By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Rowan County commissioners gave their blessings Monday night to a transportation service for the county’s eastern side.
By a unanimous vote, commissioners approved a resolution in support of the East Rowan Express, a service that will provide daily bus service to and from a number of locations throughout Granite Quarry, Faith and Rockwell.
Clyde Fahnestock, the county’s senior services director, said getting the approval of commissioners was crucial to creation of the East Rowan Express.
“We wouldn’t proceed without the board of commissioners saying this is something we want to do,” Fahnestock said.
He gave commissioners an outline of the service that will provide transportation to the municipalities of Granite Quarry, Faith and Rockwell, as well as such other eastern Rowan County locations as the East Rowan YMCA, Nazareth Children’s Home and the Rowan County Health Department of Social Services on East Innes Street in Salisbury.
“This is a national and state-mandated connectivity,” Fahnestock said at one point.
He said the service should prove a godsend for a number of residents of eastern Rowan County who struggle to find transportation to and from Salisbury. Fahnestock said the service will make round-trip journeys at least three times ó and possibly four ó daily beginning and ending at the bus station in Salisbury.
The service will operate Monday through Friday on the same schedule as Salisbury Transit. Cost will be $1 per passenger and transfers to Salisbury Transit and the South Rowan Express can be requested.
Fahnestock said the service will operate using a 14-passenger bus that is capable of carrying two wheelchairs. Its introduction is contingent upon approval of $74,161 in funding from the N.C. Department of Transportation.
Commissioner Raymond Coltrain asked if that funding was 100 percent assured.
“I’m reluctant to say 100 percent,” Fahnestock said before adding, “it’s likely 99.9 percent.”
He said he wasn’t sure when the service would start, but said it wouldn’t be far in the future.
“We’ll have to educate the public,” Fahnestock said of the introduction of such a service. “This is not a natural thing for them to think about ó mass transit.”
Maybe not, but Mary Ponds, mayor of Granite Quarry, said it’s something residents of her community desperately want. She said citizens of the municipality have stopped her and members of the town’s board of aldermen on numerous occasions to ask when the service is going to start.
Ponds said the service will prove a bargain, noting that taxi fare from Salisbury to Granite Quarry is about $10. She also said many people walk or ride their bicycles along U.S. 52 to Salisbury, a dangerous undertaking.
“It’s a business enhancement,” Ponds told commissioners of the East Rowan Express. “We’re excited and anxious that something like this can come to Granite Quarry.”
Commission Chairman Carl Ford asked if it was possible that costs of the program could spike in years down the road as government funding decreases. Fahnestock said he can’t say for sure that won’t happen, but said the likelihood of such a turn of events seems slim as the government puts more of an emphasis on mass transit. He said the route of the East Rowan Express will cover about 24 miles. A round trip could be covered in an hour, but will likely take 90 minutes when all the stops are factored in.
Fahnestock said Rowan Individual Transport Assistance (RITA) operates a bus service to eastern Rowan County, but the service is offered only twice a week. He said his goal is to make the match for smaller municipalities like Granite Quarry, Faith and Rockwell only $3,000 a year or less for the East Rowan Express.
In other matters handled Monday, commissioners:
– Approved by a 4-to-1 vote a conditional use permit for construction of Cauble Creek Vineyard to be built at the end of Cauble Farm Road off Mooresville Road. The business will include a 3,500-square-foot winery that will feature a wine-tasting room and retail establishment.
Ford voted against the permit. He said he wasn’t opposed to Cedric Cuthbertson, the owner, but said he was voting against the business because of its sale of alcohol.
– OK’d a fund raiser at Tamarac Marina where proceeds will benefit Rowan Helping Ministries. Commissioners did so by extending until 1 a.m. the morning of Oct. 11 a ban on loud noises.
– Recognized members of the Rowan County American Legion baseball team that recently finished third in the country.
– Approved at a cost of $48,400 the transfer of more than a million pages of medical records to be imagined in the Laser Fiche imaging system. The request was made by Leonard Wood, director of the Rowan County Health Department.
– Passed a resolution in support of legislation against involuntary annexation. The resolution was presented by Commissioner Chad Mitchell.
“Involuntary annexation equates to taxation without representation,” he said.