Cañon City Daily Record
By Charlotte Burrous
July 13, 2010
  

A long proposed question of bringing public transportation to the area is on the drawing board once again.

Recently, Environmental Alternatives began to work in conjunction with Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments on a feasibility study to see if public transportation is desirable in Fremont County.

“Our first step is to complete the surveys,” said Sylvia Hooper, who works for Environmental Alternatives, which was awarded the grant money to conduct the feasibility study.

The first step is to have the surveys filled out and sent back from business owners, community agencies or individuals from the community.

“We need 2,000 surveys, (but) we (only) have 256,” Hooper said.

Of the surveys, 189 community members, eight business owners, 25 agencies and 17 from other sources said ‘yes’ while eight said ‘no’ with nine ‘maybes’ and 17, who skipped the question.

“We are going to try to link up with other bus services in the area,” Hooper said. “We’ve talked to the Royal Gorge, Golden Age Center and other agencies who transport their clients back and forth.”

She said they also have talked to a representative from Workforce Center, who also is on the committee to see where people seeking employment need rides.

“We do have a good cross section from people,” Hooper said. “I noticed we had a couple responses from the homeless and the whole demographics all the way up to (a county commissioner, who) answered our survey. We’re getting a good cross section of people, but we need more surveys.”

She said they also were interested in finding out the type of clients people have in order to set up the bus system.

“We’re asking about adults, children or if they’re disabled,” Hooper said. “We’ve combined all three surveys to find out where the bus is needed. Of course, it’s obvious Cañon City is going to be a big part of it, but surprisingly (we have some from), Brookside, Salida, Cotopaxi so there are a lot of people interested in getting bus service.”

She also is charting times for residents, who would like the bus to run.

“We allowed for swing shift and we’re getting some response from swing shift,” Hooper said. “We’re trying to figure out (the best times.)”

Originally, the deadline was June 22, but it has been extended to fulfill the qualifications of the grant, which must be completed by October.

“In order to do a good feasibility study, we want to make sure we have a good cross section,” she said. “According to our population of Fremont County, we need about 2,000.”

She encouraged people to fill out the surveys, which are online at facebook.com/fremontcountybus, which takes those interested right to the survey, she said.