Bay County Transportation Planning Organization

Bay County Transportation Planning Organization, a local government transportation authority subordinate to the Bay County Board of County Commissioners, is a federal grant recipient delivering public transit operations, preventive maintenance, capital equipment acquisition, and surveillance/security enhancements to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as prime recipient (90% of awards) with ancillary sub-award involvement tied to FEMA disaster-recovery grants routed through the State of Florida Division of Emergency Management.

BCTPO operates as a designated recipient for FTA Formula Grants and project grants serving the Panama City, Florida urbanized area in Bay County. The organization manages two fixed-route transit systems—BayWay (formerly Bay Town Trolley) and Bay Area Transportation (a demand-response service)—within the urbanized Bay County area, excluding rural areas and paratransit. FTA funds cover one-year operating cycles of preventive maintenance, driver salaries, fuel, administrative expenses, vehicle acquisition, equipment procurement, and security enhancements. All federal transit work is performed directly by BCTPO with no subrecipients named across the FTA prime grant footprint. A small sub-award presence reflects FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and Public Assistance (PA) subawards under State of Florida emergency-management sponsorship, including recovery work for damaged transit shelters and equipment replacement following hurricanes (awards dated December 2025, August 2025, May 2024, and November 2023).

Customer concentration is complete: 38 of 42 awards (100% coverage) flow from the Federal Transit Administration under CFDA 20.507 (Federal Transit Formula Grants) and CFDA 20.526 (Buses and Bus Facilities Formula Grants). Recent representative FTA awards include $1.424 million in operating assistance (April 2026, FY 2025–2026); $4.059 million in combined preventive maintenance, operating assistance, and equipment acquisition (June 2025, FY 2024–2025); $3.248 million for preventive maintenance, operations, and equipment (December 2023, FY 2024–2025); and $256,201 under the Buses and Bus Facilities program for capital vehicle and facility acquisitions (June 2025). Activity has contracted sharply—three awards in 2022, four in 2023, one in 2024, six in 2025, and one thus far in 2026. Three awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating near-term recompete exposure across the FTA Formula Grant cycle. BCTPO reports $48.9 million in combined dollars obligated across all 42 awards spanning 1999 through April 2026, with the bulk concentrated in FTA formula grants awarded between 2021 and 2026 under COVID relief (CARES Act, American Rescue Plan) and baseline FTA apportionments to the Panama City urbanized area.