PANAMA CITY — After spending months at the drawing board, Bay County public transportation officials are finalizing the rebrand of Bay Town Trolley to "Bay Way."

The transit system has been in Bay County for almost 25 years without any rebranding.

The journey has been months in the making. Transportation officials sought the community's help during the winter in picking a new logo and new name.

County Commission Chairman Robert Carroll said the commissioners all sit on the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization board and have closely watched the rebranding.

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"The board was presented with the idea of rebranding, it's to hopefully increase ridership and just kind of refocus on getting the word out there that we do have the system, ... public transportation," Carroll said.

Carroll said the rebrand will not change the bus system itself, just its look and its brand. He said with summer's hot weather, they want people to know they have options for transportation other than walking or biking.

On top of the rebranding, the transit system is seeing a boost in funding. Commissioners accepted two grants, one from the Florida Department of Transportation and the other from the U.S. Department of Transportation, in early February. The two grants, which total $1 million, are designed to support transit systems in light of the pandemic.

Carroll said having a sustainable and proper transit system is important to the community. 

"We've got a lot of workers that live in town that can't afford to live out on the Beach and those workers need to make sure they've got adequate transportation, so we want to make sure that any funding that we can secure, it's federally funded," Carroll said. "We want to make sure that we have an adequate transit system. There are some tourists that use it, but it's mainly used by the locals and it's getting our workforce to where they need to go and our students, same to Gulf Coast State College and (Florida State University Panama City)."

Residents should start to see the name change in the coming days, Carroll said.