The Martha’s Vineyard Regional Transit Authority will receive just over $1.8 million of the $15 million total stimulus cash awarded to Massachusetts last Friday to fund improvements in transit systems. The stimulus program is part of the Federal Recovery Act, signed in February by President Obama.

The money will be used to purchase nine new buses for the Vineyard transit authority.

“Our biggest need right now is fleet replacement,” said transit authority administrator Angela Grant. “We don’t have any programmed capital money available to us. Every year we roll the dice and the state decides how much money they are going to give us. [The stimulus money] is going to replace almost a third of our fleet which was overdue to be replaced,” she added. The current buses are more than 10 years old.

According to Ms. Grant, one stipulation of the stimulus grant is that 50 per cent of the funding be used within the first 180 days. The transit authority has already begun procuring the new vehicles, which will begin to appear on the Island in mid-August. All nine will operate by the end of October.

“Martha’s Vineyard should be getting [the money],” said Ms. Grant. “The transit authority carries over a million people a month. It’s not an easy task to rise to, and our fleet is in dire straits.”