Views - Rural Perspective

There's No "I" in Collaborate

Lyn Hellegaard
Director of Community Affairs
Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Association

Breaking the cycle of unemployment and isolation, while maintaining a traditional lifestyle, is complicated by a lack of reliable transportation. This issue is not new to any of Montana's Indian reservations. However, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of northwestern Montana are making amazing strides to reduce or eliminate this barrier for their communities.

Understand that these communities are made up of tribal and non-tribal members. For many years, segregation has been a mainstay of these communities. Tribal and non-tribal members each had a designated senior center resulting in many duplications of service. An effort is being made to merge the centers with the net result of better service to include access through a public transportation system.

The nearest major medical center is approximately 1 ½ hours away. With limited capital, human, and fiscal resources available, these trips constitute an undue burden on all area providers. Many times a trip to the medical center takes the only lift-equipped vehicle out of service for an entire day.

One goal of coordination is to devise a system where one agency's vehicle will make the trip one day per week, with an agreement to transport other participating agencies' clients. As a result, a single vehicle could transport a group rather than a single rider and free up vehicles to serve the local community.

One community, Elmo, experiences a 98 percent unemployment rate with no available transportation. CSKT negotiated an agreement with the Hot Springs Senior Center to provide driver salaries. Elmo residents are now transported to Hot Springs, approximately a 1-hour drive, allowing CSKT to provide additional service to other recipients. CSKT transports passengers to the Pablo Tribal Complex where the public assistance offices and the college are located.

Low-income housing has typically been constructed on rural dirt roads far from the main highways, employment, or educational sites. Many recipients are unable to hold driver licenses because of traffic violations. If they do have friends and/or family to transport them, they may need assistance with fuel expenses. If the individual does hold a driver's license, many times their personal vehicle is in poor mechanical shape, if operating at all.

During the 2000 Montana Legislative session, a new program, Transportation Assistance for the Disabled and Elderly (TransADE), was funded through a 25-cent fee assessed to licensed vehicles. This program has facilitated partnerships and collaboration to begin developing a reservation transportation system.

The program began as a collaborative effort of the CSKT, Lake County Transportation Advisory Committee, and the Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Association. A grant of approximately $30,000 helped hire two full-time drivers and a full-time dispatcher.

The system divided the reservation into two segments, with one vehicle serving a segment with common checkpoints for pickup and drop off. Drivers would be hired who lived in the designated segment, and were allowed to drive the vehicle home at night in an effort to address wage and hour issues.

We greatly underestimated demand initially. Funds were depleted within 4-5 months of the service being offered.

Note that this service was only advertised by word of mouth. The CSKT Tribal Council saw the benefits to their members and found the funding to continue the service until additional TransADE money was available. The tribal entities also contributed 100 percent of the matching funds required while continuing to serve non-tribal members.

Coordination was facilitated through agreements with other transportation providers in Lake County. The local transportation advisory committee instituted policies that will result in consequences for not meeting agreement obligations.

Looking Ahead to Other Activities

CSKT has received several grants for the 2004-2005 fiscal period. Goals set in these grant requests are to:

• Develop bus stops in housing developments.
• Assess the need for GPS and AVL technology.
• Evaluate feasibility of a checkpoint or fixed-route service.
• Begin a dedicated system to transport residents from Elmo to tribal complex in Pablo.
• Begin a dedicated system to transport residents from Hot Springs to tribal complex in Pablo.

If additional grants are received, CSKT will:

• Develop a partnership with Kicking Horse Job Corp to provide mechanical assistance to Title VIII and Voc-Rehab program participants.
• Purchase additional vehicles.

Prints Awarded for Best Practice Submissions

Insight on the art of running a transit agency recently netted three transit managers a Terry Redlin exclusive edition print. Roger Allen of Paul Bunyan Transit in Bemidji, Minn., Midge Kuntz of Elder Care in Dickinson, N.D., and Marilyn Raisland of Hospitality House in Big Timber, Mont., were each drawn from submissions to the SURTC web page discussion board. All the submissions are summarized and included as a separate insert with this issue of "The Transit Lane."

Download the Best Practices summary (PDF, 338K)