BUTLER TWP — The Butler Transit Authority on Tuesday tabled the matter of bus service to the VA Butler Healthcare Center’s new facility in Center Township.

Authority executive director John Paul said the authority received a letter from VA Butler Healthcare requesting service to its new location.

“The reason (we tabled it) is so that the city and Butler Township can discuss with Center Township whether they’re still interested in joining the authority or participating financially with the authority,” Paul said Wednesday.

The topic of the transit authority was not on the August agenda for the Center Township supervisors’ monthly meetings.

Center Supervisor Ronald Flatt commented on the authority’s request to have Center Township join. He said that if the authority extended an invitation to a meeting, Center Township would send a supervisor to hear a proposal.

“It might be presumptuous of us to try to force the issue,” he said. “They’re the authority, and if they would like us to come to a meeting, me personally I’m very favorable of talking to them to see what the situation is.”

Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson said, “I would welcome them into full membership. I would look forward to that. It’s like everything else, especially with the transit authority, because it’s something that everybody, sooner or later, seems to have money trouble with.”

Paul also said that should a stop at the new VA Butler Healthcare facility be added, VA Butler would have to pay the authority $4,000 each year, which Butler Health System does for its recently-opened facility in Summit Township. These agreements would increase by 5 percent each year.

Paul confirmed that an agreement will need to be in place by January 2017, not only for there to be enough time to modify routes before beginning service in the summer of 2017, but also to include grant applications for the authority’s operational budget.

Currently, the stop would be added to Route 5.