RENA DELBRIDGE Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Monday, April 16, 2007 12:00 am
DOUGLAS - A group of social service agencies is evaluating the need for additional public transportation around Douglas and to places including Glenrock and Casper.
People who would like to use public transportation are encouraged to come to a public meeting in May, organized by the senior citizens center, to see how the community can best address their needs.
"The hope is to get everyone who is interested in transportation to the meeting," Douglas Senior Center Director Kathy Matson said. A meeting date has not been set. "We just want to see what they have to say."
Based on the needs, Matson said she would write a transportation plan for the community and submit it to the state, which often funds such endeavors through a federal program. Possible partners to the senior center's transportation program could include other service providers in Douglas, as well as transportation providers such as Powder River Transportation buses.
"We are actively pursuing communities that would like to talk about having some additional transportation," said Mary Kelley, marketing director for Powder River Transportation. Community meetings work well because people can tell her directly what they need, and she can explain the economic, scheduling and other factors that play into the company's decisions.
Powder River is working on establishing more routes among Wyoming communities, she said, citing the Big Horn Basin Transportation Authority as a sort of template. Buses run on a circuit among Cody, Powell, Lovell and other cities, hooking up with transit to Billings, Casper and Denver.
In Douglas, the need is primarily to fill in on evenings and weekends when the senior center buses are garaged, and to accommodate more frequent trips to Casper, Matson said.
In many cities, as in Douglas, federal funds for transportation have been routed through senior centers because older people are often those with the greatest need. The senior center's low-fee public transportation program involves two buses which run on appointment from about 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays.
Sometimes, one bus is tied up delivering meals to home-bound people. Once a month the center offers a daylong trip to Casper, dropping riders off for medical appointments, shopping and the like.
But that's just not enough to meet the needs of many other people in Douglas, some social service agency officials say.
"I would really like to see it be a whole part of the economic development plan for the city of Douglas and for Converse County," said Chesie Lee, director of the Converse County Coalition Against Violence. Many of her organization's clients have transportation needs to jobs and appointments.
While the senior center is doing "the best it can with limited resources," the restricted hours of operation make it difficult for people working night jobs, going to Alcoholics Anonymous and other evening meetings, or running evening errands, such as to the grocery store, Lee said.
"We really need to look at transportation needs," she added. "I don't think there's been a serious commitment to do that."
Her organization, along with many others including the senior center, is represented on the Human Resource Council. Bob Shinmori, chairman of the council, said transportation is a priority, and that the group is working closely with the senior center to identify needs.
He's encouraging clients where he works, Solutions for Life, and at other agencies to speak up. Typically, those needing low-cost public transportation are also those who may be disenfranchised with government-type systems, and may not usually attend public meetings. But when they do, "it has a lot more impact," he said.
While seeking new options for Douglas, Shinmori wants the Human Resource Council to help coordinate schedules with public transportation in Glenrock and even Casper. New rules and regulations governing state and federally funded transportation projects are anticipated from the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and may help identify areas to collaborate, he added. That could involve pooling transportation funds from individual agencies.
Lee hopes that once all groups involved can get together and listen to people's needs, solutions can be reached. Those may not be the obvious ones, she said. For example, a cab service partially subsidized by service agencies or grants may be more feasible than a bus for in-town needs, while mass transit could work at peak times and for more regular trips to Casper.
She anticipates the need will only grow as fuel prices increase and the costs of new cars, insurance and maintenance also rise.