Faulk County Transit to Close

Faulk County Community Transit Authority will be shutting down service on September 30 of this year. At a meeting of the local board last week the decision was made to cease service because of lack of revenue.

The Faulk County Transit began its services in 2019 after a number of cummunity surveys expressed such a need for the area. The Faulk County Transit started running in September in Faulkton after several months of planning and was part of a regional transit system, which the state was helping to establish. It came about because of a Federal Transit Administration Program with the goal of providing affordable public transportation services to residents in non-urbanized areas (under 50,000 population) in South Dakota. Federal share provided 80% of the costs for administrative expenses, up to 80% for capital costs and up to 50% of the net operating deficit for rural transit systems. The local transit systems were responsible for 20% of the administrative costs and 50% for operating costs. Faulkton has been part of the northeast region of the state operating under Community Transit of Watertown/Sisseton, Inc.

With community support waning the ability to raise the needed revenue to keep the transit operational has been a challenge with numerous fundraisers and donations yielding less each year. The local committee is grateful for everyone's past support and the decision to close was hard to make. If you have comments, suggestions or any input please feel free to contact any of the transit officers: President Jan Melius, rogjan@venturecomm.net; Vice President Dwight Hossle, dhossle@icloud.com; Secretary Bev King, beverly@kinginsurancesd.com; and Linda Bartholomew, tlbarth@venturecomm.net.

At the meeting last week Regional Directors Kathy Holman and Terry Hoffman thanked and praised the committee for all their hard work over the last five years. In their remarks, they told those present that they had never seen such an enthusiastic group to work with buy understood the decision. They have plans to keep the transit van in service for veterans, Medicare and Medicaid riders and more information on that service will be forthcoming.