Farmington

U-turn: Farmington jumps back in with SMART

By David Wallace
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Deb Jacques The Farmington City Council voted to leave SMART, then voted to stay in. Photo by Deb Jacques The Farmington City Council voted to leave SMART, then voted to stay in.

The City Council voted 4-0 Jan. 30 to rescind its decision from two weeks earlier to opt out of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation.

To draw the city back, SMART agreed to take both Farmington and Farmington Hills residents — by appointment and with proof of residency — to nine destinations council members wanted in Novi and Livonia, two communities not part of SMART’s system.

Before Farmington’s council voted 3-1 to opt out of SMART Jan. 17, SMART made an 11th-hour proposal to put three 14-passenger dial-a-ride buses in service for Farmington and Farmington Hills to make up for route cuts in December. Farmington Councilwoman JoAnne McShane wanted the curb-to-curb service’s terms put in writing and assurance that the service would take residents to important destinations outside the city’s and SMART’s boundaries — assurance SMART’s representatives couldn’t give at the time. McShane’s bid to table the decision failed, and she joined council members Kristin Kuiken and Greg Cowley in voting to opt out.

As The Press reported after that meeting, Jim Fetzer, SMART’s deputy general manager of operations, still planned to provide the city with the letter McShane wanted. He provided it Jan. 27, and the city called a special meeting for Jan. 30 that afternoon. The deadline to decide whether to participate in SMART, and therefore have its millage renewal appear before Farmington voters later this year, was Jan. 31.

“We continued the dialogue with SMART, said Farmington Mayor Tom Buck. He and City Manager Vince Pastue; SMART General Manager John Hertel and Deputy General Manager of Operations Jim Fetzer; and Oakland County ombudsman Steve Brown “continued to have some dialogue about, ‘Could we get to these destinations,’ and ‘Tell us more about the dial-a-ride service,’” said Buck.

“We have good destinations now that are beyond our borders. We’ve got the dial-a-ride service. Vince studied over the past few weeks what it would take for us to build a system, and I believe that the conclusion that Vince is at is that it would not offer the same range that this system does, and the cost would be very comparable to what we’re paying today,” said Buck, who was not at the Jan. 17 meeting. “And it would be a pretty significant distraction to build that system from other priorities that we feel we have in the city.”

SMART expects the new dial-a-ride and appointment service to begin in late March, after it hires and trains the necessary drivers. When it is available, SMART will have the contact information on its website, smartbus.org. The Press will print the information when it becomes available.

With the new three-bus service, SMART will offer same-day dial-a-ride service within Farmington and Farmington Hills on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The fares will be $1 for seniors and people with disabilities, and $2 for full-fare riders.

The buses will provide service for advanced reservation trips as capacity allows, according to SMART, and the fares will match SMART’s regular fare policy for such trips: $1 for seniors and the disabled, and $4 for full-fare riders.

The advanced reservation trips, in addition to Farmington and Farmington Hills locations, will venture to the following Livonia and Novi locations:

• Secretary of State Supercenter
• University of Phoenix (Laurel Park Mall)
• Madonna College
• St. Mary Mercy Hospital
• Walsh College
• 12 Oaks Mall
• Novi Town Center
• Providence Park Hospital
• Schoolcraft College

SMART pledged to keep the dial-a-ride and advance reservation services in place through 2014, assuming SMART communities renew the millage this year.

Brown said that SMART will collect feedback on the service after a few weeks and after a few months to see how it functions.

“I think that makes Farmington and Farmington Hills a very competitive place to live in terms of transportation opportunities for our residents,” said Councilwoman Kristin Kuiken.

“I know it was a big decision. To move folks outside of the region and the area, particularly to the schools and the destinations as identified, turned me around. And so I appreciate that. I think it’s the spirit of partnership that I talked about back on the 17th, and so I, too, will be having a change of heart with the issue,” said Councilman Greg Cowley. He urged folks to use the buses to get better value for the roughly $200,000 in tax dollars the community is spending.

“By the way, this program and these destinations, I think, bring some balance to our local transportation, because typically it has served seniors pretty well, but we haven’t been able to serve the youth in our community as well, and I believe these destinations do that,” said Buck.

“Farmington’s an important member of SMART, as is Farmington Hills. It was important to us that they stayed in,” said Fetzer.

Cowley said Farmington Hills’ decision Jan. 23 to stay with SMART also helped change his mind, because Farmington Hills would make a “natural partner” for a replacement service.

Despite the contentious process, both council and SMART representatives thanked each other at the end of the meeting.

“There’s not going to be hard feelings from our standpoint. Bottom line is folks are trying to do the best they can for their residents and trying to evaluate other options, and that kind of thing can strengthen everybody’s resolve and strengthen the system that’s in place, as long as everybody’s got the ending point in mind being better transportation service for people in our region,” said Brown.

McShane was not at the Jan. 30 meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Bill Galvin, who voted against opting out of SMART two weeks earlier, said that the council should keep mass transit among its priorities and have a plan for the next time the SMART millage comes up.

“We can sit back and say, ‘OK, we fixed it for two years,’ or we can support our legislators, maybe create our own task force here at council, collaborate with some of our neighboring communities, strengthen our voice and let them know what we want for our region,” said Galvin.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer David Wallace at dwallace@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1053.