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Show Funding Delayed By MARK D. MICKELSEN BOUNTIFUL Plans by the Wasatch Front Regional Council to establish a "transportation brokerage" for Davis. Weber We-ber and Salt Lake counties have been delayed de-layed one month due to some concern over funding proposals. ARCHITECTS of the brokerage say residents resi-dents of the three counties would have access ac-cess to information about available car and van pools, as well as Utah Transit Authority Author-ity bus routes. Residents hoping to avoid traffic or save a little gas money could call the brokerage for transportation suggestions. sugges-tions. Representatives of the Wasatch Front Transportation Coordinating Committee (TRANSCOM), a division of the WFRC, have asked that a decision on the brokerage be delayed one month so that they can check into some funding questions raised by Weber County. ACCORDING to Mick Crandall, the assistant director of the WFRC, between $120,000-$180,000 is needed to put the brokerage on line. TRANSCOM members have asked that $60,000 in Federal Air-Urban Air-Urban funds be allocated for the brokerage. brok-erage. But, when the brokerage was included in the FAU program, Mr. Crandall said some questions arose especially in the Ogden area. WHILE OFFICIALS in the Salt Lake-Davis Lake-Davis area approved the funding proposal, members of Ogden's Technical Committee expressed some concern over the effects of funding on other FAU programs. According to Mr. Crandall, Ogden feels that they should use their FAU funds for a "number one priority" project, and are worried that a cut in those funds will effect the success of the priority project. HE SAID Ogden officials agreed that if they get "a decent proposal" on the brokerage, brok-erage, they will go along with the rest of the counties. However, when the WFRC presented pre-sented a proposal in February, reaction was again mixed. If the broken is approved, said Mr. Crandall. the Utah Transit Authority will act as the brokerage's "front" agency, providing pro-viding overall coordination. The Utah Energy Office will oversee ride-sharing programs. In the initial stages of the program, prog-ram, the WFRC will coordinate services -and allocate funding for use by the UTA and the Utah Energy Office. ASKED ABOUT a possible starting date for the brokerage. Mr. Crandall saidWe have a lot of players. We want to see it coordinated sometime this year." Although several local transportation agencies will be helping out. he said residents resi-dents will be able to call a centralized location loca-tion for all their transportation information. MOST OF the agencies participating will be doing what they do now. he said, plus a little bit more. The UTA. he said, has offered to use one of their employees to sell information about the brokerage to major area employers. ALTHOUGH the transportation brokerage broker-age is targeted for Davis. Weber and Salt Lake counties. Mr. Crandall said the Mountainlands Association of Governments Govern-ments may want to tie into the program in Utah County. Once the problems are solved. Crandall said the WFRC would like to see the brokerage brok-erage on line by June 1. 1982. "WHAT'S HAPPENED," he said, is that some of the newer elected officials are concerned con-cerned about spending highway monies for brokerage activities. "We have got to get them over those concerns," he said. |