Feud May Ground Riders Battle Keeps Tax-Supported Public Transportation Stalled In Benewah County

A bitter feud between non-profit groups threatens to leave St. Maries senior citizens where they were a year ago - stuck at home.

An attempt by two groups to bring tax-supported public transportation to Benewah County last spring has collapsed amid cries of mismanagement and accusations of callousness toward riders.

Some say the battle between North Idaho Community Express (NICE) and Valley Vista Care Center highlights a problem facing the Panhandle’s outlying areas: Increasingly scarce federal transportation dollars are funneled through one provider who spends the money in Coeur d’Alene, Kellogg and Sandpoint.

Meanwhile, public transportation in the rest of North Idaho scratches by primarily on private funds or even scarcer local dollars. NICE gobbles up all the money but is accused of not providing enough service.

“Rural areas are least able to afford transportation but are usually the places that need it most,” said Charles Zook, a regional transportation advisory committee member who threatened to quit over the dispute.

NICE director Aaron Knight said that before he took over transit six years ago, all the Panhandle’s share of transportation funds was being spent in Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint. Now, he has expanded to rural Kootenai County and Kellogg as federal dollars were drying up.

“We’re scrambling for crumbs out there,” he said.

Caught in the middle are frustrated seniors such as Dorothy Charles, 73, who now faces losing a short-lived freedom.

Early last year, Charles left her St. Maries home only once a week - when a friend drove her to the salon and grocery store. But starting last March, she rode public vans daily to a volunteer Hospice job and could shop at her leisure.

“It’s been a godsend,” Charles said of the van. “It makes you feel so much better than sitting at home all the time.

“We’ve needed it for so long. It’d be terrible if they took it away.”

But that’s exactly what’s happening. NICE has cut daily trips in St. Maries to once a week and Valley Vista Care Center expects soon to halt van service altogether.

It’s a conflict that began with cooperation last March.

Valley Vista, a retirement center offering in-home meals and other services, contracted with NICE to provide public transportation to its residents. Vista director Scott Burpee provided a driver and office space.

In July, NICE fired the popular driver, kicking off a series of skirmishes.

Burpee complained NICE employees refused to help elderly passengers on and off the van. Knight said Burpee expected his driver to take patients to their rooms and help transport medical records.

“We’re not care-givers; we’re drivers,” Knight said.

By December, an angry Burpee started running his own transportation. That prompted Knight to pull out of St. Maries and start public transportation in less-populated Plummer.

Burpee asked the state for $15,000 in federal money to keep his fledgling program alive. An answer is expected in coming weeks.

Knight, who typically gets the lion’s share of that money, opposed the request. That may hold sway with the state because federal funding normally is channeled to one provider.

Larry Falkner, the state’s public transportation chief, said grant decision-makers often look to Knight to see if he supports other proposals.

Critics say that support rarely is offered.

“It’s very hard to support his (Burpee’s) application when we’re applying for money, too,” Knight said.

NICE collected $150,000 in transportation grants last year to help fund its half-million-dollar operation. NICE carried 63,000 riders in Kootenai County and 36,000 in Shoshone and Bonner counties.

But it carried only a handful in Benewah and none in Boundary County. Other non-profit transportation providers such as Beverly Bailey in Boundary County and Lois Porter in Shoshone - each of whom carried 6,000 riders last year - complain they can’t get transportation money because NICE is getting it all.

“We’ve applied for those grants before, but we know we won’t get them,” said Porter, who runs a Silver Valley senior center. “Yet, when NICE gets the money, (Knight) doesn’t have to use it in our community.”

Kellogg businesses paid for three “trolley buses” for Knight, but some residents are miffed now that at least one is used in Coeur d’Alene.

Knight pointed out that the trolley advertises Silver Mountain and that the other two still carry skiers to and from Kellogg businesses.

Bailey said her service is “pretty much the only way people with no transportation of their own can get in and out of the county.” She runs her operation on a shoestring - $25,000 a year - and gets only $10,000 in federal funds from the Area Agency on Aging.

Supporters say Knight spends money wisely. His cost is about $5 per ride - the same as Porter’s and Bailey’s.

Falkner said Knight does a great job, and his agency this week offered to meet with Burpee and Knight to find a solution.

Meanwhile, Benewah County commissioners want the state to reserve transportation funds for groups other than NICE.

“We feel strongly that it would be a mistake to continue to fund NICE for our county,” wrote Commissioner Jack Buell.

Elderly riders are keeping their fingers crossed.

“I heard we might lose our rides,” Charles said. “I’ve been praying it isn’t true.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo