrer Bus for $107,607; two Ford transit vans from SCTA cooperative purchase from Rohrer Bus for $153,152; five E450 cutaway buses from SCTA cooperative purchase from Shepard Brother for $390,035, and to enter a cooperative purchase agreement with Washington Enterprise Services to piggyback for the purchase of an Eldorado transit bus.
Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation (FACT) will be replacing multiple vehicles in their fleet including vehicles from their share-ride route.
Commissioner Vince Vicites said he was pleased with the smaller types of buses that will be going to FACT, as smaller buses are a better fit for the county because they’re more fuel-efficient and with ridership down from the pandemic, the smaller buses are more appropriate.
“As we move forward, I think it’s better to have these types of buses we’re purchasing,” Vicites said.
In other business, the commissioners unanimously voted to solicit bids for three pieces of equipment for the county’s recycling program – a recycling sorting line, a can densifer and a plastic baler.
The equipment, said Commissioner Scott Dunn, will help better use the recycling center facility in Uniontown and make it a more streamlined process, but won’t turn the facility into a processing center.
“We have a good working relationship with the state-of-the-art processing center in Connellsville,” Vicites said about Cap Glass Recycling.
Vicites added that the Fayette County Recycling Center has become one of the best centers he’s seen.
Commissioner Dave Lohr had said the efforts of the county’s Recycling Coordinator/Stormwater Manager, Sheila Shea, has taken the program off the ground with expanding the center and obtaining grants from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Also Thursday, the board unanimously voted to hire Zelenkoske Axelrod LLC of Pittsburgh to conduct audits of the Clerk of Courts office as well as other special audits for $7,500 per audit, and the contract will be between the firm and county Controller Scott Abraham.
Last month, Abraham was seeking outside help to catch up on audits after he experienced staffing issues in his office.
Zelenkoske Axelrod was the only bidder for the project.
Also during the meeting, Rep. Bud Cook, R-Coal Center, addressed the commissioners about efforts he has been making to promote the 49th Legislative District, which includes Washington County and parts of Fayette County.
“We are currently reaching out to our partners to help us identify those assets, attractions and amenities,” Cook said.
He added that one example in Fayette County is in Franklin Township with the community pool and Devi’s Annual Tractor Ride, which brought in over 50 tractors, 250 people and was able to raise about $10,000 for Children’s Hospital.
“We’re looking for partners,” Cook said, adding that the effort is to share what a wonderful place Fayette County, Washington County and the Mon Valley is. “We need to all work together on that mission.”