Rutherford County commissioners approved redoing a public hearing and reauthorizing a resolution to apply for Federal Transit Administration Section 5310 and 5311 grants for fiscal year 2027 after a required public notice was published in the wrong newspaper.
Carrie Giles, the county’s transit director, told the board that the county had held a public hearing previously but the newspaper mistakenly placed the notice in an out‑of‑county paper instead of the local paper, creating a procedural requirement to repeat the hearing. Giles described the fiscal‑year 2027 application package as requesting a total of $1,170,914, which the county would use for capital purchases (seven vehicles), operating support for dialysis transportation and roughly $329,000 for administrative expenses. Giles said the county will provide a local match of $157,542 drawn from transit revenues.
The board reopened the public hearing, asked three times for public comment and, seeing none, closed the hearing and approved the recommended resolution to apply for the grants. Commissioners commented that the error in local notice publication required the redo and approved the resolution by voice vote.