Transit system hears complaint about Harlem

A Blaine County commissioner said during North Central Montana Transit Transit’s Advisory Committee Annual Meeting Thursday that although Blaine County still supports the system, they have lost hope in receiving a new stop in Harlem.

“We wish we could have that stop,” Commissioner Dolores Plumage said. “We have given up on it, we have lost hope, we are not going to ask any more. You have got all your answers, all your rules, thank you, we understand.”

The anti-poverty nonprofit Opportunity Link Inc. started North Central Montana Transit in 2009. Since then, it has started lines that run from Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy’s Indian reservations to and back from Havre with stops at points in between and a twice-a-week route to Great Falls.

The system far exceeded expected ridership from the start.

Plumage said Thursday that Blaine County commissioners wanted to speak with the board of directors that oversees North Central Montana Transit. She said that the commissioners have written several letters to the transit system and directly to Opportunity Link Executive Director Barbara Stiffarm requesting a stop be added on Main Street in Harlem. These letters, she said, have been met with the transit denying the request.

North Central Montana Transit has one scheduled stop in Harlem located at the EZ Mart on U.S. Highway 2.

Plumage said that, because there is no stop on Main Street in Harlem, people have to walk during hazardous road conditions in order to ride the transit system.

“We have our letter to you that we support the system, but basically we are getting a no from you at every turn and we acknowledge that,” she said.

Stiffarm said that they have spoken regarding this issue, before, although a new stop or creating a new route is impossible at the time. She said in order to add a new route they would have to hire an engineering team to do a safety study and submit the route to the state for approval. The transit system did that when setting up the original routes at great cost, she said, adding that the transit system just doesn’t have funding to add a new route.

She said that they have an agreement with Harlem City Hall to pick up riders at that location if riders call a day in advance to schedule when they are picked up. She added that she has advertised this on posters in Harlem, but the most recent poster were stolen and she has not advertised due to weather conditions.

Plumage said that they have heard a variety of different excuses, such as funding, ridership numbers and regulations before and still felt as if they had not made a solid point why the stop could not be placed on Main Street.

Stiffarm said she has spoken with the commissioners before, as well as the senior center and other groups regarding a stop in Harlem. She said due to low ridership numbers the system is unable to justify placing a new stop.

“If there is a need, we are trying to meet those needs,” she said.

Plumage said ridership numbers are down because there is no stop and there would be an increase if one were placed on Main Street.

She added that, because they contribute, the people of Harlem who ride the transit system should be considered fairly. She said she doesn’t understand why the route through Rocky Boy could be changed so easily, but the Harlem route cannot.

North Central Montana Transit Director Tom Lowe said that the transit system will be changing their Rocky Boy route due to riders not arriving to locations on time, not adding or subtracting stops but reversing the route so it starts at the Rocky Boy Health Clinic rather than at Rocky Boy High School.

He said changing the actual route would have to be approved by the state and by their insurance company before any action is taken or risk having to lose their insurance or changing the definition of the transit system.

Opportunity Link Chief Financial Officer Susann Tharp said that, last year, the transit’s insurance was canceled for a period of time because North Central Montana Transit was not a big enough bus system. She said they do have insurance with the same company, although they had to be sub-routed due to the size of the company.

Any deviation that is made, she said, creates a threat of canceling insurance or having to change the definition of the transit system.

“We are in desperate need of buses,” she said.

She added that she is working on a few capital grant requests asking to add to the transit system’s aging fleet.

Stiffarm said the process itself is long and tedious. She said the transit system does not use tax dollars but is paid by member fees and rider fees and grants. With its aging fleet, she said, the transit is unable to operate smoothly. Even the grant the system applied for only reimburses it 48 cents on every dollar spent, she said, and the amount over what is paid by member and rider fees will have to come from fundraising.

Lowe said the transit system’s funds are low, with fewer people, communities and organizations contributing than before.

“Our support dollars have gone down just about every year since we started,” he said. “We can only tolerate that so long until we have to do something different.”

Tharp said the area has a need for a transit system, with 40 percent of their ridership not having vehicles.

In 2018 more than 18,000 people used the transit system

So far this year, North Central Montana Transit has served 2,461 people in the Fort Belknap, Harlem, Chinook, Havre and Rocky Boy communities.

Through Wednesday, that included 1,002 passengers on the Red Line from Havre to Fort Belknap and back. The line includes the stops at Fort Belknap Kwik Stop, Harlem EZ Mart and Chinook Town Pump.

January’s Red Line numbers were 621, 25 more than January 2018.

Plumage said Blaine County has been a supporter of the transit system since the beginning originally donating $20,000 to the system. Over the years though, she said, they dropped their contribution down to $10,000 and now $5,000.

Stiffarm said that the transit system is still grateful for the $5,000 donation and hopes they will continue in the future.

Plumage said they will not be cutting funds.

“We do support (the transit system),” she said. “… We’ll give you something but I want something.”

Plumage said she wants more people to be interested in the transit system and the way to do that is by adding a stop on Main Street in Harlem.