Mayor says residents pay too much for reduced service

The City of Sumner is on the outlying boundary of the Pierce Transit Transportation Benefit Area, but as part of the proposed revised boundary delineation released by the Public Transportation Improvement Conference, the city isn’t included at all.

And that has Vadis in Sumner, an employer for adults with disabilities, up in arms.

“We want to plead our case to the (Sumner) city council and to Mayor (Dave) Enslow and try to encourage them to reconsider,” said Kathy Hall, the employment services manage for Vadis. “Forty adults arrive to Vadis on (Pierce Transit shuttle), and we provide their transportation as they work here in the community.”

Lars Erickson, spokesman for Pierce Transit, said if Sumner does pull out of the benefit area, then the shuttle service that Vadis relies on will go away.

“The way it works is we have to operate specialized transportation within three quarters of a mile on either side of a fixed route,” he said. “We have a local fixed route — route 409 — that travels into Sumner. If (Sumner) leaves the service area, (the city) will lose the fixed route and in turn lose that (specialized transportation).”

Mayor Dave Enslow made the decision to pull out at the Jan. 23 conference meeting but only after he pleaded to Pierce Transit to bring back more service to Sumner.

During the past year, Enslow said Pierce Transit has cut out a route to the industrial areas where about 8,000 employees could potentially use the service. Also, neighborhood routes have been severely reduced or eliminated. All that is available in Sumner now is Route 409, which runs from Sumner to Puyallup and to 72nd Street and Pacific Avenue and Route 496, which is a connector route between the Bonney Lake park and ride and the Sound Transit Station in Sumner.

What finally pushed Enslow over the edge was Pierce Transit’s announcement that by June, Route 496 would be going away as well.

“We like Pierce Transit, but we’d like to have more service,” Enslow said. “We’re paying a lot for that service.”

Too much, Enslow thinks. Total estimated sales tax collected from Sumner in 2010 amounted to close to $2 million. However, estimated cost of current service in Sumner after reductions amounts to only about $500,000. In other words, Enslow thinks the city spends too much on not a lot of service.

Sumner will join Buckley, Dupont, Bonney Lake and Orting, as being out of the benefit area. Enslow said he plans to have the city partner with cities like Orting, Bonney Lake, Buckley and Auburn, to explore other ways of providing bus service.

Hall said that losing the shuttle service will certainly be a hardship to the 40 individuals who travel to Vadis. She also considers the fact many other populations like seniors and low-income people will be impacted as well.

Hall said she thinks Sumner pulling out of the benefit area will affect the city’s ability to apply for grants and to foster infrastructure growth and overall economic vitality.

But Enslow is firm on his stance. He thinks it simply does not make sense for residents to continue paying for transit service that doesn’t exist.

The Public Transportation Improvement Conference will hold a public hearing March 8 at the Pierce Transit Training Center, at which time the public can voice its opinion on the new proposed revised boundary delineation.

Reporter Andrew Fickes can be reached at 253-841-2481, ext. 313, or by email at andrew.fickes@puyallupherald.com.