The Transit Authority of Warren County is asking the Warren County Commissioners for three pieces of funding — one of which will help the county’s 911 operation as well.

TAWC Executive Director Wendy Hollabaugh presented three distinct funding proposals to the Commissioners during Monday’s work session.

The first is for the organization’s local match, which brings down significantly more state funding. Hollabaugh said that request totals $48,546.

The local match total includes contributions from several county municipalities.

Commissioner Tricia Durbin asked that data regarding ridership be provided to those municipalities. Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said he receives complaints from people on the western side of the county in places where the fixed route service does not reach. He raised concern that county funds for the fixed route service only benefit some county municipalities, raising a fairness for the funding issue falling to municipalities that don’t benefit. Kafferlin suggested a proposal to those municipalities where the fixed route system functions.

“If unworkable,” he said, “I could be swayed to drop all the municipalities” funding. “Basically, I’m tired of this fight,” he added. “(It’s) too much to ask of you to wrangle up these elected officials because they won’t play ball.”

The second request Hollabaugh presented was for $6,836 as part of the local obligation to replace two of the large busses, which cost in excess of $400,000 each. She provided ridership data to support the investment.

“They are getting used,” she stressed. “We just don’t know what times the buses are going to be filled.”

She asked the commissioners to consider riding the buses.

The third request was for $6,194 as march for a $960,000 project, which includes federal and state funding, that will connect TAWC’s buses to the county’s emergency radio system.

“This will give us better service throughout the county,” Hollabaugh said, “that we don’t have right now. This will help a lot.”

“It will help us as well,” Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison said.

He explained that it would allow the 911 Center to talk directly to the buses if they were needed in a disaster response.

But the investment also brings “expanded capacity on our network,” he added. “It allows more radios to operate in one space. If we were to have a major incident, more of our radios could use the towers in Warren.”

He said the project increases the capacity of the system “five fold, six fold.”

Kafferlin said the state has been picky about the system capacity and said this expense makes sense to him.