The Bus Doesn’t Stop Here

Emmet County spent millions to replace its functioning nonprofit ambulance service and build an observatory at the Dark Sky Park — but can't seem to find a dollar for a dedicated public transit system.

By Patrick Sullivan | Sept. 23, 2017

Soren Hauter found out last winter how hard it is to get around Emmet County if you don’t have a car.

“I was having car issues because I had a $300 car, because that’s what I could afford at the time, and it did not make it through the winter at all,” said the 26-year-old Petoskey resident.

Hauter’s house is two miles from the Meijer store where he works. He walked to and from work along roads made for cars, not pedestrians.

“I mean, I’m from downstate, the Clare-Isabella area, and they have great public transportation,” he said. “When I moved up here, it was culture shock.”

Hauter saved up some money, bought a better car, and shouldn’t face the same fate this winter. Still, even as a young, low-wage worker, he said he is willing to pay for better public transportation.

“I know a couple of people that don’t have a car, that have to arrange rides to work every day,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t use it, because I have reliable transportation now, but I have no problem supporting it, paying a little extra in my taxes.”

INSUFFICIENT SERVICE
It is remarkable that there is no public transit system in Emmet County, which boasts a population of more than 30,000. An advocacy group has pushed for one for two decades. Numerous studies have shown that it’s needed, and the public supports it. And there is no population center even near the size of the Petoskey-Harbor Springs area in Michigan that doesn’t offer at least a dial-a-ride.

There are two limited public transportation services operating in the county. The senior resource agency Friendship Center offers dial-a-ride bus service for the elderly and the disabled, and Straits Regional Ride, based in Cheboygan, sends buses infrequently into Emmet County.

Members of the advocacy group, which goes by the acronym FEET — short for Friends Enhancing Emmet Transit — believe what’s currently available isn’t suitable for people who need to get to work, or even for seniors who have regular medical needs, said Martha Lancaster, a retired health and human services administrator.

“I’ve talked to some seniors from Harbor Springs, and they can get a bus ride to go to a doctor’s appointment, but then they may need to wait many hours before the bus is ready to take them back home. They can do that, but it’s a very difficult day for them,” Lancaster said. “More frequent service would be great, but the Friendship Center is doing the best it can with the resources that it has.”

Lisa Hoig, project director for transportation and Meals On Wheels at the Friendship Center, agreed that the service is for people who have flexible schedules. Hoig said the Friendship Center supports FEET’s goals and would happily have its service absorbed into a larger, more comprehensive system.

A LONG AND WINDING ROAD
For two decades, as the advocates have fought for public transit, county officials have put it off.

There’s never been a campaign against public transportation, really; there’s simply been a consensus among county commissioners that public transit was not worth raising taxes.
Under former county boards, a three-person committee met sporadically over the years to look at the issue, seemingly as a means to keep public transit off the agenda while giving cover against accusations that they were ignoring the issue.

“There was no interest,” Lancaster said. “There was clearly not an interest from the former several county commissions for expanding transit in Emmet County, and that probably goes back 20 years.”

Over the years, the advocates repeatedly attempted to demonstrate that there is a need for public transit, and that people wanted it. That effort, year after year, fell on deaf ears.
“They weren’t convinced there was a need, despite our best efforts and a lot of documentation,” Lancaster said.

The advocates won their first tangible show of support from a 2005 study that revealed, in fact, Emmet County did need better public transit. The group presented a plan to the commission in 2006 and it got tabled. 

“They just said, ‘It’s not something we’re interested in,’” Lancaster recalled. “And over the years the community kept coming back and saying, ‘Hey, how about this?’ They kept saying, ‘Not something we’re interested in.’”

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC
The issue was put off for five more years — until commissioners decided that the survey data was too old and no longer valid.

The advocates refreshed the survey in 2012, paying an expert to update the study.
Even with survey results that pointed to widespread support for public transit, the board was still not willing to move forward.

Lancaster recalled that former county board member Les Atchison said at a meeting that he didn’t want to allow a vote for a transportation millage because he was afraid it would succeed.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to put this on the ballot because I think it would pass, and I think some people would have a hard time paying it and would be unhappy about it,’” she said.
Atchison, interviewed via email, agreed he said something to that effect.
He said he believes the current limited system of public transportation meets the needs of the county.

He said expanded public transit would depend too much on subsidization. He said that study found that public transit fares are heavily subsidized, and only a small percent of the population would use public transportation.

“It gives pause for serious consideration,” he wrote. “My opposition was again, trying to protect the working poor and elderly home owners from new burden.”

MOST WANT A VOTE
The advocates said that when current board chairman Charlie MacInnis was elected, he seemed to break from tradition and actually considered public transit seriously. For the first time, the volunteers said they believed they might have someone on their side.

The renewed enthusiasm led to a new study, which was conducted in 2015 and showed that three-fourths of county residents supported putting the question to a popular vote, even if not everyone said they would vote yes for a millage.

By last year, advocates believed something was going to happen, and then nothing did.
“They played out the clock,” FEET volunteer Scott Smith said.

“The old board really were all elected on a ‘We’re-not-going-to-raise-your-taxes-platform,’” Lancaster said. “And we tried to say, ‘Fine. Don’t raise our taxes. But let us vote on whether we want to raise our own taxes.’”

Proponents note that a transit system wouldn’t merely raise taxes; transit could grow the economy. It would bring in a lot of state and federal funding — as much as 56 percent would be paid from out-of-region funds.

Amanda Swiss, the transportation planner for the Little Traverse Band of Odawa Indians, which supports the creation of a countywide public transit system, said the tribe would be able to apply for grants that the county couldn’t.

Swiss, who has worked in her position for three years, said it is frustrating that things aren’t moving faster, but she believes Emmet County is closer to getting public transit today than it was when she started her job.

It’s not just the tribe that wants public transit expanded. McLaren Northern Michigan supports it, along with Boyne resorts and many other employers, Lancaster said.

A NEW HOPE
Last November, all of the county board incumbents except MacInnis were either swept from office or did not seek re-election.

That signaled to the advocates a new opportunity, and they expected public transit to be on the top of the agenda. That’s not what happened.

It turned out that public transit was not a priority in the new board’s first year. Lancaster and Smith said the incumbents were ousted because people were upset about the cost of the county taking over the ambulance service and the cost of building an observatory at the Headlands International Dark Sky Park. Both projects cost millions more than expected and neither was put before voters.

“A lot of it was just the amount of it — it was excessive. I mean, those two projects in my view as a voter, are fine things, but they cost more than they needed to,” Lancaster said.

“Then there was this other service that quite a lot of people want, and we didn’t get a chance to make our voices heard on that.”

MacInnes said he has not changed his position on transit. He still supports it. There’s just been too many other things the board must handle first.

“The ambulance service costs far more than expected. Dark Sky is so much more expensive than was ever planned, and the money was borrowed without a vote on the project,” MacInnes said. “I’m as enthusiastic as I was before. There’s no questions there’s a need, but we have to address basic governance issues in the county before we can take on a new initiative.”

DETAILS CAUSE TURF WAR
Even with a board that is ostensibly in favor of public transit, making just a little progress has proved difficult this year.

Smith, who ran for county commission last year as an independent, teamed up with the Republican who beat him in an effort to get the board to move forward at least a little on public transit this year. Commissioner John Stakoe is new to the Emmet County board, but he’s not new to politics. He was a township official in Oakland County and served as a state house rep from 2003 to 2008 before he moved to Petoskey.

He said he teamed up with Smith because he agrees that Emmet County needs public transit, and he wanted to find a way to create a small pilot project so that transit could get a foothold in the county. 

He and Smith proposed at the August board meeting that the county contract with Charlevoix Transit to provide service in the Petoskey and Harbor Springs area.

“That’s where all the people are — the college says they could use it, the hospital,” Stakoe said. “That seemed like the logical area to start.”

That proposal, however, was waylaid by Toni Drier, the commissioner who represents the county’s townships that are furthest north and most rural. She objected to entering into an agreement with Charlevoix when the county already contracts for limited service with Straits Regional Ride in Cheboygan.

The dispute demonstrates how sorting out the details of a transit system can lead to turf wars. Stakoe and Smith thought it made sense to propose a small expansion in the area of the county that is most populated, and they were caught off guard by objections from Drier and the Straits director Michael Couture.

Drier didn’t return a message seeking comment. Couture said he thought he should have been given a heads up about the negotiations with Charlevoix because Straits already operates in Petoskey.

“They did kind of catch me off guard,” Couture said.

At the meeting, according to the minutes, Stakoe said he was finished working with the board on public transit.

“I became fairly frustrated,” Stakoe said later. “That was just exasperation. I mean, I’m still involved. And I’m going to continue to be involved.”

HOPE FOR A PUBLIC TRANSIT MILLAGE
Lancaster still hopes that the county board will put a millage on the ballot someday.
She said she’s worried that a small pilot program could fail. Also, it would mean that once again Emmet County is embarking on a potentially expensive project without going to voters for approval.

Extending Charlevoix Transit into Emmet County would mean that there would be three bus services operating in Petoskey, and that could be so confusing that folks who would otherwise take a bus might not bother.

“I think that’s going to be really confusing for potential riders and could be duplicative,” Lancaster said. “Three different numbers to call, three different fare structures, three different kinds of buses on the road, possibly.”

If the county embarks on a pilot program, she said, plans should be spelled out on how the service will expand over time, and preparations for a millage should be in place with an eye toward the creation of a regional service within a decade.

Jim Moore, executive director at the Disability Network in Traverse City, said he’s been working with the advocate group for at least a decade.

In the entire state, there isn’t a population center like Petoskey that lacks public transit, he said. The only other county in the region that lacks public transit is Missaukee (home to Lake City, near Cadillac), which has a population of less than half of Emmet's.

A look at the other transit systems in the area proves how much it’s needed in Emmet, he said. Straits Transit nowadays completes 5,000 rides per year in Emmet County. That may sound like a lot, but in Charlevoix County, which has a dedicated transit service and three-fourths the population of Emmet, the system provides 111,000 rides per year.

“We know that there is nothing magical about Emmet County. I think the need has been pretty well documented,” Moore said. “There are a number of people who don’t have cars or the ability to drive, and for those individuals, it’s an important, critical life service.”

K.T. Villarreal, assistant manager at Beards Brewery in Petoskey, said for the young service workers in Petoskey, a regional public transit system would be incredible.

There isn’t a lot of affordable housing in Petoskey, so the ability to get around without having to have a car would greatly expand the housing choices for a lot of people.

“I’m pretty young, so I can’t really afford to buy a house, especially around here. But I’d love to, so right now I live in Boyne City,” she said. “I drive like 30 minutes to come here to work. That’s a lot of gas.”