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Tampa transit leaders took a step in restoring the Cross Bay Ferry Monday morning.
The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Board of Directors voted 8-3 today to transfer almost 5 million in federal funds to the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.
The PSTA would use those funds to buy a vessel to go across the bay.
Gil Schisler is a HART board member who voted for the measure.
Schisler and others feared that the funds would go to another area of the country if the grant expired.
“If these monies will go somewhere, we might as well have them go in our region, where they benefit all of us,” Schisler said.
HART Chair and Tampa City Council Member Luis Viera voted to transfer the grant.
“It preserves the dollars locally in our Tampa Bay region – I think that, to me, is the winner right there,” Viera said.
However, board member John King voted against the measure.
“You’re only talking about revenue of a million and a half dollars a year, and no improvement on the traffic flow on the Gandy, the Courtney Campbell, or the Howard Frankland bridge,” King said.
Hillsborough ended its contract with the Cross Bay Ferry’s operator earlier this year after the operator planned on swapping the boat for a slower one.
The transfer still needs to be approved by the Federal Transit Administration.
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