FLORENCE — As the public agency tasked with shuttling passengers across six counties looks to add routes, the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority is struggling for space and pushing a plan for a new facility that would centralize all buses, trains and planes that ferry people to and from Florence.
How to pay for a new facility remains an open question as the system is still looking for enough funding to get through the current budget year.
But that centralized transportation hub is needed, PDRTA Executive Director Don Strickland said, because the authority has no more room.
“We are completely out of office space in this admin facility with all the growth we’ve had in recent years,” he said.
The Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority has outgrown its headquarters at 313 S. Stadium Drive and its Florence Transit Center, 228 W. Darlington St., Strickland said.
Amid the authority’s growth spurt, the transit center struggles to handle all routes and buses.
“We now have buses coming from other areas such as Pamplico, Lake City, Timmonsville and Darlington. We have our normal Florence transit routes as well,” he said.
Strickland said the authority wants to add routes, but the center’s space limitations could delay those plans.
Agency’s $700K shortfall
Paying for PDRTA is complex.
Breakdown of PDRTA’s operating funds
Federal government: $2.57 million (59.6 percent).
Directly generated revenue: $734,080 (17.2 percent).
State government: $518,820 (12 percent).
Local government: $490,350 (11.4 percent).
A swath of funds comes in from local governments — the six counties it serves, along with a number of towns and cities. The biggest sums came from Florence County, which allocated $338,000 to the PDRTA, and the city of Florence, which set aside $218,000.
But it also gets money from employers and private partners — HopeHealth, McLeod Health, Ruiz Foods and Pepsi — who benefit from their workers having transportation.
Even with those revenue streams, the system is staring down a $700,000 shortfall this year.
Strickland attributed much of the shortage to government allocations.
Part of the problem is the South Carolina’s mass transit fund allocation is frozen in time, Strickland said. It’s still set at $6 million, the same as when it was created in 1987. Just to keep up with inflation, that sum would have had to rise to more than $16 million. But instead of being split among seven agencies, as was the case nearly four decades ago, it’s spread across 34 today.
