Deer Park-Spokane Bus Service Proposed In/Around: Deer Park

Dan Birdsall has been waiting a while to catch a bus.

Since seeing 1990 census information on the number of people in the state who commuted alone, the Deer Park resident has worked to extend public transportation to the town of 2,700 people 25 miles north of Spokane.

“It was something like three-quarters of a million people who drive to work by themselves … and their average commute was something like 22 miles each,” said Birdsall, who organized a telephone opinion poll of Deer Park residents last fall that found favorable response to bus service.

“You get to thinking about energy and all that. (Public transportation) makes sense.”

His work has paid off. At the request of Spokane County officials, the Spokane Transit Authority is drawing up proposed trip times for bus service between Deer Park and the Fairwood park and ride stop.

The route is still in the planning stages and must be approved by the STA board, which will consider the route at its August meeting. The STA has rarely expanded its service area, so the request is unusual, according to STA official Christine Fueston.

A $54,300 state Department of Transportation grant was given to the county in July for bus service to Deer Park.

But the grant was one-third of the amount requested by the county to pay for weekday service for two years. As a result, planners are going back to the drawing board to calculate how much service $54,300 will buy.

According to Fueston, it likely will buy a trial period in which the STA will provide a five-times-per-day service from Deer Park to the Fairwood park-and-ride lot at Hastings and Mill roads. Other routes connect Fairwood with downtown Spokane.

Currently STA has dial-a-ride services for elderly and handicapped people. Fueston was unsure how those would be effected.

She also said fares for regular service may be higher than the standard 75 cents for a one-way trip.

If the new route turned out to be “wildly successful” during the trial period, Fueston said, it probably would stay.

Last fall, a telephone survey of 700 Deer Park residents found that 82 percent of respondents felt a need for bus service and 56 percent were willing to pay for it.

If the route were made permanent, Deer Park residents would need to approve a .3 percent increase in sales tax. Spokane approved a similar tax in 1981.

Birdsall, who has been the Deer Park football announcer for 25 years, said the tax might be a tough sell in rural Deer Park because many residents shop in Spokane.

“If I go down to Spokane (and shop), I’m paying for bus service.”

, DataTimes