PDRTA wants to bring bus service back to Society Hill
A typical PDRTA bus. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
The Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority wants to bring back bus service to Society Hill for the first time in about 10 years, but needs $45,000 to make that happen. If the PDRTA can get that amount of money from local governments, businesses or other “stakeholders,” it can match those funds with federal funds and would be able to run bus service in Society Hill three days a week, said PDRTA Executive Director Don Strickland. Strickland is requesting $14,000 from Darlington County Council to help bring bus service to the town of about 560 people. During a council meeting last week – which was live-streamed, but closed to the press and public because of COVID precautions – Strickland spoke to council members by video. “One place we know we’re lacking is Society Hill,” he told council. “ … They rely on family and everybody else to try to get to and from, and that doesn’t always work out. We would like to put some service in place.” Strickland told the News & Press that the agency has about 75 percent of the needed money in place through federal funds. “We need about $45,000 on the local level” to meet the remaining 25 percent, he said. That would let PDRTA run four round trips on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for a year, he said.