County Board Seeking Grant to Fund CIPT Transportation Facility

Effingham County Board members Wednesday voted to apply for $1,903,300 in grant funds for a transportation facility.

The facility will be used by Central Illinois Public Transit and is to be located along South Raney Street in the Effingham Business Park. This is Round 3 of the grant funds. A Round 2 grant request was not approved.

Beth Beck-Marts, who serves as Effingham County Transportation Director for CEFS, which oversees CIPT, said the facility would include a maintenance facility, drivers room, equipment storage, a three-bay workspace for vehicles, office space, and a training room.

The grant must be submitted by July 29. Beck-Marts said there is no way to know when they will learn whether the grant is awarded.

There was some discussion concerning public transportation service in the county in general. The decision was to schedule time at the next meeting of the county board's legislative committee in August with entities such as CEFS, Community Support Systems and others to sit in with the Board on how the system works.