Claremont
“This will have a huge, huge impact on our building,” said Michelle Aiken, executive director of the Claremont Housing Authority, which has its Broad Street office in the Marion Phillips apartment building that serves low-income residents. “I believe the bus comes here at least a dozen times a day. They use it for shopping, going to the hospital and doctor appointments.”
Aiken said the building has 96 apartments but less than 50 parking spaces, suggesting about half of the residents do not have a vehicle.
“The service is one of the perks to living here,” she said
State Rep. John Cloutier, D-Claremont, said he was not surprised by the news because he had heard about the possibility that buses could stop running.
“It is a big blow to the city,” Cloutier said. “I am very disappointed. The service they provide to Claremont residents is critical. We need mass transit in Sullivan County.”
Community Alliance of Human Service issued a news release Thursday announcing the service would cease operations on Sept. 9.
The bus travels between Newport, Charlestown and Claremont while the volunteer driver program serves all 15 county communities.
“Due to the difficulty in securing local match over the last several years, CAHS now finds that is it unable to sustain current operations after Sept. 9, 2016,” the Alliance’s interim Executive Director Valerie Bailey said in the release.
The release made no mention of the finances or how much is needed to satisfy the match requirements, which provide one dollar of federal money for every dollar raised locally.
Calls to Bailey at her Newport office Friday were not immediately returned.
The release also said efforts are underway to find another transportation provider and the Alliance has been in discussions with the state Department of Transportation.
“The NHDOT, in partnership with the Governor’s office, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Service, the CAHS board of directors and regional and local stakeholders, are fully committed to finding another agency to take over this important transportation service,” said NHDOT Commissioner Victoria Sheehan in a statement on Friday.
DOT’s Public Information Officer Bill Boynton said it is premature to identify possible providers who could take over the service but they want to ensure “continuity of service” for those who depend on it.
The statement from the DOT said the Alliance provides about 30,000 trips a year for mostly seniors and those with disabilities for medical appointments, including cancer treatments and dialysis, employment, education, shopping and community-based activities.
Local funds provided by the three municipalities where there are routes, varies greatly.
Charlestown Town Administrator Dave Edkins said his town has budgeted $14,000 each year for the last few years for the transportation service, while in Newport voters have approved $5,000 in a separate article on the town warrant each year.
Claremont City Manager Guy Santagate has not recommended any social service agency spending in the city budget for a number of years, including this year, and the council has not put money back in the budget for that purpose. In last year’s budget, for the 12 months that ended June 30, $1,300 was approved for the bus service.
The county budget has included $25,000 per year for CATS.
Edkins also said in a phone interview on Friday that the Alliance recently terminated the $20,000 contract Charlestown paid for administration of its welfare program and will soon end the family service program in Charlestown for at-risk that is funded with $5,000 from the town.
Santagate said Friday the council will probably discuss the issue at its first meeting in September.
“I think we should talk about it because this is a very important service for seniors. If it goes away, it hurts,” Santagate said.
To the extent that the city could provide funding, Santagate said he thinks the council could “cobble something together,” but wants a clear explanation of the bus service’s finances and hopes Alliance officials will be at the council meeting.
“What kind of funding do they need, and is it permanent or just a one-time problem? We don’t want to fund something that is a dead issue,” he said. “We want to be able to help fix it.”
Barbara Brill, the former executive director of the Alliance, said she learned of the decision to end the bus service from her husband, who still works part-time for the Alliance.
“It just breaks my heart,” said Brill, who retired in May 2014.
Brill knew none of the details regarding the funding issue but said raising money locally takes a lot of work.
“I was pretty aggressive. It is not easy to raise the local match,” Brill said. “Part of the difficulty is that this is a rural area.”
Brill often attended annual town meetings to plead with voters to support funding and also raised money through events and appealed to local service organizations including the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Newport Service Organization.
She said the 50 percent federal match covers the operations budget for the service but additional money is needed for administration.
Long-term, Cloutier said he will push for more mass transit funding from the Legislature.
“If we can support rail service in southern New Hampshire, we can do more for Sullivan County,” he said.
Aiken, the Claremont Housing Authority’s executive director, said she hopes something can be done to save the service.
“If there is anything we can do, we will do it,” Aiken said. “We need this service.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
