Public transportation gearing up in area

DOVER — A new era of public transportation starts Monday.

That’s when residents of Dover, Sandpoint, Ponderay and Kootenai will be able to arrange rides to anywhere within the limits of those four cities for $2 per trip. The on-demand public transportation service is not available to residents who live outside the limits of those four cities.

Dover has come to be a driving force behind the effort to establish public transportation. The city obtained grant funding through the $147,000 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act to purchase and operate a bus for its residents.

“We got that grant and the responsible thing to do was get a bus out there as quickly as we can,” said Mayor Randy Curless.

Implementation of the service comes in the wake of the abrupt demise of the North Idaho Community Express, a non-profit which lost its federal funding late last year.

The on-demand service will be in place for the next two months, at which time a fixed-route system is forecasted to be implemented, Curless said.

The fixed-route system will be free of charge to riders.

Dover city officials originally intended to implement an on-demand bus service for its residents, but subsequently discovered the cities of Kootenai, Ponderay and Sandpoint were interested in being on the trolley of public transportation.

Dover subsequently secured a $220,000 Federal Transit Administration grant through the Idaho Transportation Department to develop a fixed-route system. The cities of Ponderay and Sandpoint put up $140,000 and $30,000, respectively, as local matches for the FTA grant.

“We’re getting there. We’re getting tremendous response from the cities,” said Curless, adding that Dover has also reached out to local businesses and employers receptive to the idea of public transit.

It’s ultimately hoped the system can become more self sustaining and less reliant on grant funding, said Curless.

The first bus pressed into service will be an 18-passenger vehicle equipped a wheelchair lift, a vehicle that was owned by ITD and utilized by NICE. Curless said a second bus is being manufactured and others with knowledge of the project said arrangements are in the works to secure up to two more buses. The additional buses will aid the disabled in getting to locations within three-quarters of a mile from the bus route.

Curless said the system can also be utilized to get people to and from their jobs, a boon in a limping economy where residents’ dollars are being stretched.

“It’s the right time,” said Marion Johnson, a transportation manager hired by the city of Dover to help coordinate efforts to provide public transit.

Some contend the project represents the first municipally-administered public transportation project in Bonner County.