CENTER TWP — Township officials are open to talking to the Butler Transit Authority about becoming a member of the authority.

They talked about those issues Wednesday night at the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department.

All five township supervisors said they were open to discussion with the authority. The authority passed a motion Tuesday at its monthly board meeting to request Center to become a member.

Supervisor Ken Frenchak was notified of the potential request by e-mail, and then by a phone call from authority executive director John Paul on Wednesday morning.

“John Paul called and he said there’s a high probability that they’ll assign us a seat to the board (if we join),” Frenchak said.

He said Paul called to tell him so the township supervisors weren’t caught off guard by the news.

“We’re open to discuss,” Supervisor Ed Latuska said.

Supervisor Alan Smallwood detailed the course of action the board would likely take. “You have to get (the authority’s) information,” he said. “We’ll come back and discuss.”

The authority in 1989 asked the township to be a member and was denied. None of the Center supervisors were in office then.

The authority’s members are Butler and Butler Township, and its bus service covers those areas along with other specific sites that pay for its service.

The authority’s motion was brought up by Dave Zarnick, Butler Township commissioners board president.

Zarnick noted Center’s growth, specifically the VA Butler Healthcare Medical Center that is being built there, as the reason he brought up the issue.

“It’s been building,” he said Tuesday. “We can’t keep going out to Center Township, stopping here, stopping there. We can’t just piecemeal.”

VA Butler executive director David Cord confirmed that the center plans to have authority transportation at its site.

Right now the medical center would pay for the transportation because the township is outside of the authority’s area. But if Center were to join, the township would pay the fees.

“Center Township will have to make the decision that’s best for them in this,” Cord said. “My goal in this is to make sure that we’ve secured transportation for the veterans to the new health care center.

“We’re in the process of making sure that occurs. What Center Township ultimately decides to do has got to be their decision. We can’t make that for them.”

More than two months ago, Paul told Cord that to have service from the authority, Cord would need to submit a letter of request. Cord explained why a letter has not yet been sent.

“We’re still about a year away (from opening),” Cord said. “So we’ve been having our discussions internally and actually discussed about getting back to (John Paul) to finalize the request to make sure we’ve got the right stop in place well ahead of when we’re open.”