Aug. 30—The Michigan Department of Transportation awarded the Huron Transport Corporation a $10 million grant to be used toward its new facility project.
The grant was part of $25 million awarded to two transit agencies under the Intermodal Capital Investment Grant program from the state of Michigan. The other $15 million went toward the Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority.
"This $25 million in grants for the EUPTA and HTC will spur tourism, which will bring in more customers for local businesses, in turn creating job opportunities, improving the local economy and increasing quality of life," Michigan Chief Infrastructure Officer Zach Kolodin said in a press release. "By building an additional ferry for Drummond Island and providing a new transit facility for Huron County, we are addressing immediate infrastructure needs while laying the groundwork for sustainable growth and modernization. Together, with our local and federal partners, we are building a Michigan where every community has the opportunity to prosper."
For Huron Transit Corp. and the Thumb Area Transit, the county has been working toward a new facility for some time now. Currently, TAT is storing its fleet of 50 vehicles in a portion of the old U.S. manufacturing building, which it began renting in the summer of 2020.
"We were excited to receive the grant from the state," Huron County Commissioner and Properties Committee Chair Sami Khoury said. "Whenever we get funding like this it is a big deal for the county. It allows us to keep up with the rising costs of projects like this."
According to the press release, the project in total is estimated at around $32 million and includes land purchase and construction.
This isn't the first time there has been funding for TAT facilities. In 2021 there was a $5.1 million grant awarded from the Federal Transit Administration to fund the acquisition of low- and no-emission buses and to support the facilities maintaining these buses. TAT was the only entity in Michigan to receive funding from that grant and one of only 50 in the nation to receive a part of the roughly $182 million that was awarded.
The facilities that TAT currently operates out of started with the parking garage being built in 1971, as the site was formerly home to Brown's Produce/Egg processing plant. The maintenance and operations portions of the building were added in 1992.
TAT director Ken Jimkowski has said previously that although the current facility has been decently taken care of, the original design for vehicle storage was only meant for 15. Today, TAT has a fleet of over 50 vehicles and 49 current employees, which include drivers, management, and dispatchers.
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