By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
OAK HARBOR — The buses have begun to roll.
Using a $268,941 grant from the state Department of Transportation, Island Transit has restarted bus service between Oak Harbor and Skagit County. The route, which proved popular with off-island workers and students at Skagit Community College, was shut down in December 1999 after voters approved Initiative 695 and blew a huge hole in Island Transit’s budget.
Bus service to Skagit County — six round trips every weekday and five on Saturday — resumed on July 30. Today, state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-10th District, will present Island Transit with a Rural Mobility Grant check that covers the state’s portion of the $578,226 cost of the bus service.
Island Transit will pay the remaining $309,285, which will keep the buses rolling through June 2003.
Island Transit officials were excited about getting the grant money.
"We were just beside ourselves," said Martha Rose, executive director of Island Transit.
The agency spent six years putting together and planning a link between the Island and Skagit transit systems, she said. And in the six months that it ran, about 200 people a day used the service.
With the loss of motor vehicle excise taxes and related funds, however, Island Transit had to cancel routes and lay off 13 employees. The agency scrambled to set up carpools for students who were still in school.
Now, Island Transit will explore ways to keep the restored routes running after June 2003. That may mean tweaking some routes with fewer riders or other changes, which will happen after community input is considered, Rose said.
"We’re just looking at different options and playing it by ear," Rose said, "and thrilled to death we got the service back."
You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.
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