COMPLEX, BUSES ARE PLANNED AVTA MULLS EXPANDING BOARD.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Transit Authority officials believe the agency can afford to build a new $21 million headquarters complex and, at the same, acquire new buses to keep up with growth, agency officials said this week.

The AVTA is studying its cash flow to see whether it can do both projects at the same time. The study will be completed in 60 days.

``Some of our passengers say, why are you building this building when we need more buses,'' said Bill Budlong, the agency's executive director. ``With this tiny parcel we are on, we can't expand any further. We can't have the growth without the building. We've got to have a bigger home.''

AVTA wants to move from its existing facilities, 2.5 acres at 10th Street West and Avenue L-12, to 16 acres near Sixth Street West and Avenue M, adjacent to the Los Angeles County Fire Department training center.

Preliminary design work on the complex is nearly complete and the agency hopes to finish design work and begin construction in late 2002.

Construction will take about a year.

``We have to plan for our future,'' said AVTA board member Mike Dispenza. ``We're bursting at the seams. This is a 'need' item, not a 'want' item.''

To accommodate its existing bus fleet, the AVTA tore down a fence and rented space on an adjoining parcel. Its board has had to hold its monthly board meetings at Lancaster and Palmdale city halls because the board room at the existing complex has been taken over for office space. The agency anticipates that it will need to acquire three new buses a year to keep pace with the Antelope Valley's growth. The agency is planning to acquire the buses at a two-to-one ratio of transit buses to commuter buses.

The cost for transit buses is nearly $300,000 each, and $400,000 for each commuter bus, Budlong said.

The agency is also taking a look at whether the board itself should be expanded. The board comprises one representative each from the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale and one representative from Los Angeles County.

The agency is considering whether to include two representatives from each city.

One reason for the proposed board expansion is the fact that at present, the members cannot talk to each other outside meetings about agency issues without violating the state open-meeting law. State law prohibits a quorum of any public board from meeting privately to discuss business, and since the board has only three members, two constitute a quorum.

A report on the board expansion is expected to be discussed at the agency's Dec. 18 meeting.