What else is there to say about the still non-existent CHQ Transit hub on East Third Street other than ugh.

You’ve heard the whole sordid tale already. After being asked to move the CARTS hub from Second Street in front of the National Comedy Center, the county settled on the former Ray Nelson Service Station building on West Third Street. Everything has been downhill ever since.

Rather than relitigate the litany of missteps that have led us here, we’re more interested in what happens next. The situation, in a nutshell, is this: the county had secured a little more than $1 million to build a new CHQ transit hub on the former service station site. It has about $533,000 left, and bids for the new building have come in at $813,000.

The math isn’t mathing, which means this project is at a crossroads, in our opinion. Should the county try to secure more outside funding or spend more of its own money to bridge the gap between what’s left in the project budget or should the county cut its losses, find an existing site and simply move on?

We think it would be lunacy to put more county funding into new construction. We haven’t heard a great reason why Jamestown’s City Hall and Tracy Plaza can’t serve as a place for CHQ Transit riders to gather while waiting for buses. It’s handicapped accessible, has restrooms and security. The security station is a surmountable hurdle, in our view. If City Hall doesn’t work, and the reasons it doesn’t work would have to be pretty compelling, we have a hard time believing there isn’t another space that is more cost-effective than spending another $813,000 to build a new building.

Much of this project is already state-funded through a $765,612 state DOT Accelerated Transit Capital Grant. County officials say there may be more grant funding available for the transit hub project. We would counter by asking why anyone would give the county more money toward a project that has been throwing up red flags at nearly every turn for the past two years. Not only should the transit hub not get any further county budget support, the state shouldn’t throw more hard-earned taxpayer money at the project either.

There’s only one real reason to continue with the project, and that’s the likelihood of having to repay three quarters of a million dollars to the state because the DOT grant is abandoned. It’s a lousy reason to move forward with a project, but it will likely be the deciding factor that brings this sordid saga to a close. If that’s the case then the county should find a way to put something up for the remaining $533,000 in the project budget. Even then we still believe the entire project is a massive waste of money and staff time.

One final thought. A few years ago the county made a big deal of selling some of its Jamestown property in favor of lease agreements so that the county wasn’t on the hook for building repairs. In hindsight it was a good idea that saved taxpayers money. Perhaps the county should keep its own preferred course of action in mind when it decides to start buying property and starting building projects. A private developer in this situation would have pulled the plug years ago. By buying the property and securing grant funding that comes with strings attached, we’re likely stuck skipping down the primrose path. At least we’ll have a nice million dollar transit hub to rest when we get to the end of the path.