JEFFERSON COUNTY, New York (WWNY) – Jefferson County is on its way to setting up public bus routes and we now have a better sense of where they’ll be.
“People are excited. There’s a lot of excitement building and, you know, people need to get to jobs. They need to get to classes and education and of course food sources,” said Jon Exford, Jefferson County Mobility manager.
Officials say, for now, 4 routes will make up the system and it will cost $800,000 to $1.2 million to operate them per year.
The routes will be working their way from a Watertown hub into different parts of the county.
One route would loop Carthage, Black River, Fort Drum, and Watertown and connect other counties.
“It would also include meeting up with Lewis County Transportation and their bus. We will meet at 8 in the morning in Carthage,” said Exford.
He says a stop on one of the routes will be at the Watertown International Airport.
that route would also loop through Clayton, Alexandria Bay, and Theresa. Another would go from Gouverneur to Watertown.
“Then a fourth obviously hitting southern Jefferson County, going through Sackets and Adams and Adams Center and, you know, coming back basically out in Washington Street into Watertown,” said Exford.
The Jefferson County Mobility team met with the county’s General Services Committee recently. The county will make a decision to submit an application to the state Department of Transportation in November.
The funding of the project is 80% federal, 10% state, and the remaining 10% would be local.
Exford says summer 2024 is when the routes should be running.
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