The Gainesville City Commission agreed Thursday to create more bus services at UF and pump $49,000 into a Gainesville Police TV show.
The increase in bus service will create new Regional Transit System bus routes and other additions, such as longer service hours for some routes.
The new routes, which will start running in August, include one from The Estates to the Hub and another from UF to downtown Gainesville.
“There were enhancements that the students wanted,” said City Manager Russ Blackburn.
These additions will cost the city an extra $646,206.
Students at UF pay for RTS services though a transportation and access fee, which is currently $7.33 per credit hour. The city estimates that $10,923,193 will be raised from that fee next school year. Next year’s fee hasn’t been determined yet.
Commissioner Thomas Hawkins said the fee does a lot to help pay for RTS service around the city. Without it, he said, there wouldn’t be as much bus service.
“It would be an unrecognizably different transit system,” he said.
The commission also approved a year’s worth of funding for the Gainesville Police Department TV show, “Police Beat.”
Police Chief Tony Jones said it is used to show the public what the police department has to offer.
“I think that it’s an important communication tool,” he said.
The show is financed through a city trust fund. The trust fund money comes from property and other confiscations that relate to crimes such as drug seizures, Blackburn said.
Blackburn said these finances do not come out of city taxpayers’ money.
