LifeStream Services announced Wednesday that its rural public transportation service will stop operating in Grant County starting Nov. 1.
The New InterUrban currently provides transportation in all seven counties, including Grant, that LifeStream provides service. Because it does not run on a fixed route, it can go door-to-door like a taxi.
CEO/President Ken Adkins said last year the service provided about 6,000 trips to about 100 riders in Grant County. He said LifeStream could no longer afford to continue the service in Grant County and four employees lost their jobs.
It will continue to operate in Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Madison and Randolph counties.
“The whole thing boils down to, very simply, money,” Adkins said. “We don’t have the money to continue the service. We want to provide the service. It doesn’t matter to us where the money comes from. We just need some local support to match state and federal funds.”
In 2008, LifeStream started providing transportation services to Grant County. That was possible through state and federal matching funds and a state grant.
Adkins said the support dried up and local money was required to match the state and federal funds. In July, he requested $15,000 from the Grant County Council to continue the service.
He said it was the lowest amount requested from any of the seven counties the transportation system serves.
The county council denied the request during an August budget hearing.
Adkins said that meant residents in need of the service, especially seniors, could be in a “world of hurt.” He said people depend on the service to make it to important medical appointments and other destinations.
Carolyn Williams, director of the Marion-Grant County Senior Center, said she was “upset all day” about the news.
“My initial reaction is you can lay this directly at the feet of the Grant County Council,” she said. “I don’t think they realize how their decision to give zero dollars to LifeStream services for public transportation in Grant County will affect real people. We have individuals at the senior center that are devastated today.”
Williams said it was “embarrassing” that Grant County was the only county to not to support the New InterUrban. She said five to 10 of the senior center’s regular visitors use the bus daily, with others using it on a less regular basis.
“It’s the only public transportation outside the city of Marion,” she said. “What a wonderful service for a relatively small financial investment the county could have made.
“We had a lady in tears (here) most of the morning.”
Councilman Mark Leming, R-3rd District, who voted to deny LifeStream’s request, said he did not want the government supporting non-profit, private organizations on principle. He said the bus service’s ridership did not warrant the expense from the county.
“It just wasn’t going to get a lot of support from the council,” he said.