Free bus service ready for area west of Seneca

A Seneca bus official says for an estimated $24 thousand dollars a year, his city’s transit service can extend as far as the cities of Walhalla and Westminster. But Ed Halbig, Seneca planning and community development director, told a public hearing last night that his city will look to Oconee County and the cities of Walhalla and Westminster to share the $24 thousand cost. Seneca has two new buses and will be ready next month to create a new route west of the city that will reach the Tri-County Technical College on s. highway 11. Much of last night’s hearing centered on what it’ll take to extend the routes farther to take in Walhalla and Westminster. Halbig said the recent allocation of $300 thousand by Oconee County will be used by his city to help it pay off the costs of the two new buses that, like others in Seneca’s fleet, are powered by electricity charges. By reaching the destination point of the Tech campus, the buses will also be available to provide free transport to students headed for the new Hamilton Career and Technology Center, as well as to the manufacturing plants that are part of the same industrial park as the Tech campus.