Disabled people will be left without a ride

Mike Gantala has cerebral palsy, does volunteer work and is working with a job coach to find paid employment.

Soon, though, the 27-year-old will have no way to get to his volunteer jobs at the Monroe Library and the Sky Valley Food Bank.

The bus service used by people in the rural parts of Snohomish County — or anyone who does not live within three-quarters of a mile of a regular bus stop — is being cut in half by the state.

The program is losing nearly half of its funding, from about $800,000 per year to just under $400,000.

Senior Services of Snohomish County, the nonprofit group that manages the program, is laying off six of its 12 drivers.

The cuts take effect Wednesday.

About 1,200 people ride the buses; it’s uncertain exactly how many will be affected as officials juggle the routes to try to continue service to those who need it most.

Many people use the service to get to important medical appointments such as kidney dialysis and cancer treatment.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure the critical health care needs are met first,” said Janet Duncan, development director for the agency.

The next priority will be given to people who already have paying jobs. Many others will be left without transportation.

“There’s no other way. They’re ugly choices,” said Phil Sullivan, chief executive for Senior Services.

State legislators say they faced a lot of difficult choices as well.

“Basically every section of our budget had to absorb some cuts,” said Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

The Transportation Assistance Program, as it is called, was begun in Snohomish County around 2000 to fill gaps not reached by Dial-A-Ride Transportation, commonly known as DART. The DART program serves only those who are elderly, disabled and live within three-quarters of a mile of a bus stop, according to officials at Senior Services, which also runs the Snohomish County DART program, for Community Transit.

The rural bus program serves anyone outside those areas, with priority given to the elderly and disabled, officials said. The bus picks people up and takes them to their destination or to bus stops.

Colby Smith, 25, of Bothell, has ataxia, a disorder that causes a severe lack of muscular coordination. He was hit by a car when he was 3, he said.

He cannot drive and doesn’t work but has been seeing a counselor about getting into a jobs program at the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. He has been told he needs reliable transportation to participate.

“I don’t know what they’re going to say” about him losing his bus rides, Smith said.

Caleb Leachman, 23, has tuberous sclerosis. The disease leaves people with the mental capacity of a 3- or 4-year-old child throughout their lives, said Tami McIntosh, his mother. They live together in Echo Lake, east of Bothell.

He cannot speak, but the transportation service allows him to participate in a day-care program in which he goes to locations such as Bothell’s Country Village and Safeway and performs jobs such as watering plants.

McIntosh would no longer be able to work at her full-time job if her son has to stay home, she said.

“They get him into the community,” McIntosh said.

Senior Services of Snohomish County lost money from two pots: state rural transportation funding, about $125,000, and state adult day health funding, about $270,000. The agency uses the health funding to transport participants to programs such as ElderHealth, and picks up other riders along the way.

The state transportation budget was facing a deficit of $300 million, Liias said.

“Our focus was on keeping construction programs going that had been promised when we passed the gas tax” increase in 2005, Liias said.

“We were trying to focus on keeping the transit system in the urban corridors working efficiently. We had to balance the budget and keep people at work,” he said.

Liias said the Legislature will try to restore as much of the lost transportation funding as possible in its supplemental budget early next year.

The adult day health funding was cut partly because some legislators see the program as becoming permanent when it was meant as temporary, said Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Picnic Point, who serves on the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.

Still, the biggest reason was the budget deficit, she said.

“I expressed my support for it, with the incredible awareness that there were a lot of things that weren’t going to make it,” she said.

“It’s with programs like this when we learn what it really means in people’s lives when we do cut it.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.