PA: Cumberland County commissioners narrowly approve shared ride facility plan

Preparation work is nearing completion on a plan by the Susquehanna Regional Transportation Authority to construct three buildings on the Cumberland County-owned campus at 1601 Ritner Highway in Carlisle.

During a meeting Tuesday, county commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the plan, clearing the way for the authority to develop a shared ride facility on an undeveloped lot that it leases from the county.

The shared ride service provides door-to-door service to senior citizens, people with disabilities, people eligible for medical assistance and people whose health conditions preclude them from using traditional public transportation.

Commissioner Kelly Neiderer voted against the motion, which also authorized Brent Durham, county director of facilities management, to sign off on the plan that calls for a standalone office building, vehicle storage building and a vehicle wash.

Neiderer also voted against similar motions that require Durham to provide written approval on landscape plantings and on the exterior design and paint colors of the buildings. She addressed the reasons for her opposition to Rich Farr, executive director of the authority.

“This program is very valuable to us,” Neiderer said Tuesday. “I just don’t like it on this parcel. I know it makes a lot of sense for you, but I believe it doesn’t make as much sense for us.”

She was not on the county board in 2023 when fellow commissioners Gary Eichelberger and Jean Foschi approved the 40-year lease, which allowed the proposed use in exchange for $1.

The public transportation provider already parks paratransit vehicles on the Ritner campus and uses part of the main building as office space. The county provides maintenance to those vehicles, which are smaller and carry fewer passengers than full-size buses.

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Improvements could include transit shelters, better lighting and displays showing real-time updates on bus arrival and departure times, Farr said.

During the meeting Tuesday, Neiderer said the lease and the development plan limit the county’s ability to expand its services on that campus or repurpose the land in the future.

“It’s a 10-acre parcel in the borough [of Carlisle],” she said. “It’s a very valuable site for industrial development in that neck of the woods that would create a lot of economic impact.”

“I don’t disagree with you,” Farr said. “This was a decision that was made for us. I agree, but that ship has sailed at this point.”

Farr was referring to the momentum of a project that has been years in the making in which the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has already invested about $2 million. The construction will be funded mostly by state money.

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In 2023, Farr told the commissioners the shared ride facility is an effort by the authority to fortify its infrastructure to operate as efficiently as possible. He said Carlisle was chosen because of its centralized location within the county.

Back then, he described the office building as the smallest of the three structures with offices, restrooms and a training/meeting room for drivers and other employees. A parking lot with handicapped spaces is planned for that building.

The storage building will have enough space to park the fleet of paratransit vehicles to extend the service life by keeping the vehicles under a roof, Farr said. The vehicle wash will be available not only for the authority fleet, but also for county-owned vehicles.

In his briefing Tuesday, Farr said that once the lease expires, the three buildings will be turned over to the county if the authority no longer has use for them. His words fell short of convincing Neiderer.

“I get it. ... The county wanted to be good stewards and helpful to your effort,” she said. “It’s just painful to me that we own 120 some acres in Middlesex [Township] and some in North Middleton [Township] that would be an equally viable site and not restrict us from our operations. And, at the end of the day, in 40 years, we would get some pole barns. In my estimation, it’s not really a value tradeoff that’s a good one.”

Neiderer also had concerns about how the traffic circulation patterns of paratransit vehicles could affect the safety and traffic patterns of county residents trying to access the elections office and other services on the campus.

Farr said the bulk of the paratransit vehicles leave the campus at 5 a.m. and return at 5:30 p.m. “There’s not always activity coming and going,” he said.

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