About 100 people who live in rural areas are looking for a different way to get around after cutbacks were made to a bus program.
The bus service used by people in the rural parts of Snohomish County was cut in half by the state effective July 1.
The full effect of the cuts is still playing out, said Phil Sullivan, executive director of Senior Services of Snohomish County, which runs the program.
“It’ll take us two or three months to really measure the impact on people,” Sullivan said.
The Transportation Assistance Program is losing nearly half its funding, from about $800,000 per year to just under $400,000. Senior Services is laying off six of its 12 drivers. Two of the program’s managers are out driving, Sullivan said.
About 1,200 people were riding the buses at last count before the cuts. The agency is juggling routes to save as many rides as it can.
People who ride the buses to kidney dialysis and other critical medical appointments have first priority, officials say. Next are those who use the buses to get to paying jobs. For everyone else, it all depends whether they live on a route where a driver can pick them up conveniently on the way to retrieve one of the priority riders, officials said.
Many who use the service still have some rides available. The agency has negotiated with 40 people for different ride times. In many cases this means longer waits for pickups and drop-offs, Sullivan said.
For instance, someone might be picked up at 7:30 a.m. for a 10 a.m. medical appointment, he said. The person then would be transferred to Dial-a-Ride Transportation, also known as DART, and would arrive 1 ½ hours before the appointment. The person may then need to wait another 90 minutes after the appointment for a ride home.
The DART program serves those who are elderly or disabled and who 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 has served those who fall outside the DART guidelines, with priority given to the elderly and disabled.
Mike Gantala, 27, who lives near Monroe, has ridden the bus for several years to volunteer jobs at the Monroe Library and the Sky Valley Food Bank. Gantala has cerebral palsy and was hoping to parlay his volunteer work into paid employment, but without consistent transportation it will be difficult, he said. His rides have been cut from four round trips per week to two one-way trips, Sullivan said.
His mother, Eva Gantala, has made up for the loss, taking him to both volunteer jobs, but it means she can’t continue her work as a substitute teacher, she said.
She criticized the state law that requires a disabled person to live within three-quarters of a mile of a bus stop to be eligible for DART.
She said the DART bus goes right by her house on the way to a bus stop but won’t pick up her son.
“I’ve been to the Legislature about what a waste it is to do that sort of thing,” Eva Gantala said. “Especially to do that to people who are disabled is terrible.”
The cuts to the rural bus program were made in response to state budget deficits, legislators have said. Some of the cuts came in the transportation budget, some in the budget for adult day health programs. Senior Services used the health funding to drive people to those programs and picked up others along the way.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
