Local transit system picks up drivers, two buses

Tim Leeds Havre Daily News [email protected]

The public transportation system set to go into operation Monday, Aug. 24, has two drivers on hand, who are in Bozeman today checking over two buses they will bring back to Havre Wednesday. The system is planning to celebrate the first day of operations. “The 24th is going to be a very interesting day,” Jim Lyons, director of the North Central Montana Transit system, said during a board meeting Monday. “We all get to be part of a first.” Lyons was hired in June as the system's director. The bus service will provide free busing from Havre to the Fort Belknap Agency and Box Elder and communities in between, and provide transportation to and around Great Falls a couple of times a week. The program has been funded through the Montana Department of Transportation, a $75,000 start-up grant, and $227,000 through the federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to purchase three buses, expected to arrive the first quarter of 2010. Becky Farr of Opportunity Link, the Havrebased anti-poverty organization that wrote the grant applications and had been spearheading the drive to create a free public transit system, said a celebration for the first day of operations is being organized. Other celebrations will be planned later for the other communities the system will serve, Farr said. Lyons and the two bus drivers, Don Waldron And Bruce James, were headed to Bozeman today to pick up and check two buses the transit system has leased to use in the interim. Lyons said Monday the three would check over and prepare the buses before driving them back to Havre. The two buses will serve temporarily, he said one a yellow school bus and the other a white bus until permanent vehicles arrive. He said that by the time they get back to Havre, a lease could be finalized to house the buses, at the old Ford-New Holland building on the east end of town. Barb Stiffarm, Opportunity Link executive director, said negotiations are under way to obtain more buses, both leased buses for the startup of the system and permanent buses with which to replace them. Opportunity Link has applied for more grants to help with the funding, she said. The group is asking for help from local governments and entities to help with the startup of the system and its continuation. It has asked for a commitment for $30,000 from several groups for the first year, which Stiffarm said would reduce in future years as the MDT funding increases. Several groups have said they would pay the $30,000 if seven sources of funding can be found, including Opportunity Link, Hill County, Blaine County, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and Montana State University- Northern. The group has asked the Havre city government to commit to the $30,000 as well. The city has not made a decision. Schedules for the buses have not been finalized, with Lyons saying driving the buses back to Havre may give some ideas of adjustments which may be needed to those schedules. Lyons said he plans to release the schedules later this week. The plan has been for several daily runs to transport passengers to and from Fort Belknap and Box Elder to Havre, making stops in Harlem and Chinook on the easterly run, with stops at locations around Havre. Each run would include several stops in Havre, such as at Wal-Mart and Kmart, the Holiday Village Mall, Northern Montana Hospital, Montana State University-Northern, and a stop or stops downtown. The bus would return along the route, with passengers able to get on that bus or wait until one of the later runs. Lyons said he has negotiated an agreement for a stop at the old IGA parking lot, at 15 W. 1st St., to use as a spot where people could park their vehicles and ride the bus. The plans also included two runs a week from Havre to Great Falls, with the buses making several stops in Great Falls and returning later in the day to pick up passengers at those stops and return them to Havre. Marketing for the effort also is under way, with a Web site up and being updated, posters being displayed throughout the region and brochures printed to be distributed with the schedules. The marketing includes a Facebook page, he added. The initial interest has been high, Lyons said, and he has been receiving numerous daily calls asking about the start and planned scheduling of the system. When he has traveled through the communities talking to people and government representatives about stop locations and scheduling, the same has been true. “Everybody's very excited,” Lyons said. “They have been very supportive and easy to do business with. “I think the time is right. There are a lot of reasons public transportation is right and especially right for this area,” he added. On the Net: North Central Montana Transit: http://www.ncmtransit. org