AVTA bus complex plans for expansion!

By Chuck Bostwick

Daily News

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Transit Authority

officials unveiled a $21 million headquarters and bus maintenance complex that replaced a leased facility less than one-fifth the size.

Financed mostly with state and federal aid, the new facility includes an automated bus wash, equipment that counts fares, and a bus parking shade topped with a quarter-acre of solar panels expected to save $25,000 a year in electric bills.

``It's a good investment because it's an investment for the future,'' Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said at Friday's open house.

The complex, started in 2002, was built on 16 acres on 6th Street West just north of Avenue M, adjacent to the Los Angeles County Fire Department training center and the new Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse.

It replaced a 2.5-acre facility at 10th Street West and Avenue L-12, where officials said they had to cut a hole in a back fence and lease adjoining property because they ran out of room to park buses.

The new complex consists of concrete parking areas for more than 100 buses _ with room to expand _ plus a bus maintenance garage and the administrative and operations building for dispatchers and office workers.

The solar-cell-covered shade canopy will cut the heat for 20 buses during hot summer days when bus drivers have to run the vehicles' air conditioners before leaving to pick up passengers.

Lancaster, Palmdale and Los Angeles County, which jointly operate the AVTA, contributed about $2.8 million of the $21 million cost, officials said.

The rest came from a transit sales tax measure, federal grant money, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, federal grants and $3.5 million in federal aid secured by U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita.

``It's large enough for the growth this valley is going to have,'' McKeon said.

The new facility will give the agency room enough for buses, repair shops and staff to accommodate the Antelope Valley's projected population growth through 2020, officials said.

``We know we're going to grow. We're going to grow rapidly,'' Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts said.

Moving into the new building will let the bus agency stop making lease payments on money that otherwise could go to fund bus operations, Roberts said.

Created in 1992, the AVTA carried 900,000 passengers its first year and more than 2.7 million last year. With more than 200 employees, it operates 77 buses and dial-a-ride vans, traveling 14 local routes and three commuter routes to Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.