By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Snohomish County bus riders don’t seem to mind subsidizing Everett riders and want Community Transit to keep driving them around the county’s biggest city.
That’s been the main message as CT wraps up a series of public meetings — the last scheduled for tonight — about a proposal to cut all service within Everett to save money.
"So far a large percentage of people say leave it the way it is," Kristin Kinnamon, a CT spokeswoman, said after a meeting Monday at Everett Station.
Everett residents have their own bus agency — Everett Transit — and don’t pay the higher sales tax for CT that’s collected everywhere else in the county, so CT is considering four options:
"None of these alternatives except ‘do nothing’ makes any sense," bus rider James Martin of Lake Stevens said at Monday’s meeting, attended by about two dozen people, most of whom seemed to agree with him.
Mary Henderson of Snohomish was a rare voice of support for the changes. She spoke on behalf of her husband, Bill, who used to run CT’s paratransit service for the disabled (DART) and now uses it. He was in the hospital Monday, she said, but sent her to the meeting to say that he wouldn’t mind the hassle of transferring from CT to an ET van at city limits, as the disabled and any other riders would have to do if the cuts go through.
"He’s willing to make that sacrifice," Mary Henderson said. "He feels Community Transit has been subsidizing Everett Transit for many years, and it’s time for Everett to pay their share."
Based on a June 2001 rider survey, CT figures it spends $4 million a year on Everett residents.
But others said average riders don’t care who’s subsidizing whom; they just don’t want to be left stranded by the bus on the outskirts of the county seat.
"Heck no!" Martin exclaimed when asked after the meeting if he minded paying higher taxes than Everett residents did for transit. "We get the substantial benefits" of bus service into the city, he added.
He and others see the proposal as just another play in a power struggle that’s lasted for decades and is only hurting the riders the agencies serve.
"We don’t have the ax to grind with Everett like the (CT) staff does," Martin said.
CT has tried for years to either get ET to pay it for service provided within Everett or to merge the two agencies. Multiple meetings last year didn’t bring resolution, and CT’s attempts the last couple of years to get a legislative solution from state lawmakers have failed.
"Credibility for Community Transit is really suffering," said Lynn Lawton, who lives in an unincorporated area of the county south of Everett. Lawton’s son rides a DART van to Lynnwood for work, but she worries that service would end if the cuts go through and Everett annexes their neighborhood.
CT figures it could save from $400,000 to $1.4 million a year by pulling out of Everett. But that’s a rough estimate that doesn’t include such factors as a possible drop in fares from lost ridership.
If the CT board cancels Everett service, any money saved would be put into additional service elsewhere, Executive Director Joyce Olson said. Those expansion possibilities will be the topic of a second round of public hearings in early May.
The board plans to decide on the proposed cuts at its July 18 public meeting at 7 p.m. in the Lynnwood City Council chambers. Any changes wouldn’t go into effect until February.
To comment to CT about the proposed changes, call 425-353-RIDE or send an e-mail to planning@commtrans.org. For Everett Transit, call 425-257-8803 or send an e-mail to rhanson@ci.everett.wa.us.
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439
or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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