County commissioners dissolve unused transport area pact

Nearly a decade ago, the Whitman County commissioners and Council on Aging and Human Services entered into a transportation program agreement that would allow the COA to acquire vanpool vehicles. The program ultimately never came to fruition, and it was officially dissolved on Monday with a unanimous vote from the county commissioners.

“The intent of it was to provide some vanpooling services into Pullman, primarily from State Route 27,” said Craig Van Tine, contracts and grants manager at COAST Transportation.

The agreement was titled the “Unincorporated Transportation Benefit Area” and was more of a formality than anything else, Van Tine explained.

“It was necessary to establish that organization to get funding. It was just a funding mechanism,” he said.

The agreement was made in 2009, and Van Tine said there were efforts to get the vanpooling going, but they never materialized.

“I couldn't get enough people interested in the van to make it viable,” he said. “Just couldn't get an interest.”

No funding has ever been received from the state for the program, and the county never paid out anything under terms of the agreement.

The commissioners recently reviewed the program and decided there was no longer a need for it.

“It just became unnecessary,” said Van Tine.