It appears the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) will be moving its entire operation to Lake Orion.
Last week, the NOTA board voted 6-0 to issue a letter of intent to Lake Orion Community Schools indicating its desire to lease a portion of the former bus garage located at 467 E. Jackson St., near Blanche Sims Elementary School.
Included with this letter will be a ‘punch list? of all the improvements NOTA would like to see completed before it enters into a lease agreement.
Under the proposed three-year lease agreement, NOTA would pay a monthly rent of $1,000, plus utilities, to house its administrative offices, dispatch center and fleet of 18 vehicles.
‘The building has plenty of space including parking,? said NOTA Director Lynn Gustafson.
NOTA provides low-cost transportation to senior citizens, disabled individuals and low-income folks living in Oxford, Addison and Orion townships along with the villages of Oxford, Leonard and Lake Orion.
Lake Orion Schools has agreed to cover the cost of cleaning up, repairing and improving the former bus garage, which has been sitting vacant for 12 years, according to Gustafson.
NOTA Chair Bruce Pearson believes the building has ‘a lot of potential? and could be ‘fixed up nice? to ‘meet our needs.?
‘I can see beyond the emptiness,? he said.
NOTA currently operates out of a space its leased in Oxford Village’s industrial district along Glaspie St. since 2010.
Since NOTA’s creation in 2001, the authority has moved around quite a bit, but it’s always been headquartered in Oxford.
Its operations have been housed in a variety of locations including the Oxford Mills shopping center, the Oxford Veterans Memorial Civic Center and the campus of Crossroads for Youth.