SPOT bus launches in Bonners Ferry

BONNERS FERRY — After much discussion, even more planning, and a one-week delay while paperwork for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) made the rounds, the Boundary County SPOT bus launched April 15.

True to his word, Boundary County commissioner Walt Kirby took the first ride on the bus, accompanied by his wife Jane.

“This really is a day to remember,” Kirby said. “We’ve been working on this for more than a year. It’s so important to have something like this in Boundary County.”

Charlie Best was the first resident to take a trip on the bus April 15. He was signed up for a ride April 8 but since the MOU had not been signed by the city of Dover (under whom the transit system is overseen) and Boundary County, Best had to wait a week to catch a ride from his Jenni Lane apartment to the Kootenai River Inn.

“It took you long enough,” Best ribbed Commissioner Kirby. “I was going to bring you guys a pen.”

“We’ve been joking that this will be a complete success when the paperwork weighs as much as the bus,” Kirby quipped.

All joking aside, Best has been anticipating being able to use the bus again since it was sidelined from Senior Center use in 2013. He expects to continue using it every day the bus runs, and has been telling all his neighbors about it.

“We need to have flyers all over town,” he says. “It really needs to be advertised more. Not enough people know about it yet.”

SPOT stands for Selkirks-Pend Oreille Transit, and is a nonprofit venture through the city of Dover that provides free mass transit services for the Sandpoint, Dover, Kootenai and Ponderay areas.

While the southern busses run a fixed route daily, the Bonners Ferry bus is a free three day a week on-call service.

Those needing a ride can call 267-4740 and make an appointment at least a day ahead of time to arrange for pickup. The bus will take them from their own doorstep to their destination, then back again. There will be a limited service area for the bus in the first year, including the city limits of Bonners Ferry to Labrosse Hill Road at the south end of town, and out to Tribal Headquarters west of Bonners Ferry.

At the outset, Wednesdays and Fridays are the local demand response days for in-town trips in Bonners Ferry. On Thursdays, those needing to take a trip to the Sandpoint area for things like doctors appointments, medication or other shopping can call the bus for that purpose.

On Thursdays only, the bus will be able to pick people up at the Three-mile junction of Highway 95 and Highway 2 for the trip to Bonner County.

Operating hours for the Bonners Ferry bus are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on local demand response days. The bus will be available for special trips on Tuesdays for the Senior Center, Restorium residents or any other group that would like to schedule a special trip.

Operating on grants from the Idaho Transportation Department and Area Agency on Aging, and local funding through the city of Bonners Ferry and Boundary County, there is no fee to ride the SPOT bus.

Donations will be accepted. An advisory board has been set up to oversee the service, take comment and to make changes and adjustments to the service as necessary. Connie Wells from the Bonners Ferry City Council, Walt Kirby from the Boundary County Commissioners, Duane Saunders from the Kootenai Tribe and Larry Dirks from the Boundary County Restorium board make up the advisory council.

Carol Kunzeman, mayor of the city of Ponderay is the liaison between the Boundary and Bonner county SPOT boards.

The bus SPOT will be using in Boundary County was received by the county from the Idaho Transportation Department and was previously in use for the Senior Center and Restorium.

The bus operated using funding from the Area Agency on Aging, but fell into disuse when the group stopped funding transportation. ITD told the county that if the bus wasn’t used, they would be taking it back. The State of Idaho receives funding from the federal government to fund public transportation, but Boundary County has not been using any of the funds so when the county applied for funding through the department, they got what they asked for. The one stipulation ITD had was that the bus had to be available for any of the public to use.

“That was a big step,” said David Sims, director of the Boundary Economic Development Council, who has been working with Susan Kiebert of Community Transportation Association of Idaho and others to get the bus up and running for more than a year.

Locals also had to come up with matching funds, so the Area Agency on Aging committed to helping fund the project, as well as the city of Bonners Ferry and Boundary County. Sims and Kiebert worked with SPOT and their manager Marion Johnson to start running the bus.

“It was nice to see the commitment from ITD to help us get the service up here,” Sims said. “Usually ridership starts slowly and builds. We hope that it starts out more quickly here. We have had a lot of interest.”

A kickoff celebration event should be scheduled later on in April. The ITD grant is a year-and-a-half cycle with renewal on two-year cycles. Continued funding and possible expansion for the service will depend on ridership. The advisory committee will be responsible for looking at what adjustments are needed for the service going forward.

The on-call contact number for the Boundary County bus is 267-4740.