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Yosemite
bus project revving up By
Patty Guerra MARIPOSA -- After some eight years of meetings, planning and political infighting over the project, buses will begin to take tourists into Yosemite National Park in 2 1/2 weeks. With the mid-May start date for the project drawing near, most of the groundwork has been completed. Contracts with the transit company have been signed and bus-stop signs are sprouting up along highways in Merced, Mariposa and Mono counties, ready for the system's first run May 19. YARTS, originally the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation Strategy, was formed in 1992 to look at ways to reduce traffic into the park. This demonstration project will see if getting people out of their cars and onto buses reduces air pollution. But the road to mass transit into the park is not without bumps, including one coming from a proposed bus stop in Coulterville, where the property owner has asked YARTS to pay rent. Commissioners, meeting Monday for the last time before the two-year demonstration project starts, put off a decision on the rent proposal. "I don't see any others that are being paid for the use of their property," said Mono County Supervisor Joann Ronci, who sits on the system's board. "I really would question that this might start a trend." The property owner, Frank Shannon of Coulterville, agreed to spend $20,000 on a bus shelter and parking area and to allow tourists to use rest rooms on the property, said system executive director Jesse Brown. In return, Shannon asked the board for $4,000 a year. Using Shannon's property would keep visitors from leaving their cars in front of Coulterville businesses while they're in the park. But other property owners who have sought to participate in the project donated the use of their land. "I've got a bunch of letters from business people requesting we look at their facility to be used for parking for YARTS customers," said board chairman Bob Stewart, a Mariposa County supervisor. Lou Aceto, an Oakhurst resident and frequent system critic, also questioned the precedent set by paying rent for one bus stop while accepting the others for free. "The other bus stop people who solicited participation in the program, are they getting some kind of favor?" he asked. The contract will come back before the board at its June 5 meeting. Aceto wasn't alone in his objections to the project. Homemade signs protesting "selective environmentalism" and the making of Highway 140 and Yosemite Valley into "Diesel Alley" lined the back of the Board of Supervisors chambers, where Monday's meeting was held. Some residents have objected to the plan to use diesel-powered buses rather than cleaner-burning electric vehicles. But electric vehicles aren't powerful enough to make it up the grades to the park, officials have said. Meanwhile, other preparations are nearing completion. Two of three contracts with bus companies have been signed, with the third to be finished this week, Brown said. The bus system has also hired a community education specialist, Ginger Lambert. Lambert has been going to area hotels and other businesses and community organizations with information on the bus project, schedules and a video presentation to show customers. In the next few days, tickets should be printed and Lambert said she will start taking those to businesses surrounding the park. The system's Web site will be updated with new information, and eventually a toll-free information phone number will be established. Tickets will range from about $5 to $42, including admission into the park. Bus schedules, stop locations and other information are available at the YARTS Web site. |
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