Wendy Burch looked like a kid in a candy store Friday morning, sitting the behind the wheel of her new 20 passenger bus that will provide five trips a day to and from Albany for Sweet Home residents.
While Friday was the 13th, it certainly wasn’t an unlucky day for East Linn county residents dependent on public transportation.
Burch, a driver for the Linn Shuttle of the Sweet Home Senior Center, boasted a grin from ear to ear as she adjusted the Goshen Sentry bus that will replace her old unit which has racked up some 191,000 Linn county miles in just four years.
“I love it,” Burch exclaimed.
Jean McKinney, Senior Center director, said the unit was one of four delivered to the community at a cost of nearly $250,000. The funds came from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
McKinney said one of the units was purchased with a grant which had been applied for more than two years ago. The other three units, built on Ford chassis, were purchased with grant for which she applied during her 18 months at the center.
“When I took over here, our vehicles were in pretty bad shape,” McKinney said. “I guess our needs ranked high which is why we got the grant money.”
Money was released for the purchases in July 2000 and McKinney went about researching specifications through Western Bus Sales in Portland.
The units were ordered in March 2001.
All of the units are wheelchair accessible, McKinney said.
The new units will replace vehicles that had been bought as interim transportation since the old vehicles had as many as 325,000 miles on them.
“We had to get something we could depend on,” McKinney said.
Mrs. Burch and Marla Cowles will drive the shuttle route five times daily Monday through Friday, McKinney said. The route is becoming especially popular with Linn-Benton Community College students who can ride two and from the campus at no cost to them.
Shuttles are convenient, McKinney said, leaving Sweet Home as early as 5:30 a.m. and returning each day at 5:10 from LBCC.
“We’re transporting up to 25 or 30 students per day,” McKinney said of the successful program.
Non students are asked to pay $1.50 one-way for those 55 and old or handicapped or $2.50 one-way for the general public.
Multi-ride tickets are also available at the Senior Center.
One of the new units will be used for the Sweet Home Dial-A-Bus program, which provides public transit in the community for any resident regardless of age. Cost is $1.25 each way or a packet of 10 trips for $10.
McKinney said the Linn Shuttle’s annual budget is $160,000 and the Dial-A-Bus budget is $35,000.
The new units will provide McKinney with the opportunity to establish a rotational program for acquiring vehicles.
“The useful lifespan of the big bus is about 200,000 miles and the small ones about 165,000, ” McKinney said.
Ridership is up across the board, McKinney said.
“Two years ago, a big day was 30 people,” she explained. “Today there are days we have up to 80 people.”
In addition to the local routes, one of the buses will be used for the Brownsville Public Transit program and another for the Albany shuttle that takes clients to the Willamette Valley Rehabilitation Center in Lebanon, Sunshine Industries in Sweet Home and Center Enterprises in Albany.
There are 10 drivers, McKinney said. They include Wendy Burch, Marla Cowles, Sally Counts, Jeanine Overturf, Diane Moon, Fred Huntoon, Dean Kyle, Pete Bennett, Del Langstaff and Leona Hopper, lead driver/trainer.
“We’ve been anticipating this day,” McKinney said of the bus deliveries. “We’re excited to have them. It’s so nice to have a backup vehicle.”
All of the new units run on diesel fuel.