It's about the cost of a 6-pack
Your June 3 primary ballot will contain a request for three mills to fund the senior citizen programs in Sanders County, which if passed will raise an additional $90,000 annually to divide among seven centers.
This levy request would add an additional $5.96 to your annual tax bill if your home is worth $100,000. Or as one fellow put it — “about the price of a six-pack.”
A portion of this money would fund transportation for seniors, but at the same time be used as “match money” to secure an equal or larger amount in state and federal funding to help pay transportation costs and keep rider fees down for any member of the general public.
Those additional dollars keep drivers paid and buses running throughout the county and beyond.
With the price of fuel going through the roof, this system will become more and more important to anyone needing to conserve gas and save money.
Years ago concerned citizens and representatives from private and public agencies volunteered their time to put together the Sanders County Transportation Task Force, whose sole purpose was to work with the various forms of transportation in the county and consolidate as many as possible into a coordinated system that would serve the general public.
We now have Sanders County Transit working under a lead agency, with the task force acting as an advisory committee, and Transportation Coordinator Shelia Knutsen directing the operation of five lift-equipped buses.
Participating transit providers include the Plains/Paradise, Thompson Falls and Hot Springs Senior Centers, the Clark Fork Valley Hospital and a lift-equipped bus owned by the Council on Aging.
Regularly scheduled buses run in-county trips for shopping, medical appointments, social functions and to bring out-lying residents to Thompson Falls that need services located at the courthouse or state building.
Out-of-county trips are made to Missoula, Polson, Kalispell, Sandpoint, Idaho, and Troy/Libby for similar reasons.
Those needing to schedule a ride can obtain a brochure or other information by calling Shelia at 406-741-2346 or 1-800-246-5899.
Nearly all of the senior citizens in this county live on fixed incomes, yet the price of everything continues to rise.
Some can no longer afford vehicles and many are unable to drive safely to medical appointments or run simple errands for themselves and would have to depend on their children, friends, neighbors or the clergy for a ride, if bus trips are cut back because we lack adequate funding.
We should never forget that our elderly citizens are the ones that made life much easier for us, and did so without the social systems in place to help them over the rough spots like so many of us have had.
They’ve earned their retirement and did so in a dignified manner without complaining.
A simple thank you would be a vote to pass this levy request.
Coughing up the price of a six-pack once a year is a pretty small amount to pay to help seniors remain as independent as possible.
John Gallaher
Sanders County
Transportation Task Force chairman
Thompson Falls