Legislature Budget and Finance Committee Talks Bus Contracts

The Rockland County Legislature Budget and Finance Committee voted Tuesday night to extend the Rockland Transit Corp. to continue operating the Transport of Rockland bus service for three more months.

The contract extension would continue service as is from July 1 through September 31 for routes 59, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, Loop 1, Loop 2 and Loop 3. The item will be put on agenda for the next full legislature meeting on July 10.

The committee approved similar items in regards to extending the contract for Hudson Transit Corp. to continue operating the Tappan ZEExpress for the same period, as well as Route 93 partial bus service, which is operated by Transport of Rockland.

Rockland County is currently in the process of finding a company to run the two bus services through bidding, but the process isn’t done yet.

Richard Brega Jr., who owns Brega Transport Corp. in Valley Cottage, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting about the process. He said he was told his company put in the lowest bid by $6 million, and his bid is $7 million lower than the current contract, yet none of his references have been checked nor has he heard if his bid was officially accepted yet.

The committee also a public hearing for the July 10th meeting. One is for the proposed 2012-2013 budget for Rockland Community College. The committee also passed an agenda item to set a date for a public hearing in the future for the purpose of considering a proposed increase in cost and improvement of the facilities of Rockland County Sewer District No. 1.

Some other agenda items approved by the committee to appear on the full legislature agenda were:

• Establishing a petty cash account in the Department of Health in the amount of $500, no county tax dollars, awarded annually to the Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act Grant. The petty cash is used to go into places that sell cigarettes and alcohol to see if they will sell to minors without ID.
• Accepting a donation of $1,950 from the Research Foundation For State University of New York to continue to implement the diabetes and chronic disease self management living well programs.
• Appropriating $192,430 in federal forfeiture funds requested by the Office of the District Attorney that will be used to purchase equipment to upgrade and integrate the Rockland Intel and Drug Task Force units wiretap systems currently used by all police agencies in the county.
• Appropriating $140,000 in federal forfeiture funds requested by the Office of the District Attorney to be used to purchase four vehicles and cover the cost of various vehicle leases.