CLAREMONT — Riders on a Sullivan County Transportation bus on Thursday afternoon had different reasons for their trip, but they had the same opinion of the service: It’s first-rate and a necessity.
“No way could we do without this bus service,” Victoria Keeton said emphatically. Keeton was riding the bus to Valley Regional Hospital.
Fellow passenger Scott Blanchette was on his way from his home on Charlestown Road to lunch on Washington Street.
“I depend on it most of the time,” Blanchette said, as the bus made stops in Opera House Square and on Pleasant Street. “I use it for the post office, the bank, shopping and appointments at the hospital. I love it, and we really need it. A lot of people depend on it.”
Keeton recalled when previous operator suddenly stopped the service in September 2016, leaving her and hundreds of others feeling stranded.
“I was one of those who wrote to the governor, and we got it back,” Keeton said.
Southwestern Community Services, of Keene, which provides other social services in Sullivan County, stepped in and restarted the public bus service about month after it was halted. And while that was good news, Southwester’s Chief Development Officer Keith Thibault said the service would be short-lived if there was not full financial support from the county and all three communities the bus serves — Charlestown, Claremont and Newport — which in turn ensures matching federal dollars.
Coupled with donations from several charitable organizations, the service now is not only on firm financial footing but is reviewing some ambitious expansion plans if additional funding becomes available.
“These are plans we would love to do but they may not come to fruition if we don’t have the funding,” Terri Paige, transportation director for Sullivan County Transportation said this week.
SCT and the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission are holding a public forum on Friday, April 12, to present ideas for the transit system’s future. The meeting is from 2:30-4 p.m. in the community room of Claremont Savings Bank.
The recommendations — short-, mid- and long-term — were developed in response to surveys and workshops.
Short-term recommendations included route maps, easy-to-read color-coded schedules, increasing the allowable deviation from the established route, five trips a day to River Valley Community College and extending service on the Claremont routes an hour and 15 minutes to 6:40 p.m. Some of the ideas would not require more money. However, the complete list of short-term recommendations, including benches and shelters at some stops and increasing service options in Newport and Charlestown, carry an additional operating cost of $19,000 and a one-time capital cost of $125,750, according to SCT.
Currently, the service has four buses running five days a week, including three trips to Charlestown and six to Newport, has an annual ridership of nearly 23,000 and operates about 6,000 hours a year.
“We don’t drive so we need it,” said Kimberly and Coventry Cullipher, who were returning home from a shopping trip in Opera House Square.
The buses also have wheelchair lifts, which allowed Alan Peterson to ride to Walmart on Thursday to pick up some groceries.
Peterson said the drivers always are very accommodating.
“The Charlestown driver one day said he was free, so he took me home,” Peterson said. “They always take you where you want to go.”
Paige credits the leadership and the experience of Southwestern Community Services for getting the service up and running again.
“SCS is well-entrenched in the communities it serves,” Paige said. “We have a good record and with our networking were able to get the funds for the federal match.”
SCT worked with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and brought in experts in the field of public transportation.
Key to the success was getting financial backing from Claremont. While Newport, which has doubled its contribution to $10,000 annually, and Charlestown gave $14,000 each year, the city did not contribute until Thibault made a direct appeal to the City Council saying the support is needed for the service to be sustainable.
“They came forward and contributed for the first time in years,” Paige said. “That was significant.”
Claremont’s $30,000 plus $50,000 from the county — double what it gave previously — amounted to enough local funding for the service to seek federal money, Paige said.
Donations were provided by the Newport Service Organization, Sullivan County United Way, the Charitable Foundation of Newport and other groups.
Responses to the outreach effort showed that evening, weekend and early-morning service routes to the Upper Valley and other Sullivan County towns would be desirable, but those carry significant capital and operating costs.
“Right now we can’t go to Lebanon and back on Route 120 because the funds are just not there,” Paige said, citing one idea that is often mentioned.
Growth may come one day, but in the meantime, Paige said, it is important to keep the current service running efficiently.
“We have incredible drivers and are really invested in the community so we are sure everyone who needs a ride gets a ride,” Paige said.
Blanchette could not agree more with Paige. As he stepped off the bus for lunch, the driver told him he would be back in an hour.
“The drivers are always on time,” he said. “I have no complaints.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
