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Lane Transit District has been awarded $3 million in funds for replacement buses and $750,000 in Alternatives Analysis funding.

The funds come from Federal Transit Administration’s Fiscal Year 2011 Alternatives Analysis, Bus Livability, and State of Good Repair Programs. These grant funds will allow LTD to replace buses purchased in 1994 and 1997, which eliminates the last of the district’s high-floor buses and completes the conversion of the bus fleet to include air conditioning.

“We have a little over 100 buses in our fleet from 1994 to 2011, and so we replace a portion of our fleet every couple of years to keep the average age of your fleet reasonable,” said Andy Vobora, LTD director of Service Planning, Accessibility and Marketing. “We typically run ours 15 to 18 years. The three million dollars will be added to other grants we will hopefully get in the next year or so.”

Vobora said the current buses can be challenging for people with disabilities to ride, and that the new buses should be more user-friendly. The LTD Board of Directors said that all new buses purchased will be hybrid-electric.

Frequent rider Nora Guajardo, a senior at the University, has seen people with disabilities struggle getting on the bus.

“It’s not only holding the bus up, it’s having to have the bus driver get out and help the person maneuver, and it’s kind of embarrassing for the people who are in the wheelchairs,” she said. “So I think one of the biggest things LTD can do is to accommodate the disabled people more.”

Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson is excited for the future of the LTD.

“I’m pretty pleased with LTD’s ability to work with our congressional delegation to get the support of the other local governments,” he said. “The good news is this kind of transit will continue and will probably get better. We’ve been one of the leading communities in the United States to receive these funds.”

LTD also received $750,000 to evaluate the expansion of EmX service along East Main Street and the McVay Highway in Springfield.

Vobora was happy with the amount LTD received because there was only $25 million available nationwide.

“It is the first step in analyzing EmX service to other parts of the community. We’re working on the West Eugene project right now,” he said.

The EmX project to expand to West Eugene has been a source of debate for months between LTD officials and clients and the residents and businesses along West 11th Avenue.

“Going down West 11th it’s going to be extremely bad. It’s going to be a huge disturbance of traffic,” Guajardo said. She thinks the LTD would do a greater service to Eugene if they would add more bus lines in other areas instead.

Commissioner Sorenson made it clear he is in favor of an additional EmX line. He thinks another EmX line will help move people around more efficiently. Specifically, he said he would rather see more routes that run north to south, instead of an extension down West 11th, because he thinks those lines need to be more interconnected.

“I’m in favor of the mX system. I actually counseled LTD early on that I thought 11th wasn’t as good of a location, as efficient as route as the 6th and 7th corridors,” he said. “I’m pleased that they’re moving in that direction.”

Vobora said the process of building a new line can often take up to ten years, but this grant will help the LTD research if another line is feasible and needed by the community.

The Lane County Board of Commissioners decided last Wednesday to keep the Lane County Fair in its current location at East 13th Avenue and Jefferson Street for the time being.

The board had been considering moving the location out to West Eugene but ultimately decided the move was not viable at this time. The decision came after fairgrounds director Rick Reno presented almost 300 pages of studies about the challenges currently facing the fairgrounds.

“By consensus the decision was to keep going with the current location and abandon studies for moving the fairgrounds and essentially keep going with the Lane Events Center in the exposition industry as a flat-space rental facility,” Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson said.

Some of the challenges the fairgrounds are dealing with are lack of revenue, need for repairs and neighboring residents opposing potentially more noise and traffic to the area.

“The advantages to being at some other location would be that you would not be surrounded on all four sides by residents. You would find a place that was easily accessible, hopefully off a main artery,” Reno said.

The fairground, officially called the Lane Events Center, hosts more than 300 events a year, such as the Oregon Logging Conference, a recreational vehicle show, the Holiday Market and the Oregon Wedding Showcase. A property near Jerry’s Home Improvement Center near Highway 99 and Beltline was the most recently considered site.

Fairground neighbor Mary Saunders is happy the fairground is not moving.

“I love the fairgrounds here. I love that they can use it year-round, especially for the holiday market,” she said. “The access here is nice if you’re biking. It’s easy to get to.”

Still, the fairgrounds are in need of repair, with some buildings 30 to 60 years old. Upgraded repairs and new buildings could cost up to $13.5 million.

“As each generation has moved along, the capital improvements that have been sustained to run the necessary facilities have suffered from the lack of funding,” Reno said. “If we stay here for an extended amount of time, then we need to try to find a way to reduce our costs or increase our revenues needs.”

The fairground has struggled financially in the last decade. The complex has been hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt as operating costs were outpacing revenue. Since Reno became director in 2008, revenue at the fairground has increased to some extent. Reno succeeded in doubling revenue from the fair while cutting staff and other operating expenses.

Even so, Reno said in his report that major renovations the fairgrounds need can only be funded through county support. The fairgrounds are currently subsidized by a small amount of county taxes. Both a gas tax and a transient room tax, levied on people when they stay in a hotel or a campground, help support the fairground.

Despite the problems with the current location, Sorenson made it clear Wednesday that the fairgrounds will not be moved in the near future. He feels moving the fairgrounds now would not be in best for the community right now.

“Ultimately, I don’t think that moving it is in the long-term interest of the Lane County community,” Sorenson said. “The problem is that the cost of moving it exceeds whatever projections or benefits there might be. So in terms of net economic benefit, I would say the move is not worth it.”