Added convenience could be coming for Trotter visitors

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Getting around events in Columbus may be getting a little easier in the near future.

At its work session Thursday morning, the Columbus City Council heard from a representative of Global Electric Motorcars, or GEM. They even got to check out one of the company’s nicer rides.

The city is exploring the option of getting a couple of the vehicles to use for shuttling guests between city parking lots and the Trotter Convention Center during large events.

Trotter Director Rogena Bonner says the shuttle service could be a selling point in attracting conferences to the venue.

Depending on the options package, the six-passenger carts can run between forty-three and around fifty-eight thousand dollars each.

The Trotter had some surplus funds in this year’s budget that could be directed to making the one-time purchases.

” ‘Cause a lot of the time you have elderly people for these events that we have. It’s kind of difficult walking up that hill to get to it. Then, you’ve got those steps that you have to walk up to. So, this will get them basically to the front door, and we let ’em off. Then we take them back to their cars when the event is over with, so we’re looking at purchasing a couple of them, so we can do that. And, also you know, of course we have the amphitheater coming, so this’ll be able to get people from the parking lots to the amphitheater.” said Columbus Mayor Stephen Jones.

The carts are street-legal, rechargeable electric vehicles and can carry a driver and up to five passengers at a time.