ROCKPORT — This morning, April 22, a committee tasked with exploring whether a regional bus service would be useful and viable in the Midcoast will review the results of a year-long Transit Study conducted by consultants. The public meeting takes place at the Rockport Town Office at 11 a.m.

Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates and Morris Communications will deliver the report.

The Midcoast Transit Committee will receive the report and hear from project administrator Boris Palchik.

“I’m excited about the possibilities the report brings to us”, said Don White, Camden, the committee’s chair and spokesman. “The data collected will be of importance in determining the next steps which likely will take at least 24 months”, White added.

The report includes an Executive Summary, Community Profile, Existing Transit Service, a Peer Review, Stakeholder Outreach and Public Input, Service Design Alternatives, and Service Development. The report details four alternate routes and levels of service.

White said the Midcoast Transit Committee made up of members from Camden, Rockport, Rockland and Thomaston will convene in the near future to discuss next steps.

Conversations about the need for, and possibilities of, a bus system were first floated two years ago, during an Oct. 4, 2011 discussion at the Rockland Public Library, when public transit advocate Tim Sullivan and Lee Karker of Coastal Transportation raised the idea of bus service. That meeting included representatives from Friends of Midcoast Maine, Penquis, Pen Bay Healthcare, Gateway 1, and local politicians. They all began to meeting monthly, and a committee was subsequently born on the recognition that public transportation could successfully accommodate a diverse market of users. The committee now comprises two delegates from each of the four involved communities, as well as other interested parties.

Armed with a transportation grant, along with local matching contributions of $1,650 each from Camden, Rockport, Rockland and Thomaston, the committee commissioned a $60,000, 11-month study last winter after circulating a request for proposals.

Thoroughly researched documents support the study, providing up-to-date demographic information and analyses of the Midcoast have been assembled and are available at midcoastplanning.org/transitstudy.html.

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