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Bus station divides City Commission

• Albany City Commission mulls the development of a proposed transportation center.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — Albany officials were clearly divided during the City Commission’s work session Tuesday morning as to the preferred location of a multimodal transportation facility that will take the place of the current passenger bus/ Albany Transit center at 300 W. Oglethorpe Blvd.

Transit Authority Director Nedra Woodyatt told commissioners her main concern was some $1.5 million in grant money that is in danger of being taken off the table if the commission does not give the project its stamp of approval soon. Commissioner Bob Langstaff, however, questioned the proposed location of the center: in the area where Flint and Roosevelt avenues meet Washington Street near Albany Towers.

At the commission’s May 6 work session, Langstaff referenced a letter from Downtown Manager Don Buie indicating Buie would prefer that the city hold onto the proposed site that had been approved by the commission in April of 2006. Buie reiterated that position Tuesday, and even though commissioners voted 5-2 to tentatively accept the Flint-Roosevelt-Washington site, Langstaff again said Buie’s argument merited more consideration.

“I just don’t want 10 years from now, people coming in and saying that this commission took a prime location that could have been better utilized and turned it into a bus station,” the Ward 5 commissioner said.

Mayor Willie Adams told commissioners he had every reason to believe that, based on a meeting he’d had with Department of Transportation officials, if the city chose a site other than the one DOT had approved it might very well lose all funding for the project. Currently, the city is expected to pay only 10 percent of the project cost.

“I sat in a room with DOT officials for the better part of half a day, and they essentially told me we were threatening our funding if we put this center at another site,” the mayor said. “If this body is willing to gamble on not getting those funds and having to finance the center with city funds ...”

Langstaff, however, said his correspondence with Georgia DOT officials were not that set in stone.

“I’m really not clear what the risks are,” the commissioner said. “At one point in their cryptic response, I got the impression we were not in danger of losing the funds. In another part, it seemed that we might be.

“Before we vote on this at the night meeting (next Tuesday), I’m going to try to get a clearer answer.”

The commission eventually voted to approve the site with the understanding that if its members later rejected that location, all grant money currently available would most likely be lost.

Before that vote, however, Adams allowed Buie to comment on his concerns about the location.

“The memo that I sent you all still stands,” Buie said. “If you’re asking me now if I think the project should be located at Washington Street, I still say no. My concern is that we look at the best use of the property.

“We get caught up in terms like ‘multimodel facility,’ but let’s be clear; this is a bus transfer station. I look at the current spot (on Oglethorpe) and say if we have no problem there, let’s work on what we have.”

Adams asked Buie if he had devised a potential plan for the property on Washington adjacent to the Albany Towers, and he said that he had not.

“Do I have a specific plan for this property or all of the available property in the city of Albany? No,” Buie said. “Quite frankly, I have not had time to assign a plan to each property. I’ve been assessing what we have and don’t have downtown.”

“Well, do you have a map that gives us an idea of what is hands-off property?” Adams asked.

Orlando Rambo, the co- owner of the Oglethorpe facility that currently serves as the Grayhound bus and city transit transfer station, assured commissioners that he and his partners are willing to work with the city to facilitate best usage of their property.

“Our desire has always been to utilize the current location to spur redevelopment south of Oglethorpe,” Rambo said. “There are a lot of things that can be done there if the city takes a proactive approach. We’re certainly ammendable to any approach the city decides to take.”

Even after the nonbinding vote, Rambo said he holds out hope that the Oglethorpe facility will fit into the city’s plans.

“We will continue to hope that the site will be looked at by the city,” he said. “My understanding is that their action today does not lock them into making the move. We stand ready to assist in any way that we can.”

Commissioner Dorothy Hubbard led the call to stick with the proposal approved by the commission in 2006.

“We’ve been through all this, and I haven’t heard anything that’s convinced me that we should change our original vote,” she said.

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